Southwest 2014: Day 8: Page to Grand Canyon

Sunday, October 26, 2014

I find out at breakfast that the Best Western has NO waffle maker!! Yikes, I never eat waffles except on vacation and I was looking forward to my special occasion waffle.

Fortunately, they have a personal pancake machine that continually cranks out little pancakes. Yum, they are so good I have two!

The little pool

Not realizing we should have booked in advance, we run into trouble when we try to arrange a tour of Antelope Canyon, one of the world's premier slot canyons. The 9:30 tour has standby availability only -- a gamble, especially when you're traveling as group -- and the other tours don't leave until much later.

We hightail it out of the hotel, but when we arrive at the nearby office it's obvious we are not going to make the 9:30 tour. To make matters worse the next tour at eleven is now sold out as well. Gah! My mother has been dreaming of this place for years; we have to make it happen somehow.

At the recommendation of the Best Western concierge we drive ourselves to the canyon to see if the on-site operator has any availability. The canyon is located on Navajo tribal land and we must first each pay a $8 fee to obtain a permit. So yeah, at that point we have pretty much committed ourselves to using their services.

Checking in at the office

In the end, it all works out because we've barely had a chance to visit the restroom before they are ready to load us into their pick-up trucks.

They squeeze as many people as possible into one truck before moving onto the next, but the numbers don't quite add up and my parents are invited to ride up front with our guide Debbie. She's a feisty older Navajo with lots of stories. She even teaches my mother her first word in Navajo.

My parents claim it was a bit of a wild ride, but if you ask me the rest of us sitting on our sideways benches were the ones truly roughing it as we'd bounced across the ruts. Plus, occasionally the wind would pick up and lash us with sand from the truck in front of us too. Whoosh!

Looking out over the cab.

It doesn't look like much from the outside

(this is actual the back of the canyon-- you walk all the way through on the tour)

Sandy and I are saddened to see how ridiculously crowded the canyon has become since our last trip in 2011. Taking pictures without people in it has become nearly impossible.

Luckily, my parents are oblivious to the masses surrounding them and proclaim it the absolute highlight of the trip. Haha, doesn't that just go to show you that you can never quite predict what people will like?

The canyon walls are a rusty orange

Getting darker the further you go as less light reaches down into the canyon

The canyon gets narrower towards the middle.

At the right angle the texture reminds me of waves in the ocean

In an effort to distract people from the crowding (or at least, that's my theory), Debbie focuses on pointing out interesting plays of light near the top of the canyon. She knows exactly where to position yourself to get the perfect picture and volunteers to help people with their cameras.

The pictures do come out looking nice, but they don't show you what the canyon really looks like so I skipped most of the suggested stops. Here are two just to get some idea.

An interesting side note: one of my favorite photographers, Peter Lik, shot the world's most expensive picture ever right here in Antelope Canyon!

Check it out: Phantom by Peter Lik. Think it's worth $6.5 million? Yeah, me neither ...

Our destination for today is the most famous of all National Parks, the Grand Canyon. With just shy of 5 million visits a year it's a distant second to the Great Smokey Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina.

One of my favorite stops on the way to the Grand Canyon is Lees Ferry, but in early 2013 a massive landslide swept out a section of Route 89, which means that there is no direct route to get from Page to Lees Ferry (it has since been restored in 2015). Getting there will mean a significant detour, but the extra driving time will give my parents a chance to recover from all of the walking.

Beautiful painted cliffs behind the parking lot

In the mid 1800's, John D. Lee started a ferry service across the Colorado River. As the only crossing in hundreds of miles, business was steady until the completion of the Navajo Bridge in 1929.

Nowadays, Lees Ferry serves as the launching site for white water rafting excursions through the Grand Canyon. It's pretty cool how we are following the river today from Lake Powell to Lees Ferry and finally on to the Grand Canyon!

One of the other visitors warns us that the little chipmunks running around the parking lot are disease ridden scoundrels that will eat their way through everything -- including apparently some of the cables in his car -- but they look pretty cute to me!

Who can resist that face?!

