We left the hotel early in the morning for out drive to the Grand Canyon, to be known as the GC. Daniel was up early as he never quite adjusted to the time change. The drive was gorgeous. We say many of the icon cacti en route and climbed up somewhere between 6000-7000 feet. Due to the month and the unseasonable chilly weather AZ experiences while we were there, we saw snow on some of the mountains and in the GC.
Once inside the the GC National Park, we continued to climbed to well over 7000 feet. Naturally, we were very anxious to see the canyon. Instead of stopping at the visitor center, we drove onto the next major site to exit the car and see the canyon. Finally, the 4 hours of driving and waiting all week had paid off, we were at the edge of the GC. Talk about God's creations! It was so massive that it was impossible to take it all in while looking in one direction. The colors were beautiful even at midday with the different layers of rock showing. At very specific points along the rim, we could see the Colorado River cutting it's way through the canyon. The GC is around a mile deep, but at times looked much deeper to me. It was really hard to believe that a river along with some earthquakes and a couple of hundred of thousand of years made the GC. I've truly never seen something that beautiful. In fact, I'm not good enough a writer to even try to express what it looked like, nor will the pictures do it justice, but they will be better than me trying to describe it. So here are a few.
The next 3 are pictures from when we watched the sunrise over the GC.
The trip was perfect. The national park offers a bus shuttle to drive tourists to specific overviews along the rim of the canyon. There is also a walking trail along the rim, but that option was not really suitable for us this trip. So, we rode the buses where Daniel had a few fantastic meltdowns because he was OVER this trip. Watching the sunrise was truly phenomenal. It was a relatively cloudless morning which allowed the sun to just pop right over the edge of the canyon. The colore pre-sunrise were all shades of red and purple with what looked to be a mist rising up from the river. As you can see by the picture, I had Daniel all bundled in his stroller. However, he would not have it and began to serenade the other tourists, so he ate breakfast while the sun rose.
I can't wait to go back when Daniel and future children are old enough to hike the canyon and really explore what it has to offer.
