4th – 8th Jan
My 47th birthday began with another deep bath and a bagel ( consecutively not concurrently). We checked out of the hotel and retrieved Big Dave and Tin Can from the carpark. After a brief refuelling stop we were on the road again. Destination: The Grand Canyon. Lots of other National Parks might be closed, but not this jewel. It was being kept fully open, snow and all, having being funded by Arizona State Government. The state’s strap line is ‘ The Grand Canyon State’, so there was a bit of political pressure to keep the tourists rolling in. Good for us. There has been a significant snowfall over the Canyon area with the same weather system that had given us our Moab snow, and the quickest route between Tuba City and Grand Canyon Village had been shut for days. We were hoping that it was going to be open as the long way round was going to add another 100 miles to our journey. It was, open. Two hours saved. The road steadily climbed up to the plateau and the edge of the Canyon, which is at 7,000ft. There were snow piles, but the sun was shining and it wasn’t cold. The funny thing about the Grand Canyon is that despite its enormity, you can’t see it until you have actually arrived. There is no distant peak to slowly approach, no ocean horizon teaser. It hides from view, ready to jump out at you and smack you square in the face with its massiveness. We stopped at the first lookout, parked up and followed the signs, and steady stream of fellow pilgrims to the rim. And there suddenly it was. A truly gigantic, complex, colourful scar carved deep into the earth. Photographs and words cannot really do it any justice. It is a place of superlatives and the descriptor ‘Grand’ seems a bit of an understatement.
We headed up to Grand Canyon Village, which sits within the National Park on the South rim. At this time of year the North rim is closed. The RV park was about half a mile from the Yavapai Lodge and a very well stocked General Store & Deli, and it was only another half mile walk on to the rim. A very handy location. The afternoon remained beautiful and sunny, and we headed off to catch sunset at the Canyon’s edge. There is a good path along the rim that was mostly clear, but a bit icy in parts. We joined the steady slow stream of perambulators gingerly negotiating the trail, stopping for numerous photos and successfully managing not to slip and plummet to our certain deaths. It obviously wasn’t that dangerous, but the mind starts to play tricks on you when you are stood 6 foot away from a 3000ft sheer cliff face. As darkness fell we made our way back to the pub in the Lodge, had a few birthday beers and a burger each before returning to TC and bed. I was still feeling a bit under the weather with my cold, but all in all, it was a pretty cool destination for a birthday.
It was another cold night given the lack of cloud cover, but nowhere near as cold as it had been in Moab. We got up and had brunch, then set off on the day’s adventure. We took the free shuttle bus from the RV park to the Visitors Centre, a few miles East, then walked West along the rim trail, past the melée of the lodges, shops and restaurants of the Village area and out along the quieter trail beyond. It was lovely and deserted, with only a few others on the trail, including a small herd of deer.
We walked for about 10 miles in total, turning around at Powell Point, named for the adventurous soul who first explored this section of the Canyon by boat along the Colorado River. We headed home, picking up the shuttle bus back to the RV park.
Snow was forecast to fall overnight, and it certainly did. We awoke to 8 inches of the white stuff, and it was still falling. We thought that 3-4 ” in Moab had been a lot! I started the day in my ski gear back on the roof of TC to clear the snow that was weighing down the awnings that cover the slide outs. Our neighbours tried to leave, towing a big 5th wheel trailer, and managed to lose traction and wedge it under a large overhanging tree branch. By the time the tow truck had been dispatched and had managed to pull them out it was midday, and they still had a 10 hour drive home to Denver. I was glad we had no plans to go anywhere for a few days. We walked up to the Lodge to get some wifi, then on to the Deli for lunch. Once back at camp we did the only thing that you can do on a snowy day that doesn’t involve planks and a hill, we built another snowman, or should I say, snow-woman. She was quite a hit with the small population left at the park and had her photo taken by many.
I imagine that the Grand Canyon is either frantically busy or fairly busy, but there can be nothing like a winter snowstorm to create that rare beast: the nearly deserted Grand Canyon. The staff worked hard to keep the roads and paths clear, whoever was paying them, but we nearly had it to ourselves for the next 24 hours. The next day, having spent another hour on the roof clearing off all the snow and ice, we took the bus to the most Easterly bus stop on the rim trail, and walked home, about 5 miles of quiet, snowy, private walking path. It was delightful. The view was not quite as impressive, however, as the Canyon was a foggy white-out.
We had another pub dinner and the next day, having found a man with a Bobcat to clear the snow from in front of Big D, we rolled away from the Biggest, the Best, the Deepest, the Widest, the most Grandest of Canyons. Adieu.