Since last winter went so swimmingly, let's try it again! TFS has very graciously opened her home in the west San Fernando Valley to me again. This time her daughter AS (and dog and cat) are there too. Two women + two dogs + two cats = not my usual solitary winter again. Huzzah! Place name links like Los Angeles, CA go to Wikipedia. Place name links like Los Angeles use a local tourism or government website.
| 2014.05.03 |
Grand Canyon - Day |
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We travelled from
lower-right to
upper-left and back. | |
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That Grand Canyon - it's deep! Too deep to view its full extent without the sun high in the sky. So today we're going back. Even though it's a Saturday it's also off-season and between school holidays so traffic and crowds ought to be light.
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| We'll take the route in that we took yesterday, and travel from 1 to 5 and back. I tried to reconstruct the stops we made from memory, photos, and timestamps. There are quite a few viewpoint stops of varying sizes. The two largest are at either end of the edge road. Some have a dedicated parking lot, and some are roadside pull-offs. We didn't stop at them all, partly because this was just one part of our day, and partly because it all eventually looks the same.
First, we have to get there again. The map in the upper-left corner of this entry shows a roughly-square circuit of roads. We'll travel north on the right-hand line, then turn left and most of the wavy line at the top is the Canyon Road. |
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To the Canyon
| North on AZ-89 |
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Humphreys Peak | |
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near-white fields of dead grass | |
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desert red starts to show | |
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looking back at Humphreys Peak | |
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Left (west)
onto
AZ-64 |
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we need to get around that | |
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lots of contrails | |
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other canyons | |
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roadside viewpoint vendors | |
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other canyons | |
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other canyons | |
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other canyons | |
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Kaibab National Forest | |
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| As expected, and as seen in the photos, traffic was non-existent, so just over an hour to the Park gate. |
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park entrance | |
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a ways up the road | |
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the gate | |
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We'll re-visit stops we made yesterday, and others along the way to the westernmost viewpoint, and then return.
Desert View
Visitor Center off a large parking lot | |
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Ancient Illusion
The tower is a veneer of native stone over a concrete and steel reinforced superstructure | |
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approaching
the big view | |
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| From the east end of the main viewing platform at the base of the Tower, looking north. To the left the Colorado River winds in the distance. | |
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from the west end of the platform | |
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from the center of the platform | |
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| Designed to look somewhat ruinous and definitely weathered, the Tower matches the look of the millenia-weathered rock below. | |
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Living on the edge | |
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There are several view points on either side of the Tower, offering other vistas. There's not a lot of fencing except at constructed viewing platforms.
There's a little more traffic and crowd than yesterday but still very light.
The view below is from left of the tower. |
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Moran Point
Humphreys Peak | |
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Moving west now. There's only a 2-lane road through the park, 45 mph (about 70 kph) speed limit. There are few breaks in the tree-lined route. On the left is a view to the southeast from one of those breaks. We were here yesterday as the sun set. |
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Colorado River | |
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Between stops are roads like this, pretty much like any other forested park with no sign of the gigantic bit of geology through the trees on the right. |
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Other Stops - We tried a few roadside views.
Grandview Point (?)
| Mather Point |
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One of a collection of viewpoints at the west end of the Canyon Road, our end point. |
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bit of Colorado River | |
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I spotted a divot in the hillside (in pics 3 & 4 above), and zoomed in for a closer look - a cave? |
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Western Visitor Center
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The western visitor center is more-developed and thus busier than its eastern counterpart. The Canyon Village and many other amenities (like camping), are nearby, and the shuttle center is here. There's more of an interpretive center and a gift shop. Not worthy of photos, apparently. |
We shopped for trinkets. There are plenty of other places to do that, but the shop here is run by the The Grand Canyon Association (their site) and it seemed better to support them. Got Mom a fridge magnet.
There's plenty enough to fill a whole day, even more with hiking and a trip to the bottom of the Canyon. Add in the north side of the canyon and plan for 3 days to a week. We don't have that time though.
| Back we go |
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We've got somewhere else to be. First we unwind our trip from Flagstaff to here. |
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Back through
the park | |
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Out of the
park, on
AZ-64 |
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A right turn (south) and on AZ-89 |
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Almost in Flagstaff. Giving my camera a rest. |
After a gas fill-up, and mandatory windshield scrub, we crossed the I-40_AZ southbound to our next stop, a sentimental one for me. |
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