Thursday 26 September 2024

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Thursday 26 September

Maswik Lodge and the Bright Angel Trailhead/Rim Trail

Our stay on the south rim was at Maswik. John and Tammy scored a room in the newer soyth section (with elevators!), while were in "Aspen" in the north section. The main lodge building has a gift shop and a food court with several hot service stations, and a separate "Pizza Pub" resturant.

The hot service was a pretty mixed bag. The main breakfast station was pretty much always cold and frankly not very good. The omelet bar was OK, and Elizabeth talked the guy working it to make me cheese omelets with American cheese, so that was a win. I was also surprised that they didn't have more "homemade style" pastries and deserts, but I guess it's too remote to really do that.

Since I forgot to get pictures when I finished, early Thursday I went out to get pictures at the Bright Angel Trailhead and look at the Rim Trail a bit.

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  Our room

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  Our room

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  The Maswik Lodge Food Court

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  The Maswik Lodge Food Court

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  Maswik Lodge

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  The Aspen set of rooms

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  Wildlife abounds

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  The Bright Angel Trailhead is close to Maswik

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  Hermit's rest bus station is also close by Maswik and the BA Trailhead

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  The Rim Trail and BA Trailhead are really close to our lodge

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  Bright Angel Trailhead

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  Me at the Trailhead, at last!

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  Looking down the Bright Angel

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  Me at the Trailhead

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  John and Tammy at the Trailhead

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  All three of us Rim2Rim hikers

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  The BA Trailhead toilets

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  Looking into the canyon from the BA Trailhead

