BART; Grand Canyon

After San Fran, our return trip was accented by a stop at the Grand Canyon. Not only had Joe never seen it - but I was astonished to find out that Dave never had either! The boy grew up in SoCal, and never made it over. So it was high time for a visit.

One of our first views:
(again, can click to get larger pic)



Prior to the trip, one of Lydia's things to do was to get up to see the sunrise some day. In San Fran, obviously, that wasn't very interesting. But out here it was a spectacular idea.











After a little breakfast, we still got an early start on the Bright Angel Trail. We didn't know how far we would go, but figured we'd hike down an hour, and allowed ourselves 2 hours to get out (as recommended by the guide).








(Can you find me in this pic? OMG, just as Dave took the first of two pictures here I started having a panic attack - being the heights wuss that I am. What was I thinking of getting out there? LOL. I totally had to tell myself Do Not Look Down!)



The first part of the trail is obviously the steepest. This shot really gives you the feeling of looking nearly straight down on the people below.



After an hour we were surprised we hadn't yet reached the 1.5 mile rest house yet -- so we kept going and found it within 15 minutes.



Heading up we were determined to just take our time and enjoy the hike. So much of the trail was still in deep shade there were lots of places to take a rest.







Thus we were amazed to reach the top, and look at our watch to find out we'd only taken 5 minutes longer hiking out than we had going in! LOL! We decided we sure were lollygagging our way down.