Zion to Grand Canyon (2 day post)

 

Yesterday (Tuesday) we drove from Utah to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. We weren't sure whether to go to the North Rim or the South. When it came time to decide though, there were no sites available for reservation in the North Rim (and reservations are apparently required), but lots of sites at South Rim, which is normally busier. ??  So we reserved at the South Rim for our Grand Canyon visit.

 

Roads were generally not busy along the way

 

Later we passed the Glen Canyon dam. A large dam on the Colorado River, it holds back Lake Powell, a huge reservoir used for power generation and also as a recreational lake.

The Glen Canyon dam. The highway goes right across it.

Large coal-fired power stations looking nearby but quite a ways off really (Navaho generating station)

 

A large marina on Glen Canyon reservoir rents out houseboats for touring 

Once in the Grand Canyon (GC) campground, we were greeted by some elk, that roam freely there... 

...and later by some loud thunderstorms. We did manage to get out to the canyon rim later in the day, but no pics. 

Wednesday

This morning was gorgeous, as we set out early, using the park shuttle buses. We rode out to a point called Hermit's Rest, and started an 8-mile walk back along the Rim Walk trail, intending to get back on a shuttle partway back. Some beautiful views along the way.

The muddy Colorado way down there

 

After a couple of hours hiking, thunderstorms struck again with lots of scary lightning. We had walked back about 3 miles of the 8, when it started to rain. We thought we'd better get a shuttle, but the few that came by were all full. 

So we kept walking another couple of miles until a Good Samaritan gave us a ride back to the shuttle terminal. Great timing, as it really started to pour rain while we were in his car, and then it hailed!

 

 

We did get back to our camp eventually, wet but safe, along the now-muddy campground trail.

It was 5C at 6am today, and only reached 11 or 12C. Not real nice right now, but we're quite happy it's not the 100F+ that we would have seen here last week.

Zion to Grand Canyon:

GC hike from Hermit's Rest: