APR 19, 17 .. THE GRAND CANYON

This Post provides some details of the visit Patti and I made to the Grand Canyon, Arizona.

I am also putting up a three-part Post on bobbacaps.blogspot.com showing many photos of our visit.

However, since I am not able to show the Google maps on blogspot, I decided to publish this ‘primer’ or introduction to our visit to the canyon.

And oh-what-a-visit our two visits, encompassing two-days, to the canyon were.

Where is The Grand Canyon?

The Grand Canyon is located in the South Western United States in the State of Arizona.

Further, The Grand Canyon is located within the Grand Canyon National Park, located in the Northern part of the State of Arizona.

What is the Grand Canyon?  It is an absolutely magnificent canyon that was formed eons ago by the waters of the mighty Colorado River.

Do you want beauty? Here you have beauty!

Suggestion : For all, and even more than you will ever want-to-know about The Grand Canyon, please go to Google and Wikipedia. Your Good Captain is not able to do a Master’s Level Thesis about it here.

As you can see from the above highway sign, The Grand Canyon has two distinct sides or rims. In the area of the canyon, the Colorado River wanders and meanders downstream in a generally Western direction. Therefore it has a North and a South Rim. As you can see from the above sign, the North Rim (116-additional miles) is much farther away from Flagstaff than the South Rim.

Patti and I were debating which of the two rims to visit. Our answer was provided by a lady in the Flagstaff Arizona Visitor’s Center.

She told us that the North Rim is not even open to the public until the month of May because of the risk of snow blockages of the roads and other severe weather conditions.

If you are in Flagstaff Arizona, please DO NOT MISS visiting this center.

A phenomenal Visitor’s Center.

Flagstaff Arizona, South of the Grand Canyon, and how it looked in April 2017.

IF Flagstaff looked like the above photos, you would not want to be trying to get into the North Rim of Grand Canyon.

So Patti and I visited ONLY the South Rim of the canyon.

How does one get to The Grand Canyon?

I will not be able to discuss all of the many ways one can get to The Grand Canyon. My son Robb would undoubtedly ride his bicycle to the canyon. My other son David might-very-well hike in on foot. You might hire an airplane and a taxi.

Patti and I drove our truck to the canyon.

There are several, actually there are many, if you will, jumping-off-locations, from where to begin your journey to the canyon.

Three of the most common jumping-off-locations I show below.

Flagstaff Arizona (the right red balloon) and Williams Arizona (the left red balloon).

A photo from our Road Atlas.

Patti and I ‘home-based’ in Flagstaff.

Believe this or not, and it really surprised me when Patti and I learned that this, the third location that many people use as a jumping-off-point to visit the canyon, is Las Vegas Nevada.

I will now show which of the three routes Patti and I used to visit the canyon. Rule out Las Vegas because we stayed in Flagstaff.

From Flagstaff, where we stayed, one has two routes to take.

Go North out of Flagstaff on either Highway 180 (left red balloon) a 74-mile drive or Highway 89 to Cameron and then West on Highway 64 (top center and right red balloons) an 82-mile drive into the park.

Our lady in the Flagstaff Visitor’s Center did us an enormous favor when she suggested that we take the Highway 89 and 64 route.

This drive, especially the highway 64 section, was gorgeous.

Going the highway 89 / 64 route, we then entered the East end of the canyon’s South Rim at the canyon’s famous Desert View Watchtower.

Which meant we immediately, first and foremost, began to see scenery.

IF, when we went North to see the canyon, we had taken the Highway 180 route out of Flagstaff, we would have entered the canyon at the very busy Canyon Visitor’s Center Complex at the West end of the South Rim, a very busy and confusing mish-mash of tourist activities and crowds of visitors.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not ‘knocking’, I am not ‘putting-down’, the mish-mash of activity around the Visitor’s Center!

In the final analysis, I am so happy that Patti and I saw, first and foremost, right-up-front, the beauty of the canyon. Then, tired and ready for a break-in-the-action, then, and only then, did we get involved in, what I call the mish-mash, of the Visitor’s Center and environs.

Much Joy, Patti now in Anchorage Alaska, and Cap now in Albuquerque New Mexico.

• ← APR 15, 17 .. TO YOU IT MAY BE INCOME TAX DAY
• APR 21, 17 .. WHITE SANDS NATIONAL MONUMENT AND DRAMA TOO →