From Scottsdale, we drove through Sedona to the Grand Canyon. Except for the two of us, all our co-travelers were from either the South or the East Coast and so very few had ever seen the Canyon. In fact, most people said this was the main reason they booked the trip. To make our journey more fun, we were encouraged to collect "passport" stamps at each stop—a clever way to get tourists to stop inside every national park tourist center.
Our tour guide was adamant that we arrive at the South Rim before sunset, so our driver maintained a quick pace despite frighteningly strong winds, which dogged us the entire trip. We indeed arrived before sunset. Our first stop: Mather Point for our first view of the Grand Canyon. Though I'd seen it before, it was impossible to wrap my head around its immense beauty and so I burst into tears instead! What a glorious sight! I was not the only one moved to tears.
Clouds rolled in by the time we settled into the Kachina Lodge, so sunset wasn't as spectacular as we'd hoped. But we all rose by 5AM the next morning to see the sunrise. We then ate breakfast at the legendary El Tovar Hotel, originally opened in 1905. All dark wood beams and rustic charm. By noon we were back on the road again, first to the Desert View Watchtower, on the east end of the Grand Canyon, and then north to Lake Powell and Glen Canyon (see next blog entry).
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