This morning, I woke up at 4:45am, because strangely, the
sun was coming up and it was light in the trailer. I had slept on the couch bed
because I was having trouble sleeping due to altitude sickness and Justin was
not feeling well either, but fell asleep quick, so I made up a quick couch bed
for the night. I was not ready to wake up, but I was super stiff from sleeping
on the couch bed, so I went and crawled back in bed with Justin until 6:45 or
so, when Lauren woke us up.
I decided that we needed to get a move on it, so we got
ready and drove over to the Maswik Lodge and parked there. The Visitor Center, El
Tovar Lodge and the Bright Angel Lodge parking lots were super small and full,
so I was nervous that we would not find a parking spot. Our original plan was
to bike downhill on Hermit's Rest Road, stopping at all the look out points and
then riding the shuttle back to the starting point, but after the altitude
sickness and not-so-sure-we-can-take-the-trailabike-on-the-shuttle situation
yesterday, we decided to just ride the shuttle both ways and I am glad we did.
We took the shuttle directly to Hermit's Rest and then got
off. We didn’t really want to get off the shuttle and lose our seats. When we
got off, we noticed a Park Ranger gathering some people up for an interpretive
hike, so we decided to join him for part of the distance. Lauren LOVED the
hike, but we were not in our hiking shoes, so we made her stay back with us
(kids got to walk up front with the ranger) because we did not want her
falling. The terrain was rocky, steep and filled with loose gravel. We decided
to turn around after we stopped and looked at all the different fossils in the
rock. Our ranger was kind enough to sign off on Lauren’s Junior Ranger Activity
requirement, so we checked that off the list.
We stopped at the little gift shop that was in a building
that Mary Coulter designed. I found a Hermit's Rest ornament that I just loved
(but was $20, eeks!), so I bought two of those, one for me, one for Lauren and
bought two postcards….one to stamp with the Hermits Rest stamp and the other to
stamp with the Park’s official Passport date stamp. {As a side note: The
National Parks have this passport book that they sell. Its really weird and not
laid out that well, so I decided to not buy one for Lauren and instead, at each
National Park, we buy a postcard and stamp the back of it instead.}
Next, we hopped back on the shuttle and headed towards the
Lodge and El Tovar. We walked along the Rim Trail, and stopped at Artist Cabin and also the Bright Angel Lodge Gift Shop. Before making our way to the EL
Tovar Dining Room for lunch. They had a water main burst, so the entire
National Park was on water rationing…so the fancy lunch at the Lodge that we
planned on was served on paper plates and plastic cups and
utensils…unfortunately, prices were still at their fancy premium price. The
food was alright, but definitely not worth the almost $50 price tag. One
burger, one side salad, two drinks, a kid’s hot dog and a bowl of soup is what
we ordered.
We sat out on the porch swings of El Tovar for about 15
minutes…Lauren danced to a live “Indian-type” band that was playing in the
lobby before we headed over to the Adobe House.
Hopi House turned out to be a gift shop and not a museum like I thought it was…so we left fairly quickly. We went to Verkamp's Visitor Center Next and read all of the information there. It highlighted the “tourism expansion and development” of the Grand Canyon. Lauren was able to read a lot of the informational signs (thank you Mrs. Higgin's kindergarten reading program!!) Lauren had her camera with her, so she took lots of pictures, too.
We took the shuttle two stops back to where we started today
and then walked to the truck. Our plan was to go back to the trailer for a
while and relax (while Lauren did her Junior Ranger book because the Visitor
Center closes at 5pm and we needed to get that handled ASAP)…but en route, we
changed our plans and decided to see if we could find parking at the market.
Lauren needed some sort of crayon, colored pencil, etc. to complete her
booklet, and we knew the General Store would be the best place to find that.
Justin found a small pack of Crayolas for 89 cents and I found official Junior
Ranger twist up crayons for $6. We bought both and a Minute Maid Strawberry
Lemonade frozen cup and grabbed a table in the little restaurant area of the General
Store to allow Lauren to work on her book before we took the shuttle over to
the Visitor Center to get her badge. (We also bought a souvenir cup, since
there was a refillable fountain drink station right there. They had red
Gatorade, so we filled our camelback bladders too.)
We then walked over to the bus stop to catch a ride to the
Visitor Center…but as luck would have it, the shuttles were super full and we
would have likely had to wait 30+ minutes to get a standing room spot. We
decided to just get in the truck and drive to the Visitor Center…hoping there
would be a parking spot open.
We got lucky and found a spot, so we parked and walked to
the Visitor Center. Lauren got sworn in as an official Junior Ranger. We then
rallied, despite our pure exhaustion to watch a movie about the Grand Canyon.
It was cool and we learned a lot. Then we checked out the Visitor Center
displays and Justin and Lauren watched a digital presentation on a 3D globe
about the Grand Canyon while I went to the Bookstore to see If there was
anything we “needed” before calling it good at the Grand Canyon.
We got in the truck and headed back to camp around 4pm.
Justin wrapped up the fresh water tank line and I cleaned inside the trailer a
bit. Lauren read books and had a snack outside in her camp chair. Around 5:30pm
we headed outside the park to get fuel in the truck and take our traditional
family photo at the sign.
We returned a little before 7pm and Lauren and I got in the
shower while Justin worked on the gearing on one of the bikes. He happened to
notice water rapidly leaking in to our under compartment storage bay…right
where the shower wall is…great! We are thinking this is just a simple caulking
repair…hopefully. He flipped on the gas hot water heater for me, so I could take
a longer shower and then a few moments later went outside for an unknown
reason…but it was really a blessing that he went out there because he walked
past the hot water heater and smelled propane. He peeked inside the unit and
saw what he thought was a pilot light, then reached for the lever to open the
unit and it was burning hot! He grabbed a towel and opened the unit to discover
that the unit had caught on fire! Wires and switches were melted and the
interior of the unit was charred and ashy.
He got the unit “safe and stable” and then rushed inside to
take a shower before the hot water in the unit got cold. After his shower, he
went back out and worked on the unit for a while and I fed Lauren some premade
tuna and crackers and got her in bed.
While Justin finished stabilizing the unit, so we do not have
a fire on the drive to Mesa Verde in the morning, I typed out this update. He
is now outside packing up our sewer and cable TV lines, so we can leave quicker
in the morning. We are headed to Mesa Verde RV Park at 6am…pending everything
going smoothly.
Miles Driven: Less than 15
Campground: Trailer Village RV Park inside Grand Canyon National Park {Full Hookups & Pull through}
Site #: F35
Nightly Rate: $36
Highlight: Hiking at Hermit's Rest
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