Grand Canyon: Day 1 Sat Aug 28

Although we did make it to the South Rim on the first day, Sat Aug 28, it was at night and so too dark to see the Grand Canyon! Flying into Las Vegas, we did stop off at Hoover Dam, shown here, on the way. Can you tell how windy it was? 35-40 mph winds all day Sat-Mon, which ended up being a blessing as it cooled us off a little bit while hiking but more about this later.

Here we are at the Vegas airport. In this photo with me are Michelle from Chicago and Kristen from Alaska, our trip planner and leader. I didn’t know most of the people we traveled with; they used to be neighbors of Laura’s, a friend from my golf league. Don’t have any photos from the airplane but we got great views of the Canyon on the flight, as well as of Lake Mead. We were lucky: people from Alaska, Florida, Chicago, and Cincinnati all had smooth flights and met on time, as planned at the Las Vegas airport, where we picked up a rental van to drive to the Grand Canyon.

Six women in a van with backpacks loaded up for 7 days: it was a challenge packing this minivan and getting us all in, as you can see from this photo. For Patti, in the middle seat, this was her first camping trip ever! You would never have thought so: what a trooper and a good sport she was! In fact, everyone on this trip had great attitudes, were tolerant and kind, and there was very little tension, even in tight quarters, when we were tired or when things got tough. I was very fortunate to travel with this group.

It was about a 5 hour drive from Vegas to the Grand Canyon and my friend Laura drove most of the way. With the time change, we didn’t realize that the sun would set by 7 pm, so that it would be dark already when we arrived on the South Rim. On the way in, we did see these elk right next to the road.

Saturday night, we checked in at the historic Bright Angel Lodge and stayed in hotel rooms in the Thunderbird Lodge. Enjoyed a great dinner in the Arizona Room: steaks, Canyon Lemonade with vodka and prickly pear juice, etc. I could tell that I wasn’t the only one who was nervous about setting out the next day. But the night sky was beautiful, filled with stars, the desert air was clear and bracing, and I couldn’t wait to wake up the next morning to my first view of the Grand Canyon.