Desert Drive

Layers of colorful splendor

After leaving the parking area of Grand Canyon National Park, we decided to put a few miles on before dinner. We didn't realize there was more beauty ahead from several scenic overlooks along Desert Drive.

We stopped at a couple of them and were, once again, knocked over by the seemingly endless miles of beauty. There weren't too many visitors, although at one spot a family were perched on the edge of a rock for a photo op. One misstep could have resulted in disaster, but didn't.

We eventually left the park and headed toward Cameron and Tuba City, seeking a room for the night.

The Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon National Park

The Grand Canyon is what we came for, but we never imagined that it would be this wide, or long, or ... grand.

Grand Canyon

The approach to the Grand Canyon from Highway 64 is deceptive. We drove "uphill" through the pines and were happy that we hadn't been on this two-lane road over the holiday weekend. We entered Grand Canyon National Park just as the sun was beginning to heat up before midday. Nothing spectacular about the entry or the visitors' center hints at the spectacular vistas only a few minutes away.

A storm in the distance in the Grand Canyon

Preferring to spend our one day here outdoors, we didn't take advantage of any of the inside activities, though we were told that the Imax show is excellent. Instead we boarded the shuttle bus which stops at various spots along the route, then turns around at Hermit's Rest. We went all the way to Hermit's Rest, named for Louis Boucher, an immigrant from Sherbrooke, Québec (this place is a long way from the Eastern Townships, in every possible respect).

We hadn't had the foresight to think about a picnic and were hungry by the time we got there, so we lined up at the snack bar and bought a deli sandwich to share. To discourage littering and minimize the environmental impact on hiking trails, no bottled water is sold in the park so we settled for a couple of soft drinks and sat down on a hard rock to have our lunch. All around us, people spoke German, Japanese, Spanish and, of course, English. The only French I heard was later on in the day. A little blond boy, not much beyond toddler age, had a full-blown tantrum as people ate their lunch around him, until his father finally took him away, continuing to resist the child's sobbed pleas ("bitte, bitte"). Entertainment for us, embarrassment for the dad. Squirrels and a persistent big black bird begged for handouts.

We got back on the shuttle and stopped at a couple of spots on the way back to the visitors' center. The beauty went on and on, for miles. For once, "awesome" is the right word.