20 June 2010

So Long, Farewell - Day 4 @ GC


Thursday morning at the canyon opened with a beautiful blanket of snow, and very cold temps. As we are accustomed to EST we tried to stick closer to it while in the west: we retired early and woke early everyday. This morning I took a quick jaunt down to the edge of the canyon to attempt to see the sunrise. Apparently I wasn't the only one up either...





After a wonderful breakfast we started our slow departure from the Grand Canyon. Because of the cold temperatures we departed down the road that runs along the edge of the Canyon. All morning as we traveled we were able to catch glimpses of the canyon on our left. One of our stops was at a Tusayan ruin. We both love history and thoroughly enjoyed looking at the foundations of a few small buildings and evidence that 20-30 people farmed, hunted, and lived along the edge of a supernatural masterpiece.



Our last stop at the Canyon was at the Desert View Watchtower. The watchtower was built about 110 years ago and was made to replicate an indian watchtower in construction and in art. It was quite an interesting structure, but honestly, as a replication it really is more of a tourist attraction than history. The art in the tower was done by a Native American which makes, to me, the drawings and art more interesting than the structure itself.



After our super long drive, in which we saw many old volcanic mountains along the edge of the Colorado Plateau, and many cacti, we ended our day in Phoenix. That evening we were able to get to know the city's layout very well as we traveled from the wonderful Ansel Adams' display at the art museum to Ikea to our hotel for an early evening in preparation for a very early morning flight home.



1 comment:

Mishayla Denny said...

Nice pictures.