The Grand Canyon

(we've compressed a bunch of pictures from earlier in the trip and are trying to post more of them in an album format)

What an amazing day!!! I'm not sure if we are the last people on earth to actually see the Grand Canyon, but Michelle and I were as excited as little kids to finally experience this amazing place. After a quick breakfast of sausage biscuits we took the doors and top off the Jeep for the 45-mile drive into Grand Canyon national park. It is 78 degrees and sunny and we could tell that this was going to be a blast.

We entered the park around 10a.m. and after getting our bearings at the Visitor Center, we trekked down the Rim Trail for 15 minutes before getting our first glimpses of the grand canyon. I'm not sure what your religious affiliation is, but in my opinion there are some things on this earth that only God could have given us. The Grand Canyon seems perfectly random in all of the most magnificent ways imaginable. The layered colors, the majestic shapes and of course the grand scale of it all. It seems like a gift and we feel blessed to be here.

Of course the paved trail itself was not going to do for our family and even though we had Cooper on our back and packs full of lunch, we immediately started scaling down the rocks to the less-traveled photo spots. For two hours we were all calling each other constantly to come see what we deemed to be an even better view than the one before. All of us were taken with this place and again we could have spent weeks here just exploring. We found a good ledge and lunched on ham and cheese sandwiches, cherries and snack mix before making our way back to the car. A local we had met suggested the IMAX film was a must-see so we headed over to the little town with the theater. The film was unbelievable and we sat quietly munching on popcorn and sodas. What an awesome way to learn more about this amazing place, two thumbs up!

One interesting thing about this part of AZ is that it is subject to monsoons (flash torrential rainstorms). Like I said earlier, when we left it was 78 and sunny, however on the ride back we passed through two CRAZY rainstorms that dropped the temperature from 93 to 73 and then back up in minutes. Also, we did not have the doors or windows on the Jeep, so that was interesting (but sort of cool too!). After arriving back at the campground, Veronica watched the kids while Michelle and I headed out to go mountain biking. Some local folks suggested a trail in the national park and we basically lost ourselves in our surroundings for an hour. It was fun to see all of the skeletons (wolves, elk, etc) in the woods on our ride, how fun!

Tonight we have steaks and corn to barbecue, some wine to drink and (hopefully) a good cigar awaiting us. From this point on we will be swiftly making our way back East with absolutely no plan whatsoever in terms of where we will stay or how far we will get each day. We have to make up some ground so I would expect no less than 6-8 hour days all the way back across the country but we'll be traveling through another 7 states. So far we have traveled 3,500 miles and driven extensively in 16 states. This is really the most fun we could have ever imagined and I sincerely hope that each year we find different, interesting places to explore. Have a great night!