Day 4: Santa Fe to the GRAND CANYON Posted on Tuesday, August 11, 2009 |

I am going to preface this post with an apology; there will be no pictures on this post, instead tomorrow I am going to post JUST pictures (there are just so many!). Anyways, Dad and I woke up at the Hotel Santa Fe, had a delightful breakfast and made a pit stop to Whole Foods to pick up some much needed snacks for the road.

I guess we were a little camera happy today, seeing as the majority of photos taken were of mesas, rock formations, and finally the Grand Canyon. Crossing from New Mexico to Arizona was incredible; it was as if the rocks were parted to let 1-40 through. Today was the shortest day of travel, but I will never forget how many beautiful things I saw today. I think that I have always taken rocks/mountains for granted. You admire boulders from an interstate at a distance, you ski down mountains during the winter; but today I really came to understand how amazing rocks can be. For example, in the beginnings of Arizona, the scenery tended to be flat with some brush and scant vegetation, but then on the horizon would appear these huge cliffs and rocks and plateaus, etc. I knew I couldn't psyche myself out too much though: I had the Grand Canyon coming up.

We are staying in Williams, AZ, where the majority of the hotels are for Grand Canyon visitors. However, Williams is located 58 miles south of the entrance, so more driving ensued. As we approached the gate and chatted up a nice park ranger, both of our anticipation grew. Then, the canyon was before as and Dad and I could not control ourselves. It almost looked unreal; in fact, it was surreal. It's up to 5000 ft deep and 10 miles wide but it looked like the ridges and cliffs and drop-offs just went on for days. We hiked along the South Rim of the canyon, venturing to Mather Point and then Youpavi (sp?) Point where there is the neatest and widest overlook of the entire canyon. I did a little off the path hiking for the best photo op and it definitely resulted in one of the coolest photos I've ever seen. However hiking back up I was quickly winded from the sudden change in elevation (I had climbed down rougly 100 feet and then back up in about 10 minutes). The air is super dry and it feels like you are walking through a luke warm sauna with the best HD view you could imagine.

After a dragged out walk back to the car (I forgotten where it was and led us astray-Dad was none too pleased), we had a dragged out ride back to Williams, with a nice dinner and back to the hotel. Tomorrow it's off to SAN DIEGO!! and of course, the Grand Canyon Pictures will be posted. see ya later.