After we arrived in Loma Linda it took about a week to get internet access, and the house is finally in enough of an orderly state that I feel okay about taking time to sort through and upload pictures. The Grand Canyon is pretty spectacular. Of course, everybody knows that, and we’ve all seen pictures, but then there’s actually being there, standing on the railing-free rim and peering into the vastness—that’s breathtaking.
It was actually raining that day, but we picked up some gear (including a lovely purple raincoat) at the Wal-Mart in Flagstaff (where I also found out about Prism, the latest mouthwatering flavor of 5 gum, watermelon) and drove out anyway. The canyon was filled with dense fog, and we were high enough up that it could just kind of float over the edge and into our faces. As the day wore on, though, it began to clear up, and wow. Watching the clouds part to reveal the geological majesty felt like discovering it for the first time.
Amusingly, most of the tourists there were international. It kind of made us feel bad, actually. Here are these people traveling thousands of miles to see this, and we’ve been living in the US all our lives and we only just got around to it.
I guess they don’t read Ranger Rick outside of the US, because the squirrels had been fed so much they were practically tame. When we were taking pictures of ourselves on the stone wall a few hopped up looking for snacks. We got a few pictures of us tempting them to bite us, but once they realized we weren’t holding anything, they abandoned us.
Interestingly, the soda machines had pictures of the Grand Canyon on them, despite vending official Coke products. The souvenirs weren’t terribly great, so we left it at the pictures we took. Despite all the fog and threats of significant rain, it didn’t really rain while we were there. We ended up returning all the gear (including the jacket) to Wal-Mart on the way home. Go us!
