Grand Canyon

Continuing with my waaaay delayed vacay blog posts…With a thirst for more Canyon Country, we headed 5 hours south towards Grand Canyon Village, AZ. This part of the drive was stunning, filled with seemingly endless desert highway, drastic ear-popping elevation changes, occasional mounds of snow, Navajo women selling jewelry with cardboard hand-painted signs, and oasis gas stations with wandering dogs looking for treats.

The Open Road

Pulling Over To Explore

Above is a rare pitstop on our journey, a good spot to stretch and take some photos.

Luckily, she didn’t break her neck.

Mather Campground

Melissa warms up by the fire and her travel journal at our Mather Campground spot. We saw a few mule deer walking around nearby as well as many fat cat sized ravens. We left our site for about 20 minutes and came back to see a raven going to town on a packet of tortillas we had left out.

An older gray bearded camper, named Vince, took a liking to Melissa and was chatting with her as she came back from the bathroom. Turned out, he was a Philly native now living in California. This dude was a trip, as he kept coming over to our campground to talk baseball, give us multiple hugs goodbye, and talk politics — a friendly traveler.

Getting ready for Not Dogs…Yeah, Not Dogs. I can eat 4 of them easy.

Bright Angel Trail

Melissa takes some shots as we descend Bright Angel trail. We didn’t go all the way to Phantom Ranch, but we vowed to do it again someday. There’s so many lengthy trails at the Grand Canyon that two days there can hardly put a dent in your stay there.

Mules On The Canyon

I personally wouldn’t ride a mule down the canyon, but the option was there. LAME! Plus, if they get exhausted and fall, you’re going down with them. Melissa stands off to the left laughing as she gets stuck. The mules also make it perilous for the hikers by shitting up a storm on the trails.