Monday, April 21, 2014 (Grand Canyon, AZ)

The agenda today was to travel to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon for a day visit.  I (Kelly) have never been to the Grand Canyon so I was pretty excited.  We got on the road a little after 8:00 a.m. for the approximately hour drive north.  We arrived at the South Entrance Station a little after 9:00 a.m. and already they had three booths open with lines at each of them.  We were surprised that there were so many people visiting today.  We didn't have to wait too long in line thankfully before we were on our way again.  We were headed to the Grand Canyon Visitor Center to start our adventure.  The parking lot wasn't too full yet, so that was promising.  We got all our gear together, including Gracie and started out for the first overlook.  You can take dogs on the rim trails, they just can't go down any trailheads into the canyon. 

Wow, that's all I could keep saying when we reached the first overlook, Mather Point for our first look into the canyon.  The scenery was spectacular and awe inspiring.  We started hiking around 9:30 a.m. and didn't get back to the truck until around 3:00 p.m.  We went from Mather Point to Maricopa Point which was a 4 mile hike one way and then back again for a total of 8 miles.  We took a few rest breaks for Gracie's sake....wink, wink.....and a nice picnic lunch break overlooking the canyon.  As the day wore on the crowds got thicker and thicker.  I can't imagine how crowded it must get on holidays, etc.  Gracie did pretty good, toward the end of the day you could tell she was getting tuckered out, so she got carried a bit. 

I'll let the pictures do the talking about our day......

View from Mather Point, our starting spot

See the Colorado River at the bottom of the canyon (center of pic)

Rich & Gracie at one of the overlooks

Kelly at one of the overlooks (notice I'm standing back from the edge, it's a long way down....)

Rick, Kelly & Gracie

Part of the Angel Bright Trailhead zig zagging down the canyon, mules and hikers use this trail

View from Maricopa Point, the farthest point we hiked

Dead juniper along the trail

Notice the blue bird in the center lower part of the picture

Parting shot at the end of our day hiking

We had a wonderful day being out in God's creation and enjoying the amazing scenery.  We are planning on returning one more day without Gracie to take in a hike down into the canyon. 

It sure felt good to get back to the 5er and relax for the evening.  It's amazing that a little 8 mile hike could wear a person out so much.  =)