Tell me about your trip. How long were you there? Where did you stay? What did you do?
Well, we lived in Tucson for a while. One day we were out and about and decided on a whim to head up to the Grand Canyon.
It was October. In Tucson, that means it was somewhere between 90 and 100 outside, and we were looking for a lunchtime picnic area in the Catalina Mountains, so the family was dressed in shorts and tanktops. The Grand Canyon came up in passing conversation, and I said, "Wanna go?". She said yes, and we turned the jeep around and drove across town and hopped on Rt 10 headed north.
6 hours later, we're in Flagstaff.... where there was snow on the ground and it was about 30 degrees outside. We continued up Rt 89 for a while and somewhere between Flagstaff and the Canyon we found a Day's Inn (The name Lee's Ferry seems to be ringing a bell in my head, but I'm not totally sure). So, snow on the ground and dressed for the beach, I ran inside the hotel and turned the heat on, while my wife and kids waited in the car for the room to become inhabitable. Eventually we got the kids nestled in, and I went off to buy clothes and jackets for everyone.
The next morning, we hopped back on 89 and drove north till the road ended. We started hiking northward and the density of people told us we were headed in the right direction. I remember clearing a bunch of trees and there it was.
Majestic as ####!
I stopped and just stared at it for a few minutes. My oldest (5 at the time) was the only one of the kids who had any idea what was happening. I had as close to a religious experience as I've ever had. My wife, as I mentioned before, was unimpressed. "It's nice" she said.
In my opinion, saying "It's nice" about the Grand Canyon was like telling someone standing in the path of a tsunami that they fixin ta get "damp".
There's a glass outcropping somewhere along the canyon now. It didn't exist when we were there, and honestly I have no idea how far away we were from it's eventual site. The place we landed was very undeveloped. Very wilderness-y, and I am very glad of that. And, of course, my oldest kept screaming to hear his echo.
After he heard me do it first.
We stayed until lunchtime or so, then found a restaurant and visited a couple shops then headed on home. I was going to suggest we go by Winston and visit the Crater hole, but I couldn't imagine that would have been received any better than the canyon.