Here is what I look like at sunrise ;) :) :) I'll spare Mike the indignity. Ha!
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| From Arizona Vacation Part Two |
We decided to check on flying over the Grand Canyon in a helicopter. Believe me...riding on a mule to the bottom of the canyon on a tiny little trail, a mile up in the air, for at least 8 hours was not an option for me!
Approaching The Canyon
Whoops! Looking straight down through the helicopter landing thingy's.
View of Colorado River. Seems to be brown this week. Remember the flood they rescued people from a couple of weeks ago?
Not one pix I have does this trip justice. You just have to experience it. A photo will not even suffice.
Next we decided to walk partway down the Bright Angel Trail...which was where the mules go into the canyon. (eeww! Yep, you had to tread carefully ;) And we just happened to meet the trains coming up from their tour. The trail winds back and forth down the mountain.
Didn't I say, I wouldn't ride one of those things on that little trail!!!
The lady told me that their pack mule had startled and fell over the edge onto the trail below. I asked if it survived!! and she said "yes, they just went back down and brought it back up." "What if there were a person on it?", I asked. She said, "that's why it's a pack mule...it isn't ready to carry people yet." I also heard they lose 3 mules per year in the winter. Pack mules, I hope!
One of the other lady's mule went very close to the edge (they like to do that you know...just to scare humans on purpose!) and she smacked it and told me that it had been doing that to her all day long! Didn't I just say...I'll won't ride one of those things!!
Okay...one more for my mom ;) Still an illusion ;) :)
Further down the trail:
I did not stand close to this sign. There was NO illusion here at all. However, I looked back soon thereafter and a lady was behind the sign...hugging it. Crazy!
This is how far we had to climb back up.
Remember...
Go only as far down into the canyon as you are willing to climb back up!!!
You keep taking pix...hoping just ONE will do it all justice!
Mike wanted to pet a tired old mule..but the guides said "no".
The mules obviously didn't like Mike that close either...they started moving away from him.
I call this next pix..."ContemplatingLife".
Got to get a pix of Old Glory!
Buildings and Gift shops on the Rim:
Our hotel:
Unique gift shop:
A pretty display:
The El Tovar...where we had the gourmet dinner the night before.
Another art and gift shop hanging on the rim with a overlooks and viewing balcony.
We then got in the car and drove 28 miles to the East Rim lookout and watched another sunset.
Hung out the car window to get this one:
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| From Arizona Part Four |
But told Mike....No, I wasn't going to hang out the window to get the one on this sign!
I really did see this sign, but didn't STOP to take a pix of it!!!
Pictures at Desert View / East Rim:
A historical building that is built like an Indian watch tower (and gift shop ;).
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| From Arizona Part Four |
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| From Arizona Part Four |
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| From Arizona Part Four |
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| From Arizona Part Four |
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| From Arizona Part Four |
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| From Arizona Part Four |
Ceiling:
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| From Arizona Part Four |
View from lookout.
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| From Arizona Part Four |
Our last sunset from the Grand Canyon :( Farewell!
Water color sunsets:
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| From Arizona Part Four |
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| From Arizona Part Four |
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| From Arizona Part Four |
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| From Arizona Part Four |
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| From Arizona Part Four |
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| From Arizona Part Four |
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| From Arizona Part Four |
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| From Arizona Part Four |
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| From Arizona Part Four |
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| From Arizona Part Four |
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| From Arizona Part Four |
Right after this sunset, we sat in a darkened parking lot trying to figure out where the wind would blow us next! Our "grumpy garmin" gps would only give us a hospital and mortuary for accomodations in Tuba city...which might take us to towards Northeast. Since we didn't care for those accomodations :) we decided to head back towards Williams and head out to see the Hoover Dam, which was West. (We found out later that Tuba City had only one hotel and it was the only unattractive part of AZ that we toured.
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12 comments:
WOW!!!! What an fantastic trip. O.K., I'll add this destination to places I want to go. :)
Every scenic pictures screams AWESOME CREATIVE GOD!!!!!
My favorite scenery pic: The one that shows a solitary tree growing up out of nothing but rocks.
Can't you just imagine God taking out his paintbrush and creating a new sunset every evening?? Thanks for sharing... but wait... am I turning a light shade of green????
Not only can I imagine that! But, honestly, Arizona LOOKED like God had a play date with Creation and ran his fingers through canyons, and tossed boulders on top of each other like left over building blocks. One tiny canyon we drove through (wish I had a pix) was ONLY boulders stacked on top of each other. Every time we turned a corner, the rocks and sands were a different color...going from brown, to dark red, to pink, to white, to black/grey/white within just miles. The terrain changed almost instantly.
Then when you just couldn't stand it anymore! They SKY! Magnificent!
