Snakes Alive, It's the Grand Canyon

 Sunday, May 2 for Friday, April 30, 2021

We checked out of the Grand Canyon Railroad Hotel where we spent Thursday night, had a very nice breakfast included with the hotel, and set out for the Grand Canyon, about 65 minutes, more or less, from Williams, AZ.

When we got to the park, there was already a lineup of cars waiting to get in -- I think there were five lanes of cars, and we waited a while. As I have mentioned before, we have the "lifetime" senior pass, so we scoot right on through the gate when it is our turn.

Randy's thought was to start out with the Desert View first, because there is a tower out there, and she figured there would be a lot of competition to see it as the day wore on. It was about 23 miles from the gate to the far eastern part of the park, our destination. It is considered to be the South Rim. Because we had been in the car for a while, we took the opportunity to stop at one of the rest room facilities along the way, maybe half-way to our destination. I said I didn't want that to be my first impression of the Grand Canyon, but, you know.

It turned out just fine, as you can see.

We wandered around this area for a time, getting some awe-inspiring views and pictures, which we will say repeatedly, cannot do justice to what we saw.

In the picture immediately below, you an see in the foreground an area of light-colored rock. Some of those areas are beyond the small-boulder border of the path. Many people, including me (Don!), ventured out there for better views and pictures. It was in one of those areas, real early on in our visit, that I captured the snake you saw in the top picture. I have NO idea what type of snake it is, but presumed it was not poisonous, based on actions and shape of the head. I stayed still to allow him to go about his business, and he eventually slithered away. There were no other people in the immediate area.

I believe you are able to zoom in on these pictures, and if you do, you should see greater detail. I honestly think the best thing I can do is take pictures and let you see a bit of what we saw. It was embarrassing walking around with my mouth hanging open all the time!

We eventually got to the Desert View Watchtower.

Not surprisingly, it was closed. There is a small museum as well as stairs to the tower.

The watchtower was designed by architect Mary Colter in 1932 in the style of an Ancestral Puebloan tower. It was a shame it was closed, because at about 70 feet in the air, the top allows a 360 degree view of that area of the Canyon, including the Colorado River.

The Colorado was sort-of hard to see, considering that it was about 7,000 feet below us! Zooming in really helped.

My later iPhone does a good job on panoramic pictures, and I found this a great place to try them out.

Randy was taking more pictures of me than I did of her, but I caught her unaware for this one.

The story on the picture below is, Randy was saying we see all kinds of warning signs for critters, but when have you ever seen one for a mountain lion? We did not see any, even at their crossing!

We were pretty tired, so checked into our lodge and went in search of food. It was NOT easy to find, since we were in the park, and didn't want to leave. We ended up at a small dinette-type carry-out at one of the lodges. Not exactly satisfying.

Randy also joked that they gave us all those "watch out for moose" signs, but we never saw any. There were a few on the grounds as we were searching for out dinner.

Randy had the idea of getting to the North Rim early in the evening, so we could watch the sunset. We were able to get a decent place to park, and set about exploring that area a bit.

It was fascinating to watch the shadow and the sun play over certain areas of our view, and we took several pictures as the sun set. We did not get the brilliant sky we hoped for, but the lighting and shadow changes in the canyon were worth it.

On our return to the lodge, Randy caught a small herd of deer, right near the road, and grabbed a picture.

It was a glorious day, and one we will not forget.