| Christmas 2006 (4 of 10) : |
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I don't know that I've got anything much new to say about the Grand Canyon. I believe the name "Grand Canyon" derives from the original name of the river which was "The Grand River". It was changed to "The Colorado River" in the 1920s. Places like Grand Canyon and the city of Grand Junction did not change their names. The first vista point is "Grand View" and was where visitors started to arrive by stage coach in the 1880s. It's a little east of Grand Canyon Village is today. GC Village is the site of the railway, hotels, lodges, campground and staff housing. I suspect there could easily be a 1000 people or more working in the Park - it's a big operation.
Anyway, we enjoyed a very lazy Christmas Day. After breakfast, we drove 25 miles to the East to the Watchtower at Desert View. Along the way, there are a number of vista points which offer spectacular views of the Grand Canyon.
The watchtower is really nice and has a gift shop and a cafe. So we had lunch there and drove back to the US Park Service Visitor Center which is a short walk from Mather Point. The center's very new and has interesting maps and models which enabled me to understand a little more of what we had seen. With the eye, it's difficult to see the river a lot of the time and it's not really obvious that the river flows more or less east to west. All the canyons and crevices which have been cut by the river at different times present a confusing view to the eye.
And then we went to take a few more photos at Mather Point before sunset. And then it was time to go back to our room and get changed for Christmas Dinner in the El Tovar Hotel. We actually stayed at the Maswik Lodge because the Hotel was full when we booked in October. However we're having Christmas Dinner in the Hotel.
Grand Canyon has shot to the top of my list of places to visit again. I'd love to go back and book to stay at Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon. I'm going to have to figure out what to do. Flying to Las Vegas and getting a bus to North Rim. Then walk to Phantom Ranch. 2 nights at the bottom then walk back up to South Rim would be an adventure. One day soon.
Lightbox click here. Slideshow click here
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