The Grand Canyon

I had another adventure this weekend, and I’ve been dying to share it! Let me preface it by saying that about a month and a half ago, a friend sent me one of those silly forward emails that lists a bunch of items on people’s Bucket List. You check which ones you’ve done and send it on to the next person who is supposed to send it back with theirs checked.

My dear friend the Bibliophile was shocked and perhaps slightly appalled to discover that I’d never seen the Grand Canyon, which she considers to be “practically in my back yard.”

Well, perhaps it is sad, being that it’s just a couple states away from where I grew up. However, when Yellowstone is only four hours away, and the Grand Canyon is more like 15 … it’s not too surprising.

This weekend that all changed while on a fun trip with friends (and one family member).

I was having a lovely vacation in St. George this weekend (most likely a separate post will be coming about that). Our plan was to drive to nearby Zion National Park on Saturday to spend the day enjoying one of Utah’s beautiful national parks.

As we were on our way to connect with the highway that would take us to our destination, we saw both Zion and the Grand Canyon listed .. and the miles to get to the second weren’t that much further than the first. So, on a whim we decided why not try something new? Three of us had never been before, and the one who had never visited the North Rim.

It turned out to be further than the sign said, more like 130 miles as opposed to the 42 listed, but we decided to go for it anyway. It was a llooonnngg drive there and back and we started far later than we would have had we realized what our destination was going to be. However, all four of us were delighted with our experience.

I also learned a cool trick with the operating system on my phone. It has a panorama setting which takes fantastic long pictures. I had no idea!

I had a great time visiting one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World, which happens to be another of our national parks. And this was only the North Rim! I was told I still must visit the South Rim, and I’m confident that given time I’ll make it there. Oh, and we were lucky on this trip because I discovered yesterday that the North Rim closes right around Oct. 15 (or when the snow flies, whichever is first), so we made it  just in time.

What a great spontaneous trip! Enjoy a few more pictures. I have many (yes, I know it’s completely shocking), but I’ll just post a few. We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day to be there. The fall colors on the trees (well, the ones that were turning anyway) were gorgeous. One of the pictures below is my attempt to capture that.

I don’t actually know what the rock is called, but I thought it looked like a dog’s head, so I couldn’t resist taking a picture. Of course we’d need a picture on the bridge.

Okay, I promise I’m done now. As you can see, it was a great little jaunt, if a little exhausting.