One of my favorite things about Lees Ferry is the confluence of the Colorado River and one of its tributaries, the Paria River. The contrast between the two rivers can be striking as seen in this picture from when we visited in 2011.

Unfortunately, today the Paria River is barely flowing and a drab brown.

Holding up Balanced Rock all by myself. See? Going to the gym is paying off!

There's a little art class painting by side of the road so of course this has to be investigated.

No visit to Lees Ferry is complete without spending some time at Navajo Bridge. Even though the interpretive center is closed for renovations you can still walk across the historic bridge.

At the time of its construction it was the world's highest steel arch bridge, but it was neither strong, nor wide enough for today's traffic and a new bridge was completed right alongside it in 1995.

I love the contrast between the weather worn cliffs and the stark angles of the bridge.

Silt clouds blossoming in the river

The condors are out again! I had really hoped my parents would get a chance to see one of these endangered giants swooping through the air. Although still one of the rarest birds in the world, they were successfully brought back from near extinction through captive breeding programs.

Meet N7, a 2-year old female bred at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park that was released in the summer of 2014.

And 86, a 7-year old male also from the San Diego Zoo, released in 2010

They have a 9ft (3m) wingspan!!

So, for something completely different, the rental car had been making a faint humming noise right from beginning and today as we're cruising through mile after mile of nothingness the sound abruptly gets more noticeable, followed immediately by a long dark object shooting by the windshield, before narrowly missing the car behind us.

I almost pee myself as I circle around the car and find the whole side panel by the window has gone missing. Our rental car literally BLEW apart!!

Now where did the piece go??

My mother and I set off looking for the piece that in all likelihood was blown into the next county, but using my best girl scout skills I manage to locate it -- and a chair, a pool noodle and other random assorted junk -- about 10 feet off the opposite side of the road in the bushes. Not a scratch on it! Yay!

We make a quick stop at the Cameron Trading Post, by many considered too commercialized and a tourist trap. I don't know -- I kinda like it; they have some really cool pottery.

At last! We've reached the Grand Canyon.

Another crazy caution sign to add to my collection:

The detour and hunting for parts has taken up a lot of time, but we make it to my beloved Watchtower just in time. This is where I first laid eyes on the Grand Canyon 3 years ago and it will always hold special meaning to me.

There's a mad rush to get inside before closing time.

I like the outside designed by architect Mary Colter, but I especially love the inside, where murals by Hopi painter Fred Kabotie evoke a very spiritual feeling. They are about to close the stairs, but one of the park employees lets us take a quick look around.

View from window

The setting sun is painting the canyon pink!

I think this is the single most compelling argument for why you should plan to see the sunset when visiting the park ... isn't this amazing?!

No lake tonight, but an amazing sunset nonetheless. It gets REALLY cold and windy at night and the others beat a hasty retreat to the car while I finish taking pictures.

When we get to the lodge there's a long line waiting to check in for the night. Zzzzz. We are so tired by the time we get our room keys and we haven't even had dinner yet!

Yavapai West is probably the least desirable lodging at the park, but it's affordable and you still get to sleep right in Grand Canyon Village instead of wasting time driving back and forth in the pitch black. The outdated single-story brick exterior reminds me of a storage unit so to say I was surprised to find this upon opening the door would be an understatement. Pretty cute!

At this point we are all exhausted, but grandma wanted to treat us all to dinner and it seems fitting to enjoy our special dinner tonight in a place she herself visited many years ago with my late grandpa.

It's a short drive to the Bright Angel Lodge. Located on the rim this one of the premier accommodations in the park, but at this time of night there isn't much to see. It has a small souvenir/ camp store as well as two restaurants.

After waiting for a while we are seated at the Arizona Room where we enjoy specialties like alligator fritters (not my favorite) and delicious bison burgers.

Check out the ridiculous antler chandelier behind us. Haha!

Back at the rooms everyone falls fast asleep, but I am on a mission; with only minimal light pollution the Grand Canyon has brilliant starry skies.

I grab the tripod and my remote control and lie down in the middle of the parking lot. Wow! There are so many emotions rushing through me looking at all those stars ...

Did I catch a shooting star? I made a wish just to be sure