Grand Canyon - South Rim

Ok so I've slacked again; uploading pictures is just so time-consuming. Or more likely I'm just lazy when I get back to my hotel room. But since we're now within 2 days of ending this cycle's collection (pretty sure I explained what a cycle was in a previous post); I figure I should at least catch up the last couple of weeks.

So I left you at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We finished that up the next day and drove down to the South Rim. Although the road we needed to finish was closed until about 1pm due to downed trees from the day before. So we had to bum around the lodge for a bit and get lunch in there. Which wasn't so bad either, just made for a long day. Here's a map of our drive...


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As a result of us finishing later on the North Rim, the four hour drive to the South Rim didn't start until 4pm. Which also meant I was gonna be late for the Vikings Packers game. I was fine with it since we got the North Rim done and I figured we'd get to our rooms and I'd catch the 2nd half. Little did I know that the Holiday Inn Express there does not carry ESPN! What kind of hotel doesn't have ESPN, I mean seriously.

Well we made it to a bar and I got in the 2nd half to see Favre finish off those Packers... just like he'll do again in Lambeau this weekend.

The next couple of days were busy busy busy.... We did get a break though since it rained the second day... just our luck; rain in the desert. We still managed to bust out about 120 routes in 2 days though. Our usual above average day was around 30 to 35 routes; we blew that out of the water. Helped that the routes were short and really close together, one trailer park had 26 loops in it!

Grand Canyon is a pretty neat place, the commercialization of it kinda sucks, but understandable since it's such an awesome sight. Tough to sum it up in words or pictures; however I do remember a quote I read while I was there, this guy didn't do so well at his attempt to describe it...

"The region is of course altogether valueless, ours has been the first, and will doubtless be the last, party of whites to visit this profitless locality."
- U.S. Army surveyor, Lieutenant Joseph Ives 1858

I mean he was there in 1857, before all the buildings, trails, and trains. It was probably a tough trip to get there, hot, sweaty, buffalo for dinner every night; but seriously that thing is an amazing wonder. I'm guessing he didn't go into the tourism industry. At least he's getting a call out in my blog 150 years later!

So we finished up the GRCA on a Friday and drove down to Phoenix; just in time for me to catch Game 2 of the Twins Yankees ALDS. That's all I'm gonna say about that game; I'm still bitter. Flew home to Denver the next morning... Here's a map of our drive.


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Here's some pics from the South Rim... Caught a rainbow on our second day there...

These pictures, per usual in National Parks, don't really do the scenery justice.