Left Vegas the morning of Day 27 (August 11) with my new traveling companion and headed for Grand Canyon National Park's North Rim. We knew prior to leaving the North Rim campground was full, so our plan was to find a site on the way in, visit the park, return to camp for the night and head for the more-popular South Rim the following day.
It was a long drive from Vegas, especially after a later start, and we were left with only about an hour to visit the park. This turned out to be just fine as the North Rim really is not so spectacular. The North Rim sits about 1,000 feet higher than the South and the views we had were facing into the sunset. We left, unimpressed-but-excited for what the South Rim would have to offer.Grand Canyon National Park South Rim
We entered the South Rim section of the park from the east and stopped at the first turn out.
My Grand Canyon Thoughts
Before I continue with the stories of the day, I would like to give you my overall thoughts on the Grand Canyon, as I believe they will help your interpretation of my mood in telling my stories.
Grand Canyon (note the lack of The) is massive, or grand. Walking up to the first overlook blew me away (different from took my breath away). The size in itself is really what makes it what it is. Does it look large in the photo? Well it's about a million times larger in real life. As I may have stated before, I like to think of what people on foot or horseback or boat had to go through before these nice, paved roads. The South Rim is funny because you are essentially driving through a forest and then BOOM, dead end. Early Spanish explorers could not find a way to the canyon floor.
Again, the size of the canyon is what makes it what it is.
Many of the photos I had seen of the canyon showed it as vibrant. But the combination of summer haze and an increasing concentration of air pollution from Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Mexico (because of air flow) makes the canyon somewhat dull (or simply not vibrant) in color and decreases visibility distance. Couple this with the precursors I'd had from people I know, and the overlooks become downplayed. Still overwhelming in size, not so breathtaking in nature.
Continuing
We hung out and had a picnic at the first overlook. While my friend did a watercolor painting of the canyon, I dove into my new book, The Waste Lands. We were sitting here, which was well off the path. We thought as though we had clearly established our picnic area; which is when I said, "See, you can find relative solitude in a place overrun with tourists."That's when a group of Europeans, two-by-two walked right in front of us (in the sight line of the painter's view) and took a photo. A few even asked me to take their photo for them. The funny thing about it is the rim is wide open. The view was exactly the same ten feet to their right. But we had picked the best spot on the entire South Rim to sit. We were interfering with the public's rights.
This is when I thought of a character in a book I've recently read. This character's name is Jack Mort, and his hobby is pushing people to their deaths, be it in front of a train or oncoming traffic (yep, it's a mighty fine read). I could only think of how Jack Mort would have a field day at Grand Canyon.
Soon thereafter, we left the picnic spot and headed toward our reserved campsite. We were setting up the tent when my companion noticed a man running through the woods toward our somewhat-secluded site. I stood up and was ready to yell at him, when he said in a French accent, "There's a moose in the campground; I've been running around the entire park following him." He was doing a fine job of not approaching wildlife. I turned to my companion and said, "Take the camera and see if you can get it. Maybe it will have antlers!" I was running to the car to grab the zoom lens when it suddenly dawned on me, I'm in Arizona. It was an elk. Score two for the Europeans. We got a good photo anyways.
After setting up camp, we left to catch the shuttle (necessary to tour the western side of the South Rim). If Zion has a bad shuttle service, Grand Canyon has a horrendous service. It is a short route, like Zion, but has far more visitors. They have it figured so the most efficient way to run it is to send an empty shuttle every few shuttles. They aren't meeting the demand and it's retracting from visitors' experiences. We had to wait about 30 minutes to board, while listening to the park ranger with a girlish lisp say, "Okay, people, now there are like a bazillion people that want to see The [sic] Grand Canyon, so what the shuttle guys do sometimes is send an empty shuttle so those bazillion people can get off and on more easily. He he he he." Then a European boy cut in front of us in line.We hiked the rim trail for awhile. It was quite lovely. Then we got beer. It was more lovely.
Grand Canyon Album
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