Well today didn’t quite work out exactly as planned but all in all still a great day at this incredible World Heritage Site. You see, we had about a half hour wait to get into the Park this morning, causing us to arrive at the Kennel place at about 12:15. The sign on the door read, gone for lunch be back at 1:10pm. Okay then, Zhalbey will be on the hike with us today and for us not to be able to utilize the shuttle service - no dogs allowed.
We found a great parking spot in Lot C, close to the train station which is right across from the beautiful, El Tovar Hotel. So once again the instant gratification of having the spectacular Grand Canyon at our feet within about 15 minutes. We checked out the hotel and galleries in this area before embarking on our stroll along the Rim Trail. This portion of the trail headed west and included the Bright Angel Trailhead, taking us along to the Trailview Overlook and then where we stopped about 3 klm later at the Maricopa Point. This trail offered incredible constant views of the Grand Canyon where at many times we were just walking by ourselves. The interesting thing about walking back was that the landscape did seem different making for an equally stunning return hike. We arrived back the El Tovar Hotel and found a great shady spot on the lounge deck, yes, dogs allowed. We had a beer and a sandwich and chatted with a couple on their honeymoon (second time around for both of them). Very interesting couple as he was a neurosurgeon while she was a doctor in the same field, picture a scene from Gray’s Anatomy. Lol. So we sat an chatted for probably an hour as he kept taking sips out of a wine skin. This is the same type of wine skin I have somewhere in one of my ski drawers. So, I had to ask him about it, he said it contained a nice Bordeaux, great for the hike. He offered me a swig, nice guy, no I’m good I said. Very friendly people, who were having a wonderful time their honeymoon. We mentioned the Route 66 town of Williams and they thought, what a great idea, they will be looking into taking the scenic train there tomorrow.
On the way to the parking lot we had to take a couple of pics of the donkeys before heading back home to our Andiamo. So, yes, it was a great way to spend a Tuesday…
Some pics, hope you enjoy…
The daily train from the town of Williams - the Route 66 town
The El Tovar Hotel
That view…
The Outlook Studio
The view back to the Hotel
That’s as close as Jan wanted me to get…
The Bright Angel Trail below.
The Trailview Overlook
Our path, very nice.
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