WFRV

The ride to the Grand Canyon isn't too bad. Certainly it's winding and
uphill but we thought it'd be worse. We get to the Canyon by noon owing to
the fact that Arizona doesn't have daylight savings time. The park ranger
tell us that the Lodge is only a mile walk along a trail and lunch at the
restaurant sounds pretty good. Plus, there's a trail that leaves from the
Lodge which we could walk after lunch. Hunger has us starting off at a
pretty good clip but after half an hour we start to wonder if we've taken
the wrong path. How long can it take to walk a mile? After forty-five
minutes we finally get there; turns out the path is more like 1.5 miles and
it's up and down, winding, and very rocky, not easy at all. During lunch we
decide to walk back to the RV and drive it 23 miles to the Cape Royal
outlook over the Grand Canyon; the North Rim overlooks part of it but not
the main section and from Cape Royal you can see the Colorado River. But
first Ben and I want to hear a talk on the condor; the Grand Canyon is one
of a few places in the US where the condors are being reintroduced into the
wild. Mike and Sam take the road back to the campground and get there in
half the time, as do Ben and I about forty-five minutes later.

I drive to Cape Royal so that Mike can navigate, a task that isn't too
difficult but I'd prefer to drive anyway. At one of the turns there's a
large yellow sign that says "Travel by Vehicles Over 30 Feet Not
Recommended". Our RV is 31 feet long. I'm ready to turn around and Mike
calls me a wimp. We're reminded of the recent Car Talk we listened to where
they discuss how men think rules are for wimps. So we proceed. First we
see signs for Winding Road, then bold squiggly lines with 25 mph. speed
limits, then U-Shaped Curve at 15 mph. Sometimes on one side of the road we're
just feet from the edge of a cliff. What fun! I'm not enjoying the drive
at all, but it's not because I'd rather be sitting and enjoying the view. I'd
rather be at sea level.

At Cape Royal there's a nice walk through scrub forest to an overlook point.
There are signs along the way telling us about the flora and fauna and I
enjoy that but when we get to the overlook I can't proceed. Luckily there's
a bench to sit far back from the edge and enjoy the view. I have an
acknowledged fear of heights and all I can think is how much I'd like to be
away from here. That's pretty much the way the afternoon goes from there;
stopping at scenic viewpoints, wishing I were somewhere else, watching my
husband and children stand inches from the edges of cliffs. I wish I could
tie a rope to them. Or tie them up, throw them in the RV, and speed off to
Santa Fe.

We do learn that we can see over 80 miles from up here, and that the Navajo
Reservation is across the canyon, and that one of the early canyon explorers
had traveled in the Far East a lot and so gave many of the places Eastern
names. We also learn how many of the native plants the Native Americans
used for everything from construction to medicine. There's also evidence of
a controlled fire that was allowed to burn for a while up here and it's
interesting to see what's grown back and what hasn't after five years.

We have a "real weenie roast" that night, a term that cracks up the kids.
What meal is better than hot dogs impaled on a skewer and stuck into the
flame of a campfire, topped off with smores? It's quite cool up here at
night and we bundle up in sweatshirts and try to play a game of gin, but it
gets too dark so we give up and just enjoy the fire burning down. Once the
fire burns out our RV has a house battery so even though this campground has
no water or electricity we're able to play a few rounds of gin rummy before
going to bed. We make one more trip outside to see the stars; there's no
light pollution up here and the view is amazing.

# posted by LDW @ 10:29 PM