May 2008

We drive several hours in the morning from Meteor Crater, Arizona to Grand Canyon National Park. It’s a sunny, cold, breezy day; the wind is breezy versus the 50-60 mph gusts of yesterday.

We realized yesterday that we should have made reservations for the national park campground. There aren’t many sites in the park for a 35 ft 5th wheel trailer and consequently there are no campsites for us til next Tuesday. We’re disappointed but glad that we can at least camp near the park in a private campground. So we set up camp and head to the park.

We find a parking spot near the first overlook in the park. Walk over to the rim and are in absolute awe of the sight. It’s a beautiful sunny day with blue sky and the canyon looks incredible!

As I stare at the incredibly large and beautiful canyon, a California condor flies over our heads. I’m torn between looking at the incredible view of the canyon or a large, rare bird (with a wingspan of 9 feet and one of only about 300 California condors in existence). The canyon wins, but I will be lucky enough to see other condors later today.

We spend some time in the visitor center and then walk about two and a half miles along the rim to the Bright Angel Lodge for a ranger talk on California condors. The walk is incredible (I seem to be using that word often today) with one incredible view after another.

And the talk by the ranger is very interesting and we see 4 California condors on the cliffs and in the sky near the lodge.

We head back to the trailer for dinner and then return to the canyon rim for sunset.

We end our day with an evening ranger talk about the park. I’m tired, but the ranger is a good speaker with funny & interesting stories about the park. I’m glad Jere convinced us to go.