It started out a beautiful day. We thought it would be nice, seeing we are so close, to visit the Grand Canyon. We had not been there since 2006. We were much younger then and the Canyon was a much "nicer" place. The scenery was the same - the stupendous vistas down into the canyon never changed.
Unfortunately, mankind has since put his ugly mark on things now. You can no longer drive anywhere; you have to park in overcrowded parking lots and load onto buses which frequently stop at places you don't care about. It took about 30 minutes on a bus to drive about a mile to where we wanted to be.
Back then you had to really look for elk; today they lay around the park posing for pictures.
Also, I was much younger then and my fear of heights had not fully kicked in. I actually road a mule to the bottom of the canyon (Phantom Ranch) while Vaughan hiked down.
That is me on the far left back in 2006 riding Rowdy (wearing a muzzle because he would chew on the saddle).
Today, however, Vaughan and I attempted to hike partially down Kaibab Trail. I had hiked it before down to Cedar Point and remembered it being tough walking back out but never felt the gut-wrenching fear I felt today. I knew how badly he wanted to go but after about the 3rd or 4th switchback nothing in the world was going to make me go any farther. My arms flew up like a tight-rope walker, it became hard to breathe, and tears started flowing.
Here I am pinned to the side of the cliff so Vaughan could get a picture.
Other than that the views from the top were amazing.
The drive home took us back towards Sedona through Oak Canyon.
Tomorrow we head for Kanab Utah for about a week.
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