Friday October 13th 2017

The day started with the same cloud of misshaps hovering over my head as the last couple of days, but it ended with the majestic Grand Canyon. A very positive end to a nice sunny day with the high temperature in the low 70s.

View of the Grand Canyon from the South Rim Rim Trail.

My morning problems started with not being able to get out of my campsite. I was in a pull through site that had a large pine tree on each side and a fence on the opposite side of the exit road. The trees were close enough that the overhang behind the rear wheels would kick out into a tree before I could make the turn. I ended up backing out of the site the way I came in. One pays extra for pull through sites so it is easy to get in and out. That certainly wasn’t the case this morning.

Site I55 at the Grand Canyon Trailer Village.

The first order of business once I was on the road was getting gas. The station I scoped out yesterday was very busy. I was waiting for one of the pumps with reasonable access for some time when I realized that the people at the pump hadn’t even started to fill their tank. The gas station across the street was empty because it was charging ten cents more a gallon for credit cards. At that point I didn’t care. I drove over to the expensive station and put in seventy gallons of gas. I probably had five gallons or so still in the tank. That would only be about forty miles on a good day.

I arrived at the Trailer Village in the Grand Canyon National Park South Rim unit a little after noon. After I got settled and had some lunch, I caught the shuttle to the visitors center. I’ve been to the south rim once before. I took a tour from Las Vegas around Christmas of 1998. It was a small plan flight to the airport outside the park then a bus ride into the park. I remember snow on the ground and the Bright Angle Lodge, but not much else.

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The Visitors Center is located at Mather Point. It looks new and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t here nineteen years ago. I just missed the start of the park movie so I walked out to Mather Point to get my first view of the canyon. It didn’t disappoint me.

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From Mather Point I walked along the Rim trail for two and half miles to the Bright Angle Lodge. This is a wide paved trail a few feet back from the rim of the canyon. There are many access points to the very edge of the drop. The afternoon sun was shining on the far side of the canyon. This brought out many of the red, white and brown colors in the rocks. It was an easy walk, but a bit long at 7,000 feet in altitude. I was tired when I reached the lodge.

From The Bright Angle Lodge area I took a shuttle back to the campground. The shuttle system is heavily utilized. They even have rope switchbacks at some of the bus stops to manage the crowds. It runs from an hour before sunrise until an hour after the last evening program.