Grand Canyon & Angie's Family Visit

It has been one week since Daniel and I returned from our trip to the Grand Canyon with my mom and sister. We picked them up from the airport on Friday, Dec. 16^th and drove straight to the south rim of Grand Canyon, arriving around 9pm that night. We stayed in one of the lodges in Grand Canyon Village, which was a great experience in and of itself since we were so close to the rim at all times. Despite the cold, it was a beautiful, snowy weekend to spend at the canyon. Even though only a few flurries fell while we were there, it had snowed heavily before our arrival so that the ground was white and sparkling. Unfortunately, this also meant that we couldn’t hike down into the canyon because the trails were covered in ice. However, we made up for that inconvenience in museums, animal sightings, beautiful overlooks, and wandering the Rim Trail!

On Saturday, our first morning there, we woke up bright and early to walk out to the rim and view the sunrise. As an official Grand Canyon artist said, with every change in light, the colors of Grand Canyon change too. It was amazing to see different crevices naturally light up while others fell into shadow, as well as to see the rock transition from a deep and seductive red to a light, playful pink. Aside from the beautiful colors, we also got to see some stunning animals. Our first sighting had actually happened the night before when my sister thought she saw a giant rabbit (it was actually a mule deer and they just have really big ears), but the most exciting one came after the sunrise viewing. We hopped in the car to drive around and see what trails we might be interested in trekking down (before we were cautioned not to by a park employee) but before we really got to any, Daniel saw something moving in the woods by the road. We stopped the car and got out to take a look, at first thinking it might just be more mule deer. When we walked a little closer and saw the female stand up, though, we realized it must be an elk considering how incredibly tall she was! As we got even closer, we counted about five more elk either just napping or eating little clumps of grass here and there. We were impressed with how big they were and surprised with how unconcerned they were with us approaching them. We made sure to take lots of pictures before we finally decided to get back on the road. 

The Grand Canyon at Sunrise.

Our first animal sighting, mule deer, aka "giant rabbits."

Hanging out with some giant elk... and yes, Daniel really did get that close.

The rest of the afternoon was spent going to various historic sites and walking a few miles of the Rim Trail, stopping at all of the beautiful overlooks and admiring one of the world’s most amazing natural wonders.  We stopped at one overlook and admired the sunset before heading back for dinner and a game of cards. While we were driving back to the lodge, we saw a coyote loping through the woods and smiled at our luck with animal sightings.  Our first day at the Grand Canyon was definitely a success!

The next morning we woke up early again to catch the sunrise. It seemed silly to be at Grand Canyon and not watch it! We said hello to some mule deer that were wandering around outside the lodge and drove to a beautiful overlook to watch all the different colors of the morning sky. On our return we had breakfast in a lodge restaurant with an immediate view of the Grand Canyon rim. It was probably my favorite meal spot of the whole trip!  After breakfast we drove all the way out to Desert View Watchtower and watched as clouds floated beneath us, moving across the canyon. We also went to the Tusayan Ruins and Museum, which is an exhibit that discusses the Native Americans who called Grand Canyon home and is also the site of the ruins of a small Pueblo village. When we arrived back at Grand Canyon Village, we decided to check out the geology museum at Yavapai overlook in order to try and understand the forming of Grand Canyon a little bit better. Adding to the awesome luck we had been having all weekend, we arrived just in time for a Park Ranger lecture on the geological history of the canyon. It was incredibly interesting and while I won’t attempt to retell his entire scientific story, I will relay to you that one river can certainly pack a lot of punch! While our last day came to a close and we were sad that it was over, we were all happy that we had a good time and that we were able to spend a weekend together.

Replica of Grand Canyon's different rock layers.

Beautiful Grand Canyon under cloudy skies.

On Monday, we made the long drive back to Albuquerque where we sadly dropped off my mom and sister at the airport to catch their flight back to Virginia. We will miss them very much but are certainly glad that they came to see us and incredibly thankful that they took us with them for a wonderful visit to Grand Canyon.

Angie, Daniel, Becca, and Sheri in front of Grand Canyon.