The Grand Canyon

Our final stop was to the Grand Canyon. When we arrived, we had a little trouble finding a place to park. We ended up parking on the side of the road, where several other people had parked their cars. We had to walk through a little bit of woods to get to the rim of the Grand Canyon, but when we did, we snapped a picture.

It amazed us how much the Grand Canyon looked like the pictures, but the pictures don't really give you any idea how vastly large it is.

We knew the canyon was made by the Colorado River, but we had some trouble seeing it. Here's the picture of the very tiny piece we did see.

More scenic views from the rim.

More from the rim.

Jacob really wanted to go on a trail down into the Canyon, but we were not really prepared for such a trek. The map and newspaper they gave us at the entrance said that you need to make sure you have plenty of water and snacks for even a one hour trail, neither of which we had. They also warned that it could get up to 100+ degrees once you were down into the Canyon. Still, Jacob wanted to go. So we bought some liters of water and some snacks, and since we didn't have a backpack or bag to carry this stuff in, we bought a reuseable grocery bag, which Jacob carried on his shoulder...very woodmansy, huh? We didn't have too much time, since we still had to make it to Los Angeles that night, so we gave ourselves 1 hour to go down the trail and the approximately 2 hours to go back up.

Here's a picture from partially down in the canyon.

Jacob's dad requested that we get our picture taken by someone else, and when someone offered to do it, we couldn't pass it up. Christina's wearing jeans because it was much cooler at the top of the canyon, and she didn't realized that she was going to be hiking when she got there.

Another view from partially down the canyon.

This sign was kinda funny, so Christina wanted a picture of herself trying to mimic it.

There's a lodge on this cliff, but you can't see it very well in the picture. You can stay at that lodge if you plan on being at the Grand Canyon for several days. The ticket you buy at the gate is good for a week, so there must be a reason.

Jacob, king of the mountain, er, canyon.

This was a weird squirrel we found while hiking down. It was soooooo noisy. It was standing on its hind legs and making this cheeping sound over and over again. But it was still kinda cute.

This was about how far we got down the mountain before we had to turn around; we just didn't have enough time. Christina told Jacob we could come back and try again, this time with proper supplies. The trip back up wasn't too bad, and it didn't take us as long as we thought it would. It actually took less time to go up then to go down, but that was mostly because Christina was leading and she was ready to eat lunch. If you know her, you know you don't get in the way of her and her meals.

It was a good trip, but it would have been nice to not be so rushed. There was much more to see, but we just didn't have time. It's only a day's trip away from us now, so maybe we'll make it back there soon. We'll see.