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05/19/07 - Albuquerque, NM (Grand Canyon photo album) Exploring the Grand Canyon, Colorado River, Walnut Canyon and Petrified Forest National Park/Painted Desert |
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A few weeks ago, we decided it would be a good time to start making use of our National Parks Annual Pass that we recently bought. So we called up the booking service for Grand Canyon's South Rim accommodations. Although their various lodges and hotels were already pretty booked up for May, they managed to squeeze us in for 3 days in the middle of the week at the Yavapai Lodge. "Yippee, we're going to the Grand Canyon!" we said (ok, maybe it wasn't quite like that...) During our brief stay, we managed to fit in a 7-mile hike on the Rim Trail, offering gorgeous canyon views almost continuously, an amazing 3-mile round trip hike down into the canyon and a quiet float trip on a motorized raft down the Colorado River in Glen Canyon, north of Grand Canyon. Although we had read all about it, we were surprised at just how thin the air really was at 7,000 feet, especially coming from mile-high Albuquerque, where it can seem pretty thin at times in the mountains on the east side of town. Even mostly level hiking in the baking high desert sun was a challenge for Caroline. Even though she's been getting lots of exercise at home, Caroline was pretty nervous upon setting out down the steep switchbacks of the South Kaibab Trail into the Canyon, thinking with every step how there was only one way out (barring emergency helicopter rescue, of course). But Scott encouraged her to continue on 1.5 miles in to the canyon with promises of pit toilets… We reached the toilets at Cedar Ridge, which also a fabulous lookout spot on a red rock promontory, where we stopped for a meager picnic lunch and to exchange digital photo ops with a Dutch couple on a whirlwind tour of selected national parks in the Western US. And somehow, Caroline made it back up to the rim, without too much difficulty. What a great feeling! After our final-day raft trip, we hit the road, bound for Albuquerque, taking the slow road and stopping off to see the cliff dwellings of Walnut Canyon National Monument, the eerily barren landscapes and crystallized logs of Petrified Forest National Park and the beautiful colors of the Painted Desert, which we hope to visit again someday when there are not 50-mile-per-hour winds and rain. And now that we're back at home, we are gearing up for our month-long road trip to Vancouver Island, to take advantage of our long-overdue home exchange!
Caroline makes her way into the Canyon
A relaxing day on the Colorado River |
Scott, Colorado River Rat
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