Day 20 – Grand Canyon

By Ben Chilcote in travel on September 26, 2015March 7, 2018

Woke up, ate breakfast, cleaned up, checked out
Got to see a good deal of Las Vegas, the actual town, while making a trip to Trader Joe’s before heading on our way
Drove less than an hour to Hoover Dam
On the way in, we didn’t pass security – they had to take a peek in the car topper.
Drove in through twists and turns on cliffs and parked on the Arizona side.
Walked a short way to look over the edge – Mom didn’t get too close and some kids were not very excited about another walk to see another thing
It was pretty amazing, but our visit was short for the kids sake and we had bigger, better things to do
Hopped back in the van and drove back out to the highway
Ate some bagels for lunch that we grabbed from our free breakfast
Stopped for gas just as we started heading north toward the Grand Canyon
Passed a bike race along the way
Finally arrived at the Grand Canyon south rim – surprise! It was a free day and we didn’t have to pay the $30!
Got out, spent some time looking over the edge in sheer amazement
Spent some time telling EC not to run, had a few near-panic attacks with kids looking over the edge
Saw crazy people walk out on the edge of cliffs for pictures
Visited the visitor center, gift shop, bathrooms, and headed out after a good 1 1/2 hour visit
Drove out to the East along the south rim and caught a few more glimpses of the canyon as the sun was beginning to turn the sky orange
Saw some animals along the road – reminding us of Yellowstone
Finally made it out of the borders of the park and continued on maybe the most beautiful drive of the entire trip
Route 64 gave us spectacular views of the Little Colorado river gorge, with rocky mountains to the south – with a beautiful sunset. The pictures I took don’t come close to the beauty of it. Native Americans had stands scattered along the way where they sold their wares
We finally made it to Flagstaff where we ate a quick dinner at Cracker Barrel
After a long tiring drive along Interstate 40, we finally arrived at our hotel in Gallup, New Mexico