The Grand Canyon!

We didn't know what to expect at the Grand Canyon. It's one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World that is actually in the US! How come so many have not seen it? Weston and I both come from families that enjoy the outdoors. When Weston was young, his family would take various camping trips for vacation. In my family, we would camp a couple times a year, we would take road trips to visit family historical sites, church sites, Niagara Falls, and other natural beauties for vacation. But neither of our families have ever ventured to the Grand Canyon! It's crazy because there have been many trips in both of our families made to Utah and back. When I found out that it was only a 5 hour detour, I was so stoked! I never knew that it was so close!  So we decided to stop by on our trip home as our 1 year celebration and my graduation present. 

Because we spent a little more time than was anticipated in Zions, Lake Powell, and Horseshoe Bend, we entered the Grand Canyon at about 8pm at night. I thought that Arizona was all desert especially the part surrounding the GC.  I was expecting there to be no trees, just wide open space and then a cliff all of the sudden. I was so wrong! The GC is surrounded by a forest (meaning lots of trees). Who would have thunk? I was freaking out! I thought we were going to die, hit a deer, get eaten by a mountain lion, or swerve off the road and fall off a cliff. Luckily the road isn't too close to the canyon and the deer/lion were sleeping. We made it to our hotel in Tusayan, a little town just south of the park, safely. 

It's insane how huge the canyon is! This picture doesn't do it justice! No picture does!

We only had one full day to be in the park so we stopped at all the cool lookout points. We were a little disappointed that it was cloudy and there was a chance of rain, but in the end it turned out to be a good thing.

This place was crawling with Asian people. I guess they have a greater appreciation for sight-seeing than other cultures. And they think that white people are so funny. They were cracking up at Monte and his baby-backpack. They would take secret pictures of Monte and baby James when they didn't think we were paying attention.

The beautiful canyon!!!

This is the trail we took. It had 3 or 4 different points you could hike to and then turn around. Originally we only planned on going to the closest 1 or 2 points and possibly doing a different trail later. Instead, we decided to keep going. 

 They had very creative look-out point names :)

It took us about 30-40 minutes to get to the Ooh Aah Point. Comparing to hikes in Utah and most other places, you usually start at the bottom and hike up. But in the GC, you start on top and hike down. It was throwing off our hiking time calculations.

They built a small hut for emergencies and restrooms. I saw this sign and thought it was funny. I think that they should someday build a ski lift for the ride back up to the top rim.

We hiked to Skeleton Key point. Never figured out why they named it that, but from this spot we could see the Colorado river and more into the canyon. It took us an hour or so to get here and it was 3 miles downhill. It felt like we were hiking forever, and we were barely a third of the way to the bottom. Its crazy to think that we hiked so long and were not even halfway to the bottom of the canyon. The view was just amazing. I was glad that we could see at least a little part of the river.

We ate lunch here and the squirrels came out to steal our food! These little guys are such food moochers! 

 It was a long hike back up. But it was cool seeing how far we came. In this pic, you can see a small part of the trail we took on the right, it zig-zags once down that boulder/mountain.

We had a really good time in the canyon. But after the hike up, we were so pooped! It was a good thing that  it was cloudy because we actually didn't bring enough water! The last few switchbacks were the hardest because I was so thirsty and we were out of water! Kind of scary... but we made it!

We decided that next time we come to the GC we will go backpacking and camp at the bottom, maybe even go white-water rafting, see havasu falls, and spend time exploring down there! Anyone want to join us?  It will be so fun!