Grand Canyon!

Heading for the Grand Canyon on the 23rd of May. We were going to go a few days earlier and enjoy hiking on the South Rim. Well they had a storm in Northern AZ on that weekend. So that was why we left Happy Trails on Sunday the 23rd.

We traveled a total of about 250 miles to arrive at the East Entrance of the Grand Canyon. We had a lot of wind all the way north. As we came in on Hwy 64 the wind was so strong that we had to travel about 30 plus miles an hour just to stay on the road.

When arriving at the East Entrance were told that we couldn't camp at Desert View Campground because we were too long. So that meant traveling through the park and going out the South Entrance and stayed about 5 miles south Tent-X Forest Service Campground. This park was very nice but a long ways from the park.

Then on Monday the 24th did some looking around at the Grand Canyon Village, weather wasn't very good still wind and not warm. Then we did get some great sunset pictures in the evening.

We had made a reservation at the Phantom Ranch in the Grand Canyon for the night of the 25th of May. We were excited and ready to head down. Got up early and got things ready in the Motor Home. We headed to the bus stop by about 8:30 AM. Parked our car and head to the Green Bus Stop which would take us to the South Kaibab Trail head. So right on schedule we were there by 9:00 AM. The canyon is so awesome and hard to believe that a river like the Colorado could create this beautiful Canyon.

So we headed down the trail and 9:00 AM and by 3:00 PM we were standing on the suspension cable bridge over the Colorado River in the bottom of the Canyon. The distance down was 7.3 miles. Wow! We had made it down, the trail was steep but in very good shape.

Now we have to explore the area that they call the Phantom Ranch. History of this area goes back to the 1920's. This area was used as a resort for people way back then. Not sure how they arrived back then.

The Ranch is a step back in time, nothing fancy but build very well. They have a campground called the Bright Angel Campground if you want to camp. We were not going to bring all that stuff on our backs. So we had a reservation for one night in the Men's dorm and Ladie's dorm.

We had a great Stew dinner with all the trimmings at 6:30 PM. Met some very interesting people and had a great evening. we were both in bed by about 9 PM. Then were up early in the morning as breakfast was at 6:30 AM. Had great food to fill our furnace to make it back up the trail to the rim.

At 7:30 AM we were heading out to the Bright Angel Trail which is 9.5 miles to the South Rim. The trail up was very dusty, steep and having mules in our way. The mule teams that take supplies to the Ranch and back are using the Bright Angel so that really breaks up the trail. So we survived and arrive at the South Rim about 3:00 PM. We were very tired and had to find the bus to get back to our car. Found the bus stop area and had to wait for the second bus as the first one was full. Ater about 10 stopped arrived where our car was parked. Headed back to the campground to hook-up car to motor home. Then we were on the road to Page, AZ