Life with the Shirley Family

Life with the Shirley Family

Sunday, June 9, 2024

The beginning of an EPIC trip!

After almost two years in the planning, my sister, niece and I met in Phoenix for our epic adventure.  We were planning on hiking Rim to Rim across the Grand Canyon.  This means we would start at either the north or south rim and hike to the bottom of the canyon and then hike out and up to the other rim.  It is around 20ish miles.  

But first we had to fly into Phoenix!  Jennifer and Ashton arrived in Phoenix about 2 hours ahead of me, so they got the rental car, did some grocery shopping, and picked me up.  We were all super excited to begin our adventure.  And our first stop was In and Out Burger.

Finding tortilla shells at the grocery store!









After our first Arizona meal, we hit the road.  It is always fun to drive in new places and see different scenery.  The cactuses were cool and new to us!








When we entered the Grand Canyon National Park, the canyon was not visible right away.  But we did see some elk!








We checked into the Yavapai Lodge which was very near the visitors center and Mather's Point.  We headed there for Jenn and Ashton's first view of the canyon!  Although I had seen it before, the wow factor was still there for me as well!  










After marveling at the grandness of the canyon, we headed to dinner at El Tovar.  El Tovar was built as a grand hotel in 1905 and it is still in use.  Our dinners were all amazing!  And we would later know that it was our best meal of our trip!  Jennifer and I both got the scallops and Ashton got pasta with elk meat sauce.  We cleaned our plates!

The elk outside the restaurant...seen right before Ashton had an elk dinner!












It had been a great first day!  But we were tired, so we headed back to the hotel to get some rest.  The hotel itself was old, but clean, and the beds were very comfortable!  The next day we would explore the South Rm and look across to the North and wonder how in the world we were going to get across it!


No comments:

Post a Comment