Yesterday morning we drove to the south rim of the Grand Canyon National Park, about 51 miles north of Williams. After viewing two different movies about the history and formation at the visitor's center, we started our 'look see' at Mather Point. Then decided to continue walking the rim westbound towards Grand Canyon Village which is about a 2 mile walk from Mather. We had been to this park in 1986 for the first time, then again in 1991 - and now it was 21 years since being here. Has it changed? No, the look and views are the same which is breath taking and awesome and beautiful. What has changed is what we knew as Babbitt's General Store is now called the Market Plaza and there is a lot more interactive things along the trail. There were so many people there but we did not feel overwhelmed - the trail is nice and leaves you with the feeling you are along. The bottom picture shows the Bright Angel Trail which switches back and forth to the bottom of the canyon which drops over a mile in depth. The rangers say you need a gallon of water to take on this hike and it's only for those who are experienced hikers. Needless to say, we will not be going down this trail. However the third picture down shows the nice paved trail that encompasses the south rim for a length of 17 miles. We only did 2 miles of this, and today we are pooped! The second picture down shows a tagged California condor - endangered - and it was sunning itself while we were at El Tovar lodge - tag # 22.
The top picture - if you zoom in - you can see the Colorado River and if we stood long enough and stared, could see white water rafters going by. Pretty cool. A good day, our next move north will be near the North Rim which we have not visited. And we will be near Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park.
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