Ella Visits the Grand Canyon

After a brief look at the canyon the evening before, we took the day to see many of its stunning views and learn about how it was all made.

The south rim of the canyon includes a paved walking path (the "Rim Trail") that runs for a number of miles along all the points and inlets at the top, and the park runs buses along the route. In the morning we started walking it with Ella snoozing peacefully attached to Jason.

The scale of the canyon was incredible, and it surprised Jason that it was pretty hard to see the Colorado River down at the bottom because of the width and all the side canyons. We noted a number of hiking trails crossing plateaus and zigzagging down to the bottom. We'll be back for those some years down the line!

Can you spot the hiking trail and the river?

In the afternoon some storms started rolling in on the other side of the canyon. While the sun still shone on us, we watched lightning strike the north rim, a really cool effect.

A while later, we took the bus to a point a couple miles from the main village. A few drops of rain started hitting us as a dark cloud moved in, and after a minute, downpour! There was no overhang there, so we were just stuck in the rain. We were able to cover Ella with the carrier and a blanket, but Kate and Jason got the full force. Despite staying mostly dry, Ella was having none of it, pretty inconsolable. A bus finally arrived after about 15 minutes, and though there was a line of about 20 people eager to get on out of the rain, a woman in front called to us to get the baby on first. What a nice thing to do!

The calm before the storm.

Eventually back at our RV, we loaded up and started back south.

Goodbye, Beautiful!