After lunch on Saturday, we headed out on the Rim Trail again. It was still paved, but not as manicured as the eastern section. It was nice to be away from all the cars and crowds.

We could see down into the canyon & onto the trails used by hikers and mules. We weren't up for a rough hike this year, but we're going to do the mule ride someday when Charlotte is old enough. There was adventure aplenty on the Rim Trail, as we were soon to see!

View back to the village

Mules on the Bright Angel trail below us

Charlotte has her hood fixed at a trail overlook

Having lunch with Mama before we caught the bus

More of the Colorado River than we had seen before

At Hopi Point

Charlotte with her Aunt, Uncle, and Grandma

 

The Powell Memorial was where we got our best peripheral views. The guidebooks all said that Powell was not as nifty as spots further along the way, like the Abyss, but we didn't get there before the weather turned, for certain other reasons beyond our control... :) I'll get to that.

Rain over the Canyon

Becca and Jim on the Powell memorial with Charlotte

Jim having a look

That's where the Grand Canyon pictures end, but our adventures continued for longer than we had bargained for. We walked back to Hopi Point from Powell, and were stuck there for about an hour due to a "situation" with a disorderly park visitor at another stop along the bus route. They told all of us who were waiting for the bus to stay down on the overlook, behind the wall. It was actually kind of scary at times - I would not have chosen to have Charlotte around park rangers (or anyone!) packing very large weapons - but everything turned out OK. The bus drivers were good about informing us what was going on, when they knew anything. Charlotte was cold but doing her best to charm everyone around us. If you ever need people to be nice to you on vacation, bring a sociable baby!)

When the buses started again, and we were able to find one that wasn't full, we rode all the way out to Hermit's Rest. There they were in the process of detaining the guy in the men's room, and it started hailing hard. (I wish we'd taken some pictures of the hail!) The roads were really slippery on the way back, and at one point we weren't even sure our bus was going to make it back to the main part of the park.

We were hungry when we got back, but at least we were warm and dry on the bus, including the baby. We missed our dinner reservations at the El Tovar (sorry, Food Network!) but ate in Tusayan instead. Charlotte loved the Navajo drumming, it put her right to sleep. (she was terrified of the country singer - I don't think steel guitars are her thing!)

There are a whole lot of things I wish we had time to see while we were there, but we really only had one day, and we had a fantastic time. Definitely planning another trip there someday - it was so nice to be there in the off-season, despite the wacky weather. (I'm from Maine anyway, and it wasn't that surprising to me!)

Hope you enjoyed the photo tour - next up, Chris and Charlotte and I take in some touristy views on the side of the road, just for fun.

On to Roadside Sights