Day 19 (Tuesday, July 13th) Grand Canyon, AZ

We arrived at our campsite at the Grand Canyon only a little before the sun went down last night, so we didn't get to see the canyon until today. During our drive up here we gained about 6,000 feet in altitude so our weather has been fantastic! Mid 80s in the day with low humidity and down into the high 40s at night. It's usually about 55 degrees when we get up. The climb showed the limitations of my truck. There were some long, hard pulls up 6% grades. A couple of the climbs slowed me into the mid-20s, but we learned to shut off the air conditioning and on most climbs I kept up with the slower traffic in the right lane.

This morning we got up and took the shuttle bus over to one of the more remote parts of the South Rim and went out onto the Rim Walk. We led the boys out there with their eyes closed and then faced them into the Grand Canyon and had them open their eyes. You should have seen the expressions on their faces! I only wish I'd had the foresight to take pictures. They stayed in a perpetual state of amazement for the entire day! We walked the Rim Trail for about four miles, but had to stop to gawk about a thousand times! Every time you move a hundred yards, the view has completely changed! Near the end of our walk we could see the Phantom Ranch on the floor of the canyon and then the Bright Angel Trail as it wound up the side of the canyon wall. We walked until about 1:00pm and ended up at the Bright Angel Trail Head. The views are hard to describe, but we've included a couple of pictures. After walking four miles in the sun, we were all a little tired, so we rode the shuttle back to our trailer for lunch and a brief nap. As evening approached, we rode the shuttle further west than we had walked to watch the sun go down. Just before the sun went down the the boys got to watch a pair of California Condors flying on and off of the canyon wall. We found a nice place to sit on Hopi Point and watched a magnificent, unobstructed sunset! We finished the day by making tacos at the trailer. Tomorrow.....on to the Hoover Dam and Las Vegas!