Day 145 – It was 19 degrees again this morning, but it warmed up quickly as the sun rose. The girls really like it here, and what’s not to like – private, quiet, lovely, & it’s free. Very peaceful, and the helicopters only come over maybe once an hour from 9:30 to 3:30 or so. Without them, the silence would be deafening, LOL. I imagine in the summer season there’d be a lot more helicopter tours than there our now.
We left around 10 a.m. to visit the other part of the Grand Canyon – yesterday we did the east, today the west. (The North Rim road to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon is closed for the winter.) Clearer out and so beautiful. We met a Chinese woman who lives in Texas. She was taking some visiting relatives from China to see the sites. Her relatives only spoke Chinese but you could totally see the excitement and awe they were experiencing. The woman was very talkative & friendly and we kept running into her & her clan at every stop we made and at each stop, we ended up talking to her. She said that if we liked the beauty of the Grand Canyon, we absolutely HAD to go up into Utah to Monument Valley & to Lake Powell, and that she was rushing her relatives thru the Grand Canyon to take them into Utah next. After running into her the fourth time, we were convinced we should change our plans yet again. We’d also wanted to go into southern Utah to see Zion & Bryce Canyons, but hadn’t considered them because it was winter, and again, doesn’t it snow and get icy in the winter?
Click any picture below to see a slideshow.
After exhausting all the turn-outs on the western side, we drove back out of the Park, south of where our RV was parked to check out two other Forest Service camping areas. They were both pretty good (NFS FR688 & NFS FR306) & we will keep them in mind as backup in case we come back & can’t get a site where we are now (NFS FR302).
We drove back to the RV, had a light lunch & sat outside while doing some research on Utah. We’re about 100 miles from the border right now. Not that far to make a trip up. We worked on two scenarios for Utah but couldn’t make up our minds which one to do, or whether we should just continue to New Mexico & do Utah another time. After having this taste of the colorful canyons in upper AZ & hearing so many great things about the beauty of Utah, plus being so close & the weather so warm, we wondered, why not? Life is tough! LOL.
We went out for an early dinner & some margaritas at the only Mexican Restaurant in town. We still couldn’t decide what to do. So we decided to drive up and take some sunset pictures at the Grand Canyon. Awesome! AND we saw elk on several different occasions.
Click any picture below to see a slideshow.
By the time we got back to the RV, we’d decided to leave tomorrow morning after going back to the Grand Canyon for sunrise pictures. (It was lucky that our campsite was so close. Nice & convenient.) Then we figured we’d head directly from there to southern Utah and Monument Valley. From Monument Valley we’d go back down to New Mexico as previously planned long ago. We would do Lake Powell, Zion & Bryce at another time since they were in a different direction from Monument Valley. We got some things packed up & went to bed early in order to get up early tomorrow for sunrise. The high today was 61 degrees, windy a little in the late afternoon, mostly sunny.
Isn’t it wonderful? So glad you’re there. I have great memories from our family trip. I’m also really glad that you are going to Bryce and Zion. I loved Bryce.