Aug 9 - The Grand Canyon

We headed out early today for the 5 hour drive to the Grand Canyon. We figured we could spend an hour or two, check out the view, and head on to Flagstaff for our next nights stay. We read about a new attraction that we were very excited to see – the “Skywalk”. Well, we could see the Skywalk on the map, but no roads to get there. So we picked the closest town and plugged it in to the GPS. We weren’t too comfortable with relying on the GPS so far out in the wilderness, so we did some research via the 3G network (thanks Erin). It said, very specifically mind you, do not use your GPS!! No surprise, so we followed their directions to the Grand Canyon West Airport to get a shuttle to the rim. We already put in our 5 hours on the road so we should be getting pretty close.

Everything looked like it was going great, we found all the roads they talked about, and then we came to the 14 mile gravel road. 14 miles was doable, but the “gravel” wasn’t there and ruts and potholes everywhere! We still thought it wouldn’t be too bad, so we turned down the road. Road closed, detour, watch for elk, and the worst – speed limit 10 mph! Well we are an RV with a car in tow, so that meant about 3mph!!!! We were bouncing like crazy; dust everywhere and Rich had an arm workout that would rival any he could get at the gym. After about 45 minutes on this road, our fuel filter light came on! That is what happened on our last trip that ended us up at the mechanics for two days – we were at the point of no return! We just changed the filter before we left, so maybe, just maybe, they didn’t reset the indicator light.

Finally we arrived. Uh oh, I just realized that we are at the airport (a very crooked path, cleared of rocks in the middle of nowhere), just what did they mean by shuttle? There were helicopters flying overhead - there is no way! Just when I was about to have heart failure, we spotted the busses. What a fun day we had! First we went to the Skywalk. It is a glass walkway that hangs over the gorge which looks down over 4,000 ft. We had to wear little booties on our feet to protect the glass from scratches and dirt. WHAT A VIEW! We had to lock up all personal items including cell phones and cameras before we were allowed on the walkway. Too bad, but we have some cool professional photos that they took of us. Next, we went to Guano Gorge. Yes, that is where they used to harvest the bat by product for fertilizer and apparently it was more valuable at the time than gold! We climbed to the top of a very high rock formation near the rim where the guide said that if we braved the assent, it would be the best view of the West Rim. We went into mountain goat mode and climbed, and climbed. She was right! We really worked up a sweat, and our legs were pretty tired, so we stopped in to the Guano Café for some well deserved ice cold water. We were then treated to a show by some native dancers – Navajo and Hopi. Next stop – the Hualapai Ranch. We were going to have a bite to eat there and catch a card shark show, but we got there too late L Back to the gift shop and back on the road with the RV – oh right, we almost forgot! We had to do the whole gravel road thing again – in reverse!!! Enough said, we pulled into Flagstaff at 2am. Very long day – but FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!