It is a very large recreational area.
This is the bridge that we drove the motorhome over that crosses the Colorado River.
On the road to the canyon we kept passing empty stalls (like a produce type stand). We finally saw where the Indians living in the area would set up their jewelry, etc. to sell to tourists on their way to the canyon.
The first dozen we passed had nothing in them......yet. As the morning got later and the traffic picked up, we realized the Indian jewelry stands were becoming more occupied.
The sign on the road said "Your first glimpse of the Grand Canyon is just around the corner". And it was! This was my first glimpse of the Grand Canyon. Since Alan had his eyes on the road, he didn't get to see this. Buy it really was just a teaser. The views became greater and greater!
We got to the campground and got settled in. We decided to drive around the "village" that evening to get the lay of the land. We had decided to take the car to the "viewpoints" that we passed coming in that morning. This park also depends on shuttles to get the visitors to various places. There are many parking lots around the visitor center and when we drove past them coming in, they all seemed to be full. Busy place!
When we got up the next morning we were surprised to see what I thought were deer all around the campground area. Later found out that they were young elk. I thought the "mama" deer looked bigger than normal!
"Young ones"
"Mama"
While driving around the village, we spotted the Mule pens. These are the mules that take visitors down to the bottom of the canyon.
We got up the next morning and started our tour of the canyon. Our first stop was as Navajo Point. I'll be honest.....we viewed so much canyon that day, I can't tell for sure what point I am looking at from all the pictures that we took! I know a few and one was the "Desert View" area. We could see the Desert View Watchtower from Navajo Point.
Desert View is a small settlement on the South Rim.
The historic watchtower was designed by Mary Colter.
Inside was a gift shop and on the other side of this round building was this Indian lady selling jewelry.
You can climb up the stairs to view the canyon below. They say on a clear day you can see for 100 miles.
Mather Point which is located at the visitor center. This is the view of the viewing area you can walk out to. It's amazing!
Mather Point viewing center.
View of the canyon from Mather Point.
There are many trails for hikers in the area. You can see one of them in the picture below.
In this picture you can see people either going into or coming out of the tunnel.
Alan......always the funny man!
Hmmmmmm....
More canyon!
You can see the river from this view.
It's truly hard to capture the Grand Canyon in pictures!
Our last evening at the canyon.
We decided to have dinner at the El Tovar lodge restaurant in the heart of the village. It is circa 1920's. It is a beautiful lodge with a wonderful dining experience!
Alan had the pork chops with apple/jalapeno chutney.
I had a wonderful chicken dish with angel hair pasta and mushroom sherry sauce.
The meal was outstanding!
When we got up the next morning we opened the front window drapes in the motorhome and saw this.........
The ravens in this area are huge! We were told at check in NOT to leave any trash out because of them. I think these poor people came in after the office had closed and they didn't get the same warning!
On a more pleasant note.....saw this butterfly on these wildflowers!
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