Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
In the morning, we woke at 5.00 and got sorted before checking out and putting our stuff in to storage. Couldn't believe it when we saw a guy sitting at a slot machine with a beer in hand but fast asleep!! We then popped over to McDonalds for coffee and juice before going to Circus Circus to wait for the coach. After picking us and everybody else up, we changed driver and then Wally got us underway. We went to the Hoover Dam first, having our packed breakfast of banana and cinnamon roll on the way. It was pretty cool, even if the place we parked didn't give us the best view, but we still got some good pictures. We then headed off again, grabbing a coffee on the way as it was a long old journey. We didn’t get to the Grand Canyon until 12.00 so we had our packed lunch and then started off at Mather Point where we got our first view of the Canyon. It was huge!! And it was really different to the canyons we’d seen in Oz as it was so dry and baron with very little in the way of trees or bushes
. We decided to do the Rim Trail walk around to the South Rim Visitor’s Centre as it was only about 2 ½ miles long and followed the rim of the crater so we got some great views and some great pictures. By the time we got back to the centre it was just gone 3.00 so we had a mooch in the shop and the gallery there before Wally picked us up again at 3.30. After 5 hours and a stop off at subway for tea, we arrived back at the Riviera so we grabbed our bags and then walked down to Hostel Cat. After a long wait trying to check in, we finally got into our room which ended up being a 6 bed dorm to ourselves. We had a beer and sat in the social area but then the early start got the better of us so we went to bed.
