Day 16: Saturday 10-Jul-1999
Base camp: Munds Park, Arizona
Excursion: Grand Canyon, Southern Rim, Arizona
Distance: 210 mi (336 km)
When we woke up we were really cold. We checked the outside temp and it was 51F (10.5C). We could never have imagined that for Arizona in the summer. They even have a ski station near Flagstaff!! We can believe it now.
Today the plan was to head up to the southern rim of the Grand Canyon. The weather was not all that great. Cloudy with chances of rain. We left early as it was a bit of a drive to get up there. We first headed up I17 from Munds Park and then changed over to Highway 89. Flagstaff is actually a quite nice town. It does not have very high buildings and they have preserved some of the older stuff too. The drive up was very scenic. Unlike what we had expected, we actually had to go down into a valley before we could head up to the southern rim, via highway 64. Elevation dropped to about 4000ft (1200m) and then climbed back up again. It started to rain as we got closer. The entire sky was cloudy. Perhaps not the best day to go up. Oh, well.
It cost us $20 to enter. That is a 7 day pass, so we plan to use it again when we enter the park from the north once we've moved over to Kanab in Utah. We stopped at a few outlooks. It was nice, but the rain took away some of they joy.
| |
||
| Erik taking a peek down by Desert View. It was cloudy and rain was hanging over the Canyon in most directions. |
We continued along the way and then parked near the visitors center. We walked in a looked around a bit and then viewed their slide show of the Canyon. It was a nice presentation. After that we drove back to Yavapai point where we stopped and put on our hiking boots. It had stopped raining and we could almost see the sun now, even though most of the sky was covered with clouds. Glad we did not give up after the grim morning weather. We took our food with us out and ate a picnic by the rim. Very nice.
 |
||
| Lunch picnic on the southern rim, near Yavapai point. Serious drop-off past the edge here! Like a couple of thousand feet. |
After the picnic we took a walk along the rim. In this part, they have paved walkways along the rim which are quite nice. We walked back towards the visitors center, and stopped to look down into the canyon along the way. In one place we could see the start of the Bright Angel trail. It really dropped off fast. You could barely see people down there with the naked eye. Luckily we had our binoculars with us, and could take a peek at the people down the trail. We could see one large group of people wearing yellow jackets. It is hard to say, but we imagine that this must have been steep a drop-off of at least 3000ft from the rim down (1km). Looking down gave the same sensation as when you're looking out an airplane window.
 |
||
| Nice and paved walkways by Yavapai point make access for young kids very possible. These walkways go on for a couple of miles. |
Most viewpoints along the southern rim have a concentration of tourists in a small spot. This is in particular noticeable when big buses stop. As the paved trails around Yavapai point are spread out and there not being any specific vantage point, it does not feel as crowded here. But you have to walk a while from the parking area before the tourists start to thin out.
 |
||
| Catch me if you can! Animal life along the rim (photo by Isabella). We also saw lizards and big black crows. |
 |
||
| One of several spectacular viewpoints from the rim. You're basically standing on a natural flat rock, next to which there is serious drop-off. Notice how the tree got rooted in the crack. |
 |
||
| One for the family album |
We started thinking about coming back here to try a hike down one of the trails, provided the weather gets a little bit better. Overcast is actually nice, in that it makes things a little bit cooler, but heavy rain is tough. We shall see what we can work out. We returned back to Munds Park via highway 180, which basically made a loop back down to the west towards Flagstaff. It was very nice. It took about the same time to go down this route as it did coming up. We stopped for groceries in Flagstaff.
By the time we got back to the campground we could see that it must have rained heavily while we were gone. We could feel the smell of sewer; we imagine they must have overflowed. Per talked to one of our neighbors at the campground and learned that the water had risen at least a foot (30cm) on the street in front of us. Most of it had already drained by the time we got back home, but there were several large puddles (which our kids enjoyed very much). Wow. We sure hope this does not get as bad as in Las Vegas, or we'll find our trailer floating on a field of mud! Isabella talked with another neighbor about their honey feeders for humming birds (these birds are only a few inches long). Isabella thought they were making funny wing noises as they were flying by. This evening we're planning to BBQ some meat and baked potatoes. Right now the temperature is a comfortable 70F (21C) outside.