Bucket List Item — check (or at least partial check) 👍🏼
As I have said, we were to be in Oregon now, but we have moved to Plan B and have been welcomed back to Arizona for part of June and July with a quick house sit in Phoenix before moving onto Tucson. I was not going to allow us to get this close to the Grand Canyon (GC) again without actually getting there, so after a couple of days in Scottsdale, we headed to Flagstaff from which we would head up to the GC.
Why 2 days in Scottsdale when we would be staying in Phoenix for a house sit? A financial decision on our part to limit the number of days we would need a rental car, as the prices were a bit steep for renting from the airport. Anyhoo, on to funner things — like the drive to Flagstaff, Flagstaff itself, and the GC.
We drove from Scottsdale to Flagstaff via the scenic route out of Sedona on Monday afternoon. It was a lovely drive and, we got to reminisce about our trip to Sedona a few years ago. A few snaps from the car on the drive near Sedona —
We arrived into Flagstaff about mid-afternoon, and while we ended up really liking the town (especially my trail runs on Wednesday am), it got short shrift from us. We spent part of Monday afternoon doing a much needed load of laundry. We were at the GC all-day Tuesday and had to head out Wednesday am about 8:30 to return the rental car. We had a nice walkabout in downtown Flagstaff and a lovely happy hour meal out on Monday and will hope to return.
What to say about the GC? I have heard about it all of my life and yet have been pretty ignorant of what exactly it is, how it was formed, and its size. I use the words “awesome” and “ginormous” on an everyday basis way too loosely. The GC is both and then some. It is 277 miles long, 10 miles across, and a mile deep. It can be seen from space! AND it’s also very old. The canyon itself was “only” formed within the last 6 million years due to erosion of the rocks by the Colorado River. However, the exposed rocks (looking like rock layer cake) are millions of years older than that!
Visitors can access the park at the North or South Rim. We visited the South Rim and spent most of our day walking the 12 miles of the South Rim Trail. We did not hike into the canyon. While the Visitors Center opens at 8, we got there about 7:20 to beat the crowds. We visited the Visitors Center at the end of our day to catch the informative film.
We saw 2 moose on the drive to the park, a fox while we were hiking, and an elk while we took the free shuttle from the end of the trail back to the Visitors Center. While there, we learned about the on-going efforts at the canyon to save the California Condor. However, the only animals we managed to get a photo of were the mules that are still used to carry passengers into the canyon.
Peckish Travels 
