Day 28: Welcome to Sunnyvale: North of Williams, AZ to Grand Canyon, AZ

FOUR WEEKS. FOUR WHOLE WEEKS OF TRAVELLING AROUND SEEING SIGHTS IN OUR LITTLE VAN!!!!!

Our sleepy time at the government land was wonderful, but a wee bit on the cold side. Amy was in full cuddle mode. We had the furnace set for 13C and it first fired up around 0200. I don’t know what the nighttime low was so let’s assume it hit the forecast number. It was -2C when I awoke. Stars were beautiful in the relative complete darkness. We never got a neighbour over night so that was nice.

Morning walk was down the forest service road. Fairly flat. I might notice the elevation a bit. Currently 2140 meters (~7000 feet). Did not see any wildlife of note. One fallen branch looked like a lizard. Reminded me of being in Louisiana.

And off we go to the Grand Canyon. We departed around 0945 and went north. We had pre-purchased our park pass so just had to show it at the gate. We collected park maps there too. We parked at a few of the lookouts and walk around in awe and took too many inadequate pictures. Amy was getting a bit pooped by mid afternoon. Here are the some pictures from the morning / afternoon.

Pretty sure we saw condors floating around. I got some pictures we will try and verify later. The only doubt is because the crows / ravens here are huge. But our soaring birds had white on the underside. Go condors!

Let’s be perfectly clear. No pictures I can take will ever do this place justice. It is beyond comprehension. The beauty, the size, even more beauty, even more size. To think that the little bit of water down at the bottom is about one mile below you and is still 1500 feet above sea level. It’s really just incredible. It’s the kind of beauty that almost makes you ignore the Instagram selfie takers way out on rocks that look like they are about to fall off and hope a condor catches them before they hit the ground because knowing you will be baby condor food must make you feel better in those last moments than the other option. It’s the kind of beauty that makes you want to just sit there and stare for hours on end until your un-sunscreened face turns a shade of red equal in beauty and intensity to the red rocks of the canyon at perfect sunset. It’s a beauty you can’t imagine. It’s the beauty you must see. Despite the fact that we have been here once before, it is still an incredible experience.

We jumped in the van and went to check into “Grand Canyon Trailer Village”. It was a lovely welcome as two elk walked in front of the van to meet up with their friend as got to the checkin shack (I do mean shack).

We got our site number and drove into the disappointment. Well, this place (at least the east half of it) is like Sunnyvale in Grand Canyon. Our first site (P119) was not very level and almost surrounded by a FEMA like trailer city for workers. Music was blaring. We discussed packing it in and going to the government land. I walked over to the office and the nice and slightly interested fellow behind the desk gave me 4 other sites to choose from. All still in the discount section. So we picked lucky number O104 as it was not as close to the FEMA trailers. Should you ever camp at Grand Canyon, get into Mathers or at least the west side of this place. We must say that we were pretty lucky to get a spot on short notice, but. I should have tested the asphalt to see what it was made of (another Trailer Park Boys Reference).

After we were all moved, we hung out for a bit then had a dinner of pre-fab burnt ends from Costco and a bag-o-salad. The salad tried to float away. Both were good.

The Canyon rim at the Visitor’s Center / Mather lookout is about 1.8 km from our campsite. So we got ready and headed back over to see the different colours as the sun set. Poor Amy was getting a bit tired and we had to carry her a bit. She did 10km of walking today on her itty bitty little legs. The walk takes us through some wooded areas and we were on the lookout for elk or deer. evidence was all over the place, but no living beasts. Some clouds rolled in on the horizon so the show was not as perfect as it could have been. Still amazing.

On our way back at dusk we continued to look for Elk. Amy was in in tracking mode and pulled Mrs Milddogs all the way back to our site. As we neared site P119 we noticed the people that moved in after us had already moved out. Then Mrs Milddogs saw this 20 feet from us.

We walked right past it (carrying Amy as she does not like horses and horse like things). It did not care.

As Mrs Milddogs baked some cookies (we have power) Amy started freaking out. We looked outside and guess who had come to visit?

It got within a few feet of our van so Mrs Milddogs opened the window and screen so we could look out at it. Side note: I need to learn how to properly use my iPhone for flash vs lowlight photos. I heard one of the naturalist saying that they had a very good winter and thus expect an Elke Sommer. (Sorry about that)

You’re not going to eat that nasty old Blue Jay burger, are you Randy?

Tomorrow we are heading for the Monument Valley area. Should be monumental!

Later!