The Grand Canyon, South Rim

Standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon is both inspiring and overwhelming. It was carved by the Colorado River and is 277 river miles long, up to 18 miles wide, and one mile deep.

I looked back at my records and we were both surprised to find that we hadn't been to the South Rim since June, 2006, when we began our RV adventure. The highlight of that trip was our helicopter tour of the canyon which still ranks right  up there as one of our top experiences.

We drove up from Flagstaff and did a bit of walking on the Rim Walk, a paved path that is accessed near the Grand Canyon Visitor Center, and one of the few places we could walk with Tilly.

Tilly was quite fascinated with the overly friendly squirrels, as were many of the tourists.
The park was more crowded than we had expected for this time of year and there were people everywhere. In some spots we had to take turns to see some of the sights.

The picture above shows a rock that's balanced between to tower rocks - hard to figure out how it got there.

It was an enjoyable day and we're glad we made a return visit. This time we drove over to the Desert View Visitor Center, an area we hadn't previously explored.

We went to the North Rim several years ago and we both agree that we prefer it to the South Rim. Since the North Rim is only open a few months of the year and is more difficult to get to there are fewer people and different views of the canyon. When we drove by the entrance to the North Rim on May 14 the road was closed so we didn't stop, only to find out that it opened the next day. Oh, well.

It's all spectacular no matter what the viewpoint.

We stayed in Flagstaff while we were visiting the Grand Canyon. Our route from Fountain Hills to Flagstaff, AZ  was 170 miles. The map shows a loop that we didn't take - the actual route is the thinner blue line. Just an example of not blindly following the GPS.

The loop we did from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon and back, 183 miles round trip.