Vacation - the Grand Canyon Edition

When the family finished up in Vegas (after spending a whopping $1 each in the slot machines) we headed toward the real destination - the Grand Canyon.  Like the Griswold's before us, we stopped at Hoover Dam along the way. 

 

 

We had gotten a late start, so we arrive after the last dam tour had started.  Parking in the dam garage, we walked on top to get some dam pictures.  In the photo above, you'll see the dam bypass.  We opted out of the dam visitor's center - figuring it wasn't worth the dam $8 per person...wait - that didn't work did it?

After all the picture taking, stopping for an authentic A&W root beer, and letting the old people kids have potty breaks, we didn't check into our hotel until late that evening.  The next morning, we visited one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. 

 

Its hard to take in the vastness of the canyon in person, even more so in pictures.  Since neither my mother nor my father are back to 100% after their knee surgeries, we toured most of the park by car.  We hit a couple of small walks, giving our butt bones a break from all that sitting. 

OHSA (as we lovingly refer to my dad) was a bit nervous about how close to the edge Jay & I got, but we kept safety in mind as we took all of our pictures.  Most were only made to look like we were too close to the edge.

 

Day 2 in the canyon, Jay and I got up early to hike to Skeleton Point.  A 6 mile hike round trip certainly wasn't the most difficult trail we've ever done, but in the time we had allowed for the maximum view.

 

 

While the rest of the crew slept in and packed up to move on, Jay and I enjoyed the view of the Colorado River below.  Its a wide river, who's powerful currently is thought to have made the canyon, but looks tiny in the picture below.  That's how far away it still is, after hiking down for an elevation loss of almost 3,000 feet.

 

Jay and I would have loved to hike all the way down to the river, but our schedule just didn't allow for it.  We are definitely planning on going back, just the 2 of us, so we can take in more of the canyon on foot.

Sneak Peak of What's to Come: Skywire, Utah, & more red rocks