Today was the first day of fall. We didn’t feel it because of where we were but it’s a sad realization that summer is over, even though we’re on extended fun-employment vacation. We left at 8 am to drive an hour or so to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The plan was to do both the north and south rims in the same day, which are 3 hours apart, so we knew we couldn’t do everything in both parts, just the best of each.

We got to the North Rim visitor’s center around 9 am. A park ranger gave an informative overview of the park’s main features and advice for trips of different lengths. We hiked to Bright Angel Point, which was one of the only hikes accessible from the area near the visitor’s center. The half-mile roundtrip hike led us to a view of that section of the Grand Canyon more or less on a cliff. It was incredible. We then drove 45 minutes to hike to Angel’s Window and Cape Royal. More stunning views of one of the most impressive natural wonders of the world. The North Rim also surprised me because of the high saturation of wildlife and forests, which I didn’t expect because I only knew about the south rim.

From 12 to 3 pm we drove straight through the desert and mountains to the South Rim. We came across only a few towns, including Cliffdwellers, Arizona which had ENORMOUS rocks surrounding the town. We also passed a few Native American art stands. But for the most part the drive was uneventful.

We did as much as we could in the South Rim of the Grand Canyon from 3 – 5:30 pm. There were several shuttle loops, but because it was later in the day it was super crowded so we resorted to doing the views driving afforded us. We checked out Moran Point, Grandview, and Mather Point. This was the part of the Grand Canyon I expected. It all seemed fake because it was that beautiful. The first view left me speechless because the canyon was so deep and surrounded by miles more of the same scenery. We wish we could’ve done more at both sections, but we were satisfied with what we saw considering we did both sections in the same day and drove a ton. ALSO – we saw some muledeer on the drive into the park and an elk on the way out. Good karma, as always.

We left the park to head to Kingman, Arizona on Route 40 which put us 2 ½ hours closer to LA, which is our next stop on the road trip. Alex found a good hotel (Econolodge – Wekeela peeps know this is good times) for a good price, so we headed there for the night. We stopped at Denny’s for dinner – classy, we know. Our waitress, Kim, was super nice. Our food came out quickly and we devoured it because we hadn’t eaten much that day. Highlight – pancake puppies!! These little devils are pancake batter deep fried and smothered in cinnamon sugar. Big fans.

We got to our hotel around 9. We checked in and relaxed the rest of the evening in our queen beds in the air-conditioned room. We both showed and freshened up and watched the new episode of South Park on Alex’s tablet. I was asleep around midnight while Alex stayed up and watched TV a little longer. The drive to LA will only be 5 hours instead of 7 ½ tomorrow, so we’re planning on sleeping in until 10 am or so after several days of camping. Super excited for LA for the weekend to see so many good people, and we really enjoyed seeing 6 national parks in 4 days in 3 states.

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