The Grand Canyon - Day 2

We were fortunate to be able to get settled into our room earlier enough to do some exploring the night before.  We saw some great views of the Grand Canyon.  So, on day nine, we were able to check out a little more of the Grand canyon and get a head start on our travel to Flagstaff.

I woke up earlier than the rest.  I decided to do a little walking around.  From the map, it looked like the rim of the canyon was just 0.4 miles behind our lodge.  There was a little trail behind the lodge that looked like it headed in that direction.  After we packed the van, we decided to head in that direction.  That really wasn't a good idea without a compass.  Once we got into the trees and brush out of view of our lodge, we realized there were several such paths criss-crossing all over.  We decided to head back in the direction we thought the lodge was in, but quickly found out we weren't sure which direction that was.  Kristi got out her phone to see if the GPS would give us any help.  We listened and heard vehicles.  We knew we would be okay if we got to where the vehicles were.  We ended up on the road that we had reached earlier, but didn't know where on the road. Adri saw a sign that gave us directions.  It was a little longer walk than we had planned, but it could have turned out worse.

We decided to just drive to a few spots along the rim and head out a little early.  We weren't going to do any hiking or excursions, and we had seen what we wanted to see in our short visit.  On the way out we were able to see some more elk.  There was a little group of them just laying beside the road.  There was a walking path right by them so I decided to pull over and see if I could get a little close.  I snapped a bunch of pictures and walked along with one who was eating weeds and walking along.  I got as close as I thought I should.   I wonder how close I could have actually gotten.  I felt like I could have stepped up and smacked the elk on the butt.  It was very cool to see the animals in the wild.

Our next stop was Flagstaff.  We picked this location because it so expensive to stay at the Grand Canyon.  That actually worked out well because we ended up leaving earlier than we that we would.

Actually, we could have gotten further down the road, but it was too late to cancel our reservation, and we had some trouble with our rental van.  We had no brake lights or turn signals.  We called Thrifty and after some back and forth on the phone, they decided to trade us vehicles in Flagstaff.  I had actually called them in Las Vegas, but there were no minivans at the airport there so we just just kept it.  They had an auto shop in Flagstaff with a Thrifty minivan they had just fixed.  So, we just hung out and the kids swam.  A laid back afternoon never hurts!