A Grand Day

It’s a full day to explore the Grand Canyon! We started off with a Park Ranger led hike focused on fossils in the national park. Ranger Kevin led us around the South Rim and into a fossil field full of interesting rocks. We learned about the 60 million year old history of the Canyon and how where we were standing was under water long ago hence the many fossils of shells, coral, and small sea animals.

After our hike, we went to the Visitors Center to watch a movie and walk through the exhibits. Maggie also finished her Junior Ranger requirements and was duly sworn in as a Junior Ranger at her second national park - already having been sworn in at Carlsbad Caverns National Park last week.

After lunch we decided to escape the heat and try our National Park Yahtzee with game-loving Maggie. Even without using some of the game rules that she uses when playing Senator Lamont, Maggie thoroughly trounced both her parents.

We had lots of wildlife sightings today starting with Megan seeing a mommy chipmunk carrying babies in her mouth and ending with a mule deer eating dinner along the rim on our sunset tour.  In between we saw multiple elk - including one right outside the window of our lodge room - along with rock squirrels and lots of birds. We learned the most dangerous animal in the park is actually the rock squirrel which wasn’t a surprise since one was climbing under our feet as we were walking. They bite!

Late afternoon brought more hiking and visiting gift shops, one a historical landmark Hopi house, for the obligatory Grand Canyon tshirts and some postcards. Then we boarded a bus for our sunset tour of the Grand Canyon. It was truly amazing watching the sun set from multiple different overlooks around the South Rim. The pictures don’t do it justice.