We weren’t going to hike down into the Canyon, so we decided to take a sunset tour. The views were spectacular and romantic.
We awoke wondering what the day would bring. We knew we wanted to take in an IMAX movie of the Grand Canyon and so after eating breakfast, we walked to the Visitor Center where the movie was playing. It was fascinating history of the first nation people who inhabited this area in primitive times up to the first running of the river by John Wesley Powell. The views were breathtaking, and the rapids those first navigators of the Colorado river endured were treacherous indeed. They are huge rapids, which today are managed by large rafts plunging through the waves, the riders holding on for dear life. That was something I always thought I would like to do, but that will be another time. Trips through the canyon can last up to two weeks.
Since we were not going to raft the canyon, we looked for another way to tour this grand spectacle of nature. We decided on a Pink Jeep tour that ended at sunset. We had to be back to the Visitor Center at 4:25. Now here is one of the weird things about Arizona; it is not on daylight savings time, so everything here is an hour later. Good thing my phone showed the updated time; we were nearly late hurrying to the Visitor Center in record time. Soon after we arrived, Becky, me, and four other people boarded the jeep and started towards the Grand Canyon. Other than his political views, the guide was an interesting and informative man who had hiked all over and into the Grand Canyon. He took us to places where we could see a glimpse of the Colorado River winding its way through the Canyon. While it looked rather small (about a quarter inch across), the guide told us that it was 300 feet across at that point. It was a good tour and, in several places, our guide took everyone’s picture standing in front of the canyon rim…except us. We stood further away from the edge than other folks did. I just do not like heights. When we finally came to the place to watch the sunset, there were not very many other people there. I probably could have gotten better pictures had I wanted sit on the edge, but I didn’t. Oh well, the sunset was beautiful, and we all enjoyed sitting there in the quiet watching the evening sun fill the canyon with beautiful hues of blue, orange and red. It was a magical moment.
When we returned to our room, we were hungry and wanted to find a place to eat. It was 8 pm. And we discovered to our dismay that many places closed at 8 and the Mexican food place we ate the night before was taking only cash; their computers had gone down. So searching the Internet, we found a nice restaurant at a Great Western Motel. Sounds easy, we thought, let’s eat there. The signage for the hotel was horrible and we drove around the hotel two or three times before we figured out where it was, but having found it, we enjoyed an excellent dinner. Becky had chicken and I had prime rib. The waiter was a very engaging man who had lived a rather nomadic life moving from one area to the next. He was a fascinating man who told us about Sedona, a name we had heard often from other tourists and so we decided that would be our destination for the next day. We returned to our room and got ready for bed. We needed rest so we could go to Sedona on Day 7.