Tuesday, May 17th – Navajo National Monument to Grand Canyon National Park – South Rim, Arizona – Day 96
I didn’t want to get out of bed. I was tired. The kids were out of the trailer first thing to wait patiently for the first signs of life from their friend’s campsite. They were eager to get playing. John was reserved and held back to hang with his parents. We got packed up. We spoke to Ron more about his upcoming plans. We got out later than normal but in fairness, it was a beautiful campground, and the kids had a blast running through the woods playing cops and robbers.
Gen was behind the wheel, and we were cruising for Tuba City, an hour south-west, to do a resupply and laundry. I was left with the laundry which I knocked out of the park. All three laptops were successfully plugged in to recharge. I spoke with this old Hopi woman who asked if I was passing through and where I was going. When I mentioned the Grand Canyon, she explained how her tribe is buried the day they die; three days later their soul rises from the ground, acknowledges each direction and heads to the Grand Canyon. The clouds are past spirits coming to bring the spirit home.
When finished we headed west to see the Navajo Moenave Dinosaur Tracks. There was a Navajo tour guide that led you through the prints. There were small prints everywhere on this previously muddy riverbank. You could see the prints of a Velociraptor running and slipping in the mud. There was a massive T-Rex footprint and an Allosaurus print, which is cool because John has a glow in the dark Allosaurus shirt. Also, plenty of fossilized dinosaur scat, plant fossils and dinosaur egg fossils. Gen and the kids also got to check out the jewelry on sale nearby.
The only problem was that it was so dry, with the heat and the wind, we went through all our water. We keep two 5-gallon bottles of water in the trailer then we have a one-gallon container in the car that we use for day use and all the water bottles (plus Gen’s water pack). We had water in the trailer but none in the car.
We stopped for gas in Cameron before heading into the Grand Canyon. We stopped to take some pictures before we entered the park. There is dispersed (free) camping in the forests at both entrances to the park. We decided to go to a 5-star camping spot near the South entrance. On the way to the spot, we saw the sunset at Desert View lookout, ate some dinner by the canyon and stopped at one more viewpoint.
It was crowded but there were lots of spots, so we ended up finding something just off a well-maintained dirt road.
The Grand Canyon is spectacular so far. We’ve seen two vantage points and it’s just so massive. I can’t get enough rock formations; the colourful layers of rock with the Colorado river cutting through the middle. We are debating going to the North side of the canyon. We had heard the North Side was closed, but a website check revealed it just opened. We could’ve just gone north, past the north rim, to head up to Utah. We decided it was worth visiting the south rim anyway.
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