At 4:30am the alarm went off. I was surprised at how awake I was despite falling asleep only 4 hours ago. Sunrise was at 5:25 so we quickly put the pillows and comforter away and walked over to the bus stop. Behind where we were waiting was a viewing area of the canyon. It was my first glimpse of the Grand Canyon and “Wow” was my reaction. Earlier in our trip we saw several other canyons so I was able to compare and in terms of size this was astounding.
The bus didn’t show up until after 5 and the spot that was recommended to us was all the way at the end, an over 25min drive. Needless to say we didn’t quite make it to Hermit’s Rest but the area we ended up at was very nice anyway. We got to the end of the canyon walkway with only a couple minutes to spare. It was only the two of us there.
The buses were running every 30min at this time so we hopped on the next bus and traveled down a little further because we had to see what we missed out on by not getting to Hermit’s Rest in time. However, before we reached it, the bus driver recommended we check out another stop along the way. He said it was one of most scenic views of the canyon. It was nice but to be honest it was sort of the same, except at this location the river was visible. When we finally got the Hermit’s Rest neither of us could figure out why this employee would recommend this spot to us. It was more of the same but without the river.
We spent several hours at the Grand Canyon before heading off to Leah’s house. On the way we passed through Sedona and stopped at a few of the shops there. It was interesting seeing it right after the Grand Canyon as it was much smaller, but contained much more color. The rocks were bright red and flourishing green trees covered the cliff sides.
