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| That's the Colorado River making the Grand Canyon deeper |
I am dispersed camping just outside the south entrance to
Grand Canyon National Park. With the “America The Beautiful Pass” I get in for
free! The camping is free!
Ten pounds of ice on the other hand is going to run
you $4.49 and if you like ramin noodles it would be worthwhile to bring some
with you or more money.
Bread is reasonable!
I was going to write about Las Vegas , dispersed camping ,
hot weather and cold water but I can’t.
The Grand Canyon IS bigger than life.
I arrived here, checked out the first camping area I came to
(FS 688, it was on the POI list I down loaded to my Garmin GPS) & saw
camping would not be a problem, it even had a toilet!
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| Toilet in the woods! |
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| FS 688 area |
Then I went to look at the Canyon. How many
times can you say “Wow!” in a day? It is bigger than life.
One of my first thoughts as I sat on a bench admiring it was
I wonder what the first person who was heading east (or west) thought. Coming
thru the trees, maybe following a deer or elk trail and then getting to the edge… Oh wow! That’s
going to take a bit of work to cross.
Driving down I-5 in southern Oregon, where you get to the
top of a pass and you can see 6 or more separate mountain ranges in front of
you would give you that same feeling if you were traveling on foot.
Today I went to the see the movie at the visitor’s center,
about 20 minutes and worth it.
Then I started walking the rim trail. It’s 17
miles long but there is a free shuttle bus so you can stop and get a ride back to
where you left your car. My only problem with that is they don’t allow dogs on
the bus & I have a dog… Today I walked from Mather Point to Bright Angle
Lodge, and back. A couple of miles maybe, each way. I plan to take it in chunks & see how much of it I can walk.
I have noticed that at times I am short of breath, we are
almost seven thousand feet high, I think it's the altitude … and I had an odd urge to go down to the
bottom of the canyon just to see what it looks like from down there.
Why is it odd? I KNOW that if I go down there I will have to
come back up, that’s a long walk back up!
My camping gear is not set up for that kind of trip (I’d
have to spend at least one night down there) and I have the dog. Dogs are not
allowed into the canyon. That’s a reason for another trip here.. like I need a
reason to go to the Grand Canyon!
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| Dinner |
The other thing here at the national park is the people, I heard so many different languages today! It's even better than Chicago!
As a side note to the dispersed camping on national forests…
At the ranger station in Tusayan (just outside the south
gate) you can pick up a free “Motor Vehicle Use Map” that shows you the forest
service roads. These are great maps & you can pick them up for whatever
national forest you are visiting, just watch for the local ranger station.
