Grand Canyon Trip

Last week J & A came out to visit for 5 days. We spent 2 days & 2 nights camping in the Grand Canyon. Keeper unfortunately couldn't come because he was studying and couldn't miss class last Monday. We got into Grand Canyon Village around 7:30pm Saturday night, grabbed dinner at the deli, then set up the tent and went to sleep. We woke up pretty early and Jen set to work making eggs and bacon (after wrestling with the camping stove). We decided to drive up to Mather Point and take some pictures of the view before heading to the visitors' center. We then took the shuttle bus to Hermit's Rest, and began our hike to Santa Maria Spring down Hermit's Trail. This particular hike was only 2.5 miles into the canyon and 2.5 miles back up. The altitude change really got to me on the hike back up; it was really tough! We made it up, refueled, hopped on the shuttle to see Hopi Point and finally made it back to camp. After a firewood chopping session, Jen made us pile back in the car for some sunset pictures near Mather Point. It was well worth the arm-twisting! After sunset we headed back to camp to made a delicious dinner and s'mores by the campfire. We were so tired from hiking, that Monday morning we decided to head to a lodge to have a hot breakfast. We shopped in the general store and then drove to Desert View to climb the tower and take some more pictures. After leaving the canyon on our way back to Flagstaff, we stopped off at two more National Monuments: Wupatki (pueblo ruins) and Sunset Crater. We got back into Phoenix around dinner time and tried a new restaurant that turned out to be great. It was a great visit and we miss them already! I took too many pictures to post here so if you want to see all 110 of them, email me and I'll send you the link.