Day 41: Grand Canyon National Park to Heber, UT

I took a good look at my finances this morning and decided it would be best if I didn’t dily daly on my way back to Ohio. I’m by no means running out of money, but I feel that taking extra days of indulgence would be irresponsible at this point. That being said, there are still a lot of miles between me and home, and I have no intention of blowing by all the interesting things that may be along those miles. My sight seeing will just have to be on fast forward.

With this new m.o. in hand, I headed out from the South Rim today and headed towards the North Rim. The trip from rim to rim by car entails a 200+ miles drive along routes 64 and 89 and through the Navajo reservation.

I started my day in a turnout just inside the reservation:

Day 40: Grand Canyon South Rim

In case you weren’t aware, it’s not necessarily a good idea to switch instantly from very rarely ever hiking to hiking for hours on end every day for a week. I’ve become intimately aware of this over the last few days. That troublesome blister on my left pinky toe became a bit more troublesome, and now it’s got friends. My feet kind of look like an ill prepared mystery meat. Think carney food. I’m not in dire straights or anything, in fact I did go on another hike today. I’ve just put myself on restricted duty. For the time being, it’s more about the two hour hikes than the twelve hour hikes. It’s frustrating, being hamstrung by something so silly as a few blisters. The rest of me is doing just fine. But of course, silly blisters have a way of turning into not so silly infections if you don’t pay them appropriate head, so I’ll just have to deal with it.

Really though, this is probably a good thing, as I could easily wander around this part of the country for weeks on end. Nothing puts an end to wandering like the inability to walk. While loosing weeks to the southwest might do wonders for my photography portfolio, it wouldn’t be as kind to my bank account.

Anyway, to the matter at hand: More Canyon Shenanigans!

Today, I headed down the Grandview Trail

Day 39: From Boulder City, NV to the Grand Canyon

I made it to the Grand Canyon today. First though, there were a few distraction along the road. First up is Hoover Dam. I hadn’t intended to visit this particular feet of engineering, but it was sort of on the way. The road doesn’t just go by it, it is the road.

It was a little early for good photos of the dam itself, so this is all you get.