Day 15 -- Grand Canyon (North and South Rims)

Day 15 (June 9) -- We awoke early again today because our neighbors were talking rapid fire, full volume -- f-this and f-that.  What a glorious sound to wake up to!  After getting up we took down the tent with only minor hassles.  The main problem was that we got one of the tent stakes stuck deep in the ground and it wouldn't come up. I had the bright idea to add water to the dirt to loosen it up.  That basically turned it into cement and it wouldn't come up until I added a bunch of water and wiggled it a whole lot.  By the time I finished getting the tent stake out David had the whole car and fanny pack packed.

Zion National Park

Tunnel in Zion National Park

Sandstone formation in Zion we climbed

Closeup of David

After we got the car packed, we started to head out of the park for our drive to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  Daniel kept seeing interesting sandstone formations on the side of the road and he kept mentioning that it would be fun to climb up one.  So, we found one that didn't seem too steep and stopped on the side of the road and got out and climbed up.  Daniel went up the highest (he's a bit like a mountain goat on rocks), and the rest of the kids followed him partway up.  David and I stopped mid-mountain and took pictures of the kids.  Here are some of the photos from this adventure:

Bow and Jaeyong part way up Sandstone Formation in Zion

Bow, Jaeyong, and Erin on Sandstone Formation in Zion

Erin in Zion National Park

Daniel after he climbed partway up sandstone formation

David on Sandstone formation in Zion

Sandstone formation

Erin sitting on Sandstone

Car at Car Show in Kanab, UT

Corvette at Car Show in Kanab, UT (Just like Magnum PI!)

 After climbing, we headed toward the Grand Canyon in Arizona.  As we were driving through Kanab, UT (right on the border), we spotted a car show.  So, we stopped and walked through the used cars as a momentary distraction.  Then we got back in the car and headed to the Grand Canyon.






















 After we started traveling through Arizona, David suggested that we detour to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  It was about an hour and a half out of our way, but when else where we going to be in this side of the country?  So, we saw the Grand Canyon from the North Rim.  This is the only part of the Grand Canyon that I've been to before.  Although the view is nice, I've always thought the Grand Canyon is not as impressive as everyone has made it out to be.  But, as you will see in the next post, that's only because I hadn't seen the South Rim before.

View from North Rim of Grand Canyon

After we left the North Rim, we went through miles and miles of flat desert.  This is a view of what it looked like once we crossed over onto the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona (that straight line on the bottom was the road we were about to drive).

Navajo Indian Reservation

 Once we got the South Rim of the Grand Canyon it was almost night.  Also, once again we were entering a national park through the non-main entrance.  Thus we had to drive 25 miles in the park to get to our campsite.  We decided to stop at the first viewpoint to see the Grand Canyon at sunset before we headed to the campground (even though we knew we'd end up setting up the tent in the dark again).  This was the view at the Desert View viewpoint (with the Colorado River at the bottom):

Grand Canyon South Rim

Sunset at Grand Canyon

Sunset at Grand Canyon

Kids at South Rim of Grand Canyon at Sunset

Watchtower at Grand Canyon at Sunset

So, after we finally made it to our campsite, we had to set up in the dark.  This time we got to keep the same campsite for two days, so that was good.  But, it was an odd-shaped site and it was hard to find a location within the campsite to fit our tent (it's pretty big at 10 ft x 17 ft).  We finally fit it between two trees with a tree right in front on the main tent entrance.  Then we had to find the bathroom (turns out there was a little trail a little ways down from our campsite).  Then we headed off to bed to prepare for a day of hiking and viewing of the Grand Canyon.  At least there were no noisy neighbors this time, but they guy in the next campsite snored to loud that it woke up David and me in the middle of the night.