Thursday, May 24, 2018
Weather: Sunny and high 70’s/low 80’s
Steps: Shaun - 14,814, Shannon - 11,889
Another perfect day in Arizona! After checking out of the lodge and eating breakfast in the restaurant, we took the shuttle to the Grand Canyon Association bookstore and gift shop. Afterwards, we went to the actual Visitor’s Center where we watched an 8-minute presentation about the formation of the canyon that was projected onto a globe in the center of the room like a holograph. Holy crap...it was so cool! The rest of the Visitor’s Center was pretty uninteresting, but just the way the information we’d seen several times before was translated by projecting it onto the globe with time lapse photography made all the difference in the world.
We didn’t have to catch the train until 3:00, so we had plenty of time to explore the rest of the South Rim. Our first stop was Mather Point and then along the Rim Trail to Yavapai Point Observation Center and Geology Museum. The walk was only .7 miles, and the displays were interesting with a good explanation of the different rock layers in the Canyon.
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Check out this insane example
of an overachieving yucca plant |
Now for a little sidebar about the ubiquitous yucca plant. I will go on record as saying that I hate yuccas with the passion of 10,000 suns. I always have, and before this trip I would have said that I always will. However, after having learned about the incredible amount of uses that the Native Americans have for this one plant, I will admit to having a greater appreciation for it. I would still never have it in my yard, but I guess I won’t wish it off the face of the Earth anymore.
Mather Point with way too many f’in people!
After hopping back on the shuttle, we headed to Yaki Point and saw the incredible vistas from there. We still needed to eat and check out El Tovar and Verkamp’s Visitor Center back in the center of Canyon Village, so we decided to skip going to the very end of the shuttle route and head back to the visitor center to get the shuttle back to the village (this being dependent on public transportation kind of sucks when you’re on a timeline).
We blasted through El Tovar (which was very cool but pretty high end for our sensibilities) and then to the Verkamp’s Visitor Center (which had more of the same stuff we’d seen in every visitor center around the rim). We really needed to eat at this point, so we went to the Bright Angel Lodge hoping to find something good, but we had to settle on the food at the luncheonette...starting with sherbet and sorbet first and then crap snack food for the actual lunch. It was WAY less than satisfying if I do say so.
We took our very last selfie of the Canyon as we were leaving and walked down to the train station. We were able to board immediately, and it was a good thing because Shaun joined the upchuck club and got sick as soon as we arrived (verifying how very crappy our lunch had actually been). Once the train got moving, we had toasts with champagne and sparkling cider, petit fours, and chocolate covered strawberries. The entertainment was a banjo player (who was actually really good), and another stupid train robbery.
Once we arrived back at the depot, we were on our way to check into the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel when Shaun noticed our bag sitting there lost and all alone on the sidewalk. We had been told it would be delivered to our room, but we were misinformed and were lucky that the bag was unique enough to be noticeable.
Dinner was at the Railway Cafe that had a buffet that included a pasta station, so we had our fill and gelled for the rest of the night.
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