Grand Canyon part I: The Good

So now that I am back (and partially rested) from our journey to the Grand Canyon, I will fill you in on some of the trip. There is too much to say and too many fotos for one post so I will break it down into segments.

I will start with the positive, because that is just the kind of person I am, (as if you hadn't noticed!)

The Positive: We saw the Grand Canyon!! (which is, of course, in a word, grand) As luck would have it, our first view of the great abyss looked like this:




That's right folks, fog! Our first morning at the canyon was filled with thick dense fog; you could hardly see past the railing. Our two days touring the Canyon's South Rim were mostly cloudy, sometimes foggy, with a dash of rain and a few moments of sunshine-- to let us really appreciate her full depths.








We were undaunted however, and I actually think the clouds lent something to the experience. Some of the shadows that the clouds cast and the occasional rays of light from the sun made for added dramatic effect.

The clouds and rain meant that the Canyon rim and the rest of Northern Arizona that we visited was much cooler than normal for this time of year, or at least much cooler than we had expected... Translation: we were grossly underprepared for the 50 degree temps and chilly breeze. I had packed shorts and light T-shirts. We all had one pair of jeans and a jacket that we ended up over-wearing.

I was born in Mesa, Arizona, but only lived there a year before my parents moved to Utah. For many years, up until my parents divorced, we drove to Arizona to spend Thanksgiving with my dad's family. I hadn't thought about that landscape for a long time. I didn't like the area surrounding Phoenix (Mesa is pretty much a suburb now). But I loved the northern part of the state: the mountains, the pines, the canyons, the red rock formations. It was all so familiar to me and it brought back a lot of memories of those trips to Mesa.