Friday April 24, 2009
Today was our shortest planned drive (175 miles) so we got a little bit of a later start, 9am. Plus we went from Mountain Time to Pacific Time so we gained an hour anyways. The ride took us through the Painted Desert with pastel colored plains, mountains and plants. Windy again but very pretty. The road into the Grand Canyon changed landscapes from desert to forest to pine trees. I've (Kim) driven in from the south entrance before, but this entrance from the west seemed to have much better scenery. Our first views of the Grand Canyon were spectacular! Kevin said he now understands that phrase 'it looks like a painting'. We drove to a few pulloffs, watched humongous ravens for awhile and grabbed lunch. Then we settled into our hotel, unpacked, napped and went back later and walked along the rim. Afterwards, we got a drink & appetizers on the porch of a hotel overlooking the canyon and relaxed in the hot-tub.
Tomorrow we'll be back in the Grand Canyon, we plan to take the shuttle to some more stops and do some hiking. We're going to be camping tomorrow night, so we probably won't be able to post. We'll catch up on Sunday when we plan to be going through Flagstaff and into Sedona, AZ.
Today's driving time 3 hours 33 minutes and 178 miles.
Total driving time 29 hours 00 minutes and 1806 miles.