Grand Canyon

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!   

Toilet in the woods!

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!

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.