Road Trip - Day Ten

This morning we got up to watch a beautiful sunrise over the Grand Canyon. It was cold but well worth the wait. We then took a 25 mile drive along the South Rim on the Desert View Drive. There were multiple vista points along the drive where we stopped to view the Canyon. Each location was unique and offered a slightly different view. We ended our drive at a location called Desert View which had a five story watchtower which overlooked the canyon. It offered some of our best views of the Colorado River. We got a great view of the river with our binoculars. We then took a hike down into the Canyon on the South Kaibab trail. The trail was a series of switchbacks that was steep and challenging. We must have started our hike right after a group of mules as we could not miss the little presents they left behind on the trail. We hiked for one hour and stopped to rest while enjoying the magnificent views. The experience was somewhat spiritual as we were viewing this beautiful natural landscape that was thousands of years old in an absolute quite environment. The return trip was much more physically challenging. As the saying goes, what goes down must come up. That motto helped us determine our level of descent into the Canyon. We were quite pleased with ourselves and the level of stamina it required to both descend and ascend the trail. Along the trail we met interesting people of various nationalities and varied hiking plans. Some were on a short trip like us while others were going all the way to the bottom of the canyon for several days. A park ranger we met was just on a 17 mile hike. Earlier in the day we met a group of 12 college students beginning a nine day hike. It was interesting watching them prepare their gear and very large backpacks. Our backpack was a bit smaller since it consisted of four granola bars an four apples along with two jugs of water. After our hike we did some shopping and get ready for dinner. This evenings dinner was a treat to ourselves at a very nice restaurant. We had a table that was next to the fireplace and in front of a large window which looked out onto the Canyon. The dinner was great, the view was memorable, and we reminded ourselves how fortunate we were to be experiencing this trip at this time in our lives.
We will leave the Grand Canyon in the morning. This evening we are planning the next stop on our trip.

I have posted pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/tschick62/GrandCanyonDay2?feat=directlink

More later . . .