ONE MORE THING OFF MY BUCKET LIST

Yesterday we arrived at the Grand Canyon.  The Grand Canyon was one of the things on my bucket list.  I have never been to the Grand Canyon.  Mr. W had been here when he was about 10 years old.  He knows that his parents did not spend the night here so he thinks they drove through the park, looked at the Grand Canyon at the Visitor's Center and drove on. 

It seemed like every time I told someone that we were full-timing and traveling they would ask if we had been to the Grand Canyon.  You could almost bet that they had been here.  I had seen pictures of it.  I had read about it.  I had heard about it.  I wanted to see it.  So, when Son said he wanted to meet us in Colorado this year and Mr. W started planning this trip out west, I asked him to plan a visit to the Grand Canyon in our trip.

We left Cottonwood, AZ and started the drive up.  It started raining on us and the temperature started dropping.  Right before we reached the entrance to the park, it started snowing on us.  Wow, May and snow.  Those aren't two words usually heard together in southeast Texas.  So, it was a little exciting for us.

We are staying in Trailer Village.  It is the only campground inside the park that has full hook-ups.  It is also the only campground inside the park that can accommodate our size RV.  It is $35 a night.  They pack you in pretty close but they have done a good job of staggering sites so that you don't feel like your slide outs are going to touch your neighbors. 

After we got set up and at lunch, the weather looked like a rain shower could happen at any moment.  But, we decided to walk over to the Visitor's Center.  We wanted to get some information on what to see and do.  The main tourist site of the Grand Canyon is right by the Visitor's Center and it is called Mather's Point.  So, after our visit in the Center, I walked out to see the Grand Canyon for the very first time.

My first view - Wow

Notice the rain clouds heading our way

 

We stayed for a while so I could try to take this all in.  Beautiful does not even begin to describe it.  Pictures cannot capture it.  I'm not sure how anyone can visit the Grand Canyon and not see the majesty of God.  It is truly breath taking.

 

We decided to take one of the shuttle buses on their route to get an idea of where things were.  So, we rode the Blue Route bus around its loop and it dropped us off right at our campground.

 

Mr. W decided to go to a Ranger talk at one of the auditoriums last night.  An interesting fact discussed is that even though the park has 5 million visitors a year, on the average, a visitor will spend only 2 hours in the park.  Let me just mention that I have noticed MANY foreign visitors.  There has been very little English spoken around me.  I'm glad they are here spending their money in the USA.  I am not glad that a lot of them have been very rude, pushy, and not adhering to rules.  This isn't all of them, but there has been enough for me to mention it. I know that Americans can also be rude, pushy, and not adhere to rules when visiting other countries.  I think that's horrible and shame on them.  But, don't come to my country and do it too.  See, here I go again with expressing my opinion because it is my blog! :)

 

I'm not sure what the temperature was last night, but I know it was cold.  Who knew it was going to be so cold?  That was another fact the Ranger talked about.  They consider it still winter here.  May and winter.  Two more words you don't hear used together in southeast Texas. 

 

We're going to a part of the park named Desert View tomorrow.  Stay tuned.

 

 

A few more pics.