Friday – April 7 – Today was another day of absolutely stunning views, the Grand Canyon is indescribable in its beauty and scenery. There were 7 of us on the tour, a Canadian couple who now reside in Beijing and a woman from Sacremento with her son and daughter and John and I. We traveled through a desert area to reach the canyon – go figure from high mountains to deserts.

There was a lot of snow in the park from Wednesday’s snow storm but the paths were clear, although wet and slippery in a couple of spots. One interesting fact we learned on our way to the park from Rita, our tour guide, is that in this part of Arizona there are very large cattle ranches and it takes 18 acres to feed one cow.

In the park we stopped at several lookouts etc. and at the Grand Canyon Village. At the Desert View lookout there is a watchtower from which you can view Marble Canyon, the Painted Desert and Kaibab Plateau. Such different views and all from one spot! The watchtower was built in 1935 and looks like an old Indian structure, very interesting.

This afternoon the other couple and John and I went to the Imax Theatre while Cindy and her children did a flight over the canyon. The show at the Imax was on the Grand Canyon and was excellent, we were flying in the canyon, white water rafting and also learned about the early Indians who lived there and then the various people who discovered the canyon. All in all it was a great day and it was nice for John that he didn’t have to worry about doing the driving and could just enjoy the scenery.

At one stop we could see where the overnight mule trips to the bottom of the canyon were and where the day trip went to – no thanks! The overnight trip crosses a bridge which we could see and it didn’t look like the kind of bridge I would want to cross over! On the way back we watched a video about the day mule trip down into the canyon and I don’t think I could do it, riding a mule who wants to walk close to the edge is not my idea of a fun day.

I think it would be very hard to beat all the magnificent scenery in this area, I have heard so much about these places yet to see them is unbelievable. We have just been looking at our pictures and it is very hard to capture the magnificence of the Grand Canyon, looking at the pictures we took we feel we have not been able to capture the essence of the Grand Canyon. Guess it takes a professional to get the true picture!