August 7: South Rim, Grand Canyon

We got up about 4:45 AM in order to catch another sunrise. We went to Yavapai Point this time and enjoyed the fantastic spectacle again. One impressive thing about it was the fact that probably a dozen languages were being spoken around us - a truly international gathering. A fellow wanted some advice about picture taking and he asked me after asking three people who couldn't speak English.

Returning to the campground we renewed the campsite and drove out on th East Rim again for breakfast. We returned to the campsite for me to shave and to organize the camper.

About 9 AM Jeff and I headed down the Bright Angel Trail. It was an easier trail than the Kaibab and we went down it pretty fast, doing 3 miles in about an hour. The top of the trail was quite smelly since it is the main mule trail. There was an abundance of "reprocessed grass" and "reprocessed rainwater" on the trail. One group of mules started behind us and there were about three groups ahead of us.

The views were spectacular and I enjoyed that experience with Jeff. At the 3-mile point he fed some very tame squirrels and we had our snack overlooking the trail to Plateau Point. We had descended from 6860 to 3870 feet.

After our snack we made the return hike in about 1 hr 25 min, or a total time of about 3 hours for the 6 mile hike.

Mark watched one group of the mules leave and then he and Brenda rode the Village Loop bus to he visitor center . After poking around there they walked the rim trail about a mile and ahalf to the El Tovar Hotel, the old original hotel built in about 1905 with big fireplace, mooseheads and the works.

They waited for us a short way down on the trail and we went to the plaza on the rim behind the rim shops. Mark and I had fun trying to take pictures of the squirrels and chipmunks. He is showing quite a bit of interest in nature photography and seemed to handle the camera well.

The plaza was extremely crowded on Saturday with everthing from grubby backpackers to international jetsetters. The jetsetters had the edge though - there were more people speaking other tongues than English.

The boys and I rode the West Rim Shutle out to Hopi Point to get some pictures of the Colorado River in the Canyon. Mark spotted several boats on the river far below and we watched them with binoculars. Walking to Mohave Point we gots lots of good views and Mark enjoyed trying some closeup pictures with the 100mm lens.

Rain clouds were moving in again so we rode the shuttle back from Mohave Point. We met Brenda at the Camper Service area where she had been working hard washing clothes and cleaning up the van. We went to the campgtround where she cooked a nice dinner with steaks on the camp stove.

We had more than two full days at the south rim and felt like we had gotten a good view of the Grand Canyon.