You can tell that this part of the country is going through a heat wave when park rangers volunteer information about how hot it is. What I didn't know is that at the Grand Canyon, it gets much hotter as you travel down into the canyon. The first day we visited the South Rim, it creeped up to 97 degrees. Which meant that the canyon floor at Phantom Ranch was a broiling 127 degrees! Yikes! That's even too hot for the poor mules!
The view was awesome, in its most literal sense. It's too bad however that the colors were obscured by haze, which according to rangers came from a variety of sources...from pollution from Flagstaff to smoke from nearby forest fires. The subtle colors and striations you normally see on the rock faces blended together in more of a blue mist. But still a sight to behold. We told ourselves that when we go back one day we will save our pennies to take a helicopter ride through the canyon to really see the canyon walls, Colorado river and wildlife that we just couldn't quite see from the rim.
Beautiful!
Junior Rangers being sworn in! Nora is now a Raven Junior Ranger and Emma a Coyote Junior Ranger. They take this swearing in seriously. And of course reminded us just afterwards that we shouldn't feed the plague-ridden squirrels in the park. Good advice girls!
Don't lean back too far!
The drop-offs are a little unnerving!
The girls were pooped after two full days of hiking. We ended our second day at Hermit's Rest on the western edge of the south rim. It was perfect for the girls because they had a great gift shop where they could spend the "points" that they earned along the way. Nora purchased a stuffed white-tail deer and Emma bought her first pair of dangle earrings. They both were very excited! Even they looked exhausted in the photo. The heat was just taking it out of us! Good thing the park has spring water sites where you can refill your own water bottles (they no longer sell plastic water bottles in the park due to environmental reasons).
The lucky bell at Hermit's Rest.
We found the hermit! Nope, that's just Chris with his new Grand Canyon orange water bottle and his new hiking pole. It really helped him get around a lot more easily.
Poor Emma's feet after hiking two days in the GCNP. She was eager to get off of her feet and eat pizza in the hotel room while watching a movie.
We said goodbye to our hotel (and the statue and pond in the lobby) at Tusayan and started heading south and west, further into the desert. Let's hope the Pacifica can keep up with the heat! Wait, what's that noise coming from the passenger rear door?
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