Grand Canyon National Park

Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona: Driving into one of the most iconic National Parks in America and seeing the United States flag flying at half-staff honoring Dolly Parton did my heart good. Made me cry and made me remember the time we went to Petrified Forest National Park in September of 2022 and the US flag was at half-staff due to the death of Queen Elizabeth. Iconic Women Rule (Okay, one of them actually did rule.) I'm thinking Jimmy and Dolly are having a fine old time singing in Heaven's Ragtime Band*, and maybe Liz is tapping her toes? (And her shoes and handbag match.) Speaking of the Queen - today the Buckingham Palace guards played Nine to Five in honor of Dolly Parton!

Anyway... back to fabulous Grand Canyon National Park!

Before heading north to the park, we visited downtown Flagstaff, as we have been through here so many times, but have never had a look. So many distance runners live/train here, so it was nice to see where they call home.

Instead of taking the freeway north to the park, we drove Highway 180 to catch 64 at the main entrance to Grand Canyon National Park. Must be the time of year, as we were the only vehicle in line to enter the park. We found no lines, no crowds, plenty of parking and generally a very pleasant experience in the park today. Also, the RV campground is half-full, and we had no trouble booking a site a few days ago.

Insteading of immediately checking into our campsite, we went first to the Visitor Center, parked in the nearly-empty RV parking lot, and had a look at Mather Point.

Italians for the win! We have been so surprised at the lack of foreign visitors in every National Park and monument we have visited. Guess they saved it all for the Mother Lode of US National Parks, because we met so many Italians and other European visitors, and saw van-loads of Chinese tourists (previously we have seen bus-loads of Chinese tourists). Plus, we are so shocked at how many foreigners can't wait to go to Las Vegas. It was never an issue parking our RV in any of the vista points today. Few cars at any viewpoint.

After this stop, we decided to drive 25 miles out to Desert View - the easternmost point of the park. This road is not serviced by the free bus service covering most of the park. The drive is pleasant, with forests covering most of the distance and several viewpoints along the way with amazing views over the canyon.

The watchtower was constructed in 1932 by Mary Colter as a resting place so visitors could have a place to reflect as they look over the majesty of the canyon. (Now you need a (free) timed ticket to climb the stairs, and are alloted 15 minutes of reflection - but you have a great view.)

The weather was crazy. The temperatures hovered around 90° (which we were constantly having to switch to centigrade - and loved to see the foreign faces when they learned it was 47c at our house today). Every twenty minutes the weather changed. Huge gusts of wind would nearly blow people over. Then lightning. Thunder. Then sun. Then rain. Then wind. August at 7000 feet elevation (oops, I meant 2200 meters).

Dave and I stopped at all the vista points (that were open... not sure how one can close a vista point, but access was restricted).

And just another spot we pulled over - avoiding being blown-over the edge of the canyon - to enjoy the amazing views:

And we saw some wildlife! After checking into our reserved campsite in Trailer Village at 5p, DT found an elk "mowing the lawn" - but, trust me, there is no lawn. It's just a bunch of green weeds.

I did prep nachos with the unused ingredients from our tacos last night. Off to bed. Tomorrow we will spend the entire day in Grand Canyon National Park. It seems the weather is better in the mornings, then storms arrive late afternoon. Fingers crossed.

Until my next update, I remain, your awed correspondent.

*Barefoot Children in the Rain - from Jimmy's Barometer Soup album, 1995. Don't forget: Wrinkles only go where the smiles have been.

Campsite Information: Trailer Village. Full hook-up sites, but the pesky ravens love to poke holes in the plastic pipe - so don't leave your sewer hose out.

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