Grand Canyon National Park

We headed in to Grand Canyon National Park this morning, easily finding parking near the Visitors Center (which is not open due to COVID) soon after 9am.

It was a little hazy when we got our first view of the canyon...

... but it was still beautiful.

There was another couple at the Mather Amphitheater while we were there, and the husband offered to take our picture -- great picture! We talked to them briefly -- they are from Ft Worth! Those Texans, they are so nice!

There were quite a lot of folks visiting today -- it was a beautiful day -- much cooler than we've been experiencing in the Mesa/Phoenix area (where we were getting high 80s and 90s) -- here we had a high in the 50s.

Masked Selfie at the Grand Canyon (in the overlook areas where there were crowds, there was mandatory masking)

Beautiful!

Gorgeous!

At one of the overlooks, we saw a father attempting to take a panoramic picture of his two kids -- but the little boy, once his dad had moved the picture past them to get the canyon, ran to get into the other side of the panoramic photo. Carl wanted to try this, so we got to a place where there weren't other folks wanting to take pictures....

... and Carl found my twin!

At another point, I found Carl's twin!

It requires the photographer to take the panorama slowly, and to tell the subject when they are no longer in the picture. Then the subject has to run behind the photographer and get to the other side and pose before the camera gets to that point. Carl did a better job of posing -- with each "twin" pointing at the other.

If the subject stays in front of the camera while moving to the other side, weird stuff happens! (Carl was trying to appear 3 times)

The Rim Trail is paved and wide, with frequent places to walk out to an overlook and enjoy the view.

We had brought our lunch with us in the Jeep, and decided to eat at a picnic table by the parking area. I had just said that I was surprised that we had not seen any wildlife (other than birds flying above the canyon) when I noticed someone taking a picture near us... and I didn't think there was much scenic there, so I stood up to look...

... and there were two elk feeding (having *their* lunch!) just down from us.

They made their way over closer to our picnic table (we only got good pictures of one of them...) and it had a collar on -- I guess for tracking of some sort. Carl commented that they really have made great advances in animatronic technology... they really looked real!  ;-)

Over on the next row where RVs are parked, you may be able to see -- there are a number of Cruise America rental RVs in the lot.

After lunch, we decided to drive east along Desert View Drive -- we are thinking that when we leave this area, we'll drive out via that route -- so we wanted to check to see if it was RV-friendly. We were also interested in looking at a boondocking area out that way.

We drove most of the way east in the park, and then started visiting overlooks on our way back:

Eastern part of the park -- you may be able to see the Colorado River down there in the center.

Desert View Watchtower

At Desert View, they had a chart indicating distances that things were away -- even though clouds had moved in, we could see two mountains -- this one east of us -- about 70 miles away...

... this one to the west (I think Mt Trumbull) was 80+ miles away.

A view out from Desert View overlook

... and our selfie at Desert View Overlook.

On our way back to the campground, just outside the south entrance to Grand Canyon National Park, we stopped at the Kaibob National Forest Tusayan Ranger Station. We had read about picking up a Motor Vehicle Use Map (MVUM) from the Ranger Station to know what roads are okay for driving on and to help us know where we might find boondocking locations in the National Forest that is south of the National Park. The Ranger Station is closed to in-person assistance due to COVID, but a nice ranger came out and talked to us, gave us lots of information, including the MVUM for the Williams and Tusayan Ranger Districts of the Kaibab National Forest. He also shared with us that this Ranger Station has the largest community of permanent residents of any of the National Forest Ranger Stations other than one in Alaska (lots of houses in this area). We got a picture of masked Smokey the Bear at the entrance to the Ranger Station.

What a wonderful day -- the pictures of the Grand Canyon cannot begin to convey how beautiful it is. We heard so many different languages as we were walking around (at least German, French, and Spanish, in addition to English). People come from all over the world to see this wonder, and we just drove a couple hundred miles! We were thinking that it would not be so busy since (theoretically) school is still in session, and it isn't "prime" season yet (many of the campgrounds won't open until May 1, some not until May 15). But... people are anxious to get out and see things, and they are enjoying the beauty that God has given!