Yes, the sky . . . *sniff, sniff* . . . oh, how I miss the western skies! Just a couple of nights ago I commented on the pleasant colors on the horizon in Cleveland and Brother Smith said, "You'r really reaching." ;-) I told him, "I've got to take what I can get!"
When I was growing up I went with my grandparents every 4th of July for a week in the mountains of Idaho. We pulled the horse trailers and a whole crowd of Nazarene horse men and women spent the week together riding into mountain lakes and scenic trails. It was an awesome experience for a child and young teenager. One of the lakes we rode to required a switchback trail like the one in your pictures. My grandfather had me convinced that horses were much more sure-footed than humans and it was safer on horseback than on foot. I believed him. Still it was pretty scary to look way, WAAAAY down from this extremely narrow little trail and think about the results of one misstep. There was also a river we had to cross on horseback, and I mean a river with no bridge. Some years the river was high enough that the horses had to swim. I don't know where they get those horses in the movies that just walk into the water with no fight, but it was always a major battle to get our horses into the water. Pop always said, "Show 'em who's boss!" When we'd finally get to the furthest lake the horses would have to walk through snow that was sometimes still belly deep--in July! Now that I'm a grown adult I realize what a blessed childhood I had--so many wonderful experiences that I just took for granted.
I can't thank you enough for sharing your western vacation in commentary and pictures. It's been like another trip down Memory Lane. You're SO GOOD at escorting me down that Lane! :-)
Sounds like a wonderful childhood. But, children love stuff like that.....I now prefer nice comfy hotel beds now...instead of a sleeping bag on the ground! :) :)
The second, third and fifth pics from the bottom...wow! Quite an adventure you had.
No, no . . . even as a child I didn't do the "sleeping bag on the ground" stuff. My grandparents had a pickup camper and we slept on a cushioned bed. One year my sister and my best friend stayed in a tent and we thought it was the greatest--we felt so grown up. But even then we had cots. No sleeping on rocks. All my life, when I say "camping" I mean in an RV of some sort, preferably with running hot and cold water.
You're my kind of woman!
When we traveled as a kid, we took 2 week vacation in a travel trailer. One that had a full size bathtub and a REAL toilet. A smallish, but regular sized stove, a double sink and a larger fridge than today's campers. Home away from home. Gas was cheap and they made travel trailers heavier. (Of course, it took some prayer sometimes to drag that thing up the mountain...but it kept us close to God on vacation. Just having "church" :) :) They don't make them like that anymore.
You wimps! Camping is sleeping in a sleeping bag, whether on the ground or a cot, in a tent, with NO shower houses or bathrooms, with a creek nearby where you hauled water to the campsite, poured it into a bowl and washed off in the ice cold water, dug a hole in the ground, preferrably in the opposite direction from the creek, took care of business, then buried it, hanging the cooler up in the trees so that the bears don't appear in your camping spot. I can't believe that I am friends with such sissies! ~sigh~ My husband said that he likes your idea of camping better though...ugh! I married a sissy! *shaking head*
Eeeewwwww! No thanks! I'm one happy sissy wimp, thank you! :-D
I camped out in a tent once....:)...then I got tired of the crazy people in the next tent site playing their loud music all night long and keeping me awake.
And I even was a counselor and then a camper at a crazy cogop youth camp(s) in 1981 where they had us sleep on sleeping bags under the stars...gals on one side of fire...boys on the other. Didn't I just say "crazy". Fortunately, I didn't get the "deer ticks" like everybody else did!!
Not happening again!
I used to watch the people in tents run screaming from the bears at 2 am in the smokies while I stayed safe inside my big metal trailer house on wheels ;):)
I also watched the tent people pack up their vacation because a "blue northerner" blew in West Tx. It went from 90 degrees one day to 30 degrees in a matter of hours. We turned on the heat and finished our vacation. Ha!
I can hike and enjoy nature better by sleeping on a comfy bed with heat or a/c and a flushing toilet and a loooooong hot shower!!!! So enjoy your tent....but I'll watch from the State Park Lodge!!!
ahahhahahahha!
Just call me "Tammy Wimp-but-Comfy Washburn" and PROUD of it!
You two are hilarious! I do have to admit, that while we camped in the mountains that way (there were no neighboring tents blaring music...we were in middle of the wildnerness) when I was growing up...I've turned into a "sissy-camper" too...my old bones prefer a comfy bed, indoor toilet and long hot shower as well...but oh the fun in razzing both of you! Yes, I am a brat!!!!!!!!~hee hee~
Hahahahaha!
Sissy Campers Unite!!!!
I think I'm roughing it at youth camp if they don't have air conditioning or a salad bar!
Arizona without sweet tea was agonizing! I had to go to Sonic and get the Route 44 Peach (unsweetened) tea and pour 8 packets of sugar in it. The waitress on roller skates was appalled!
Such a sissy :)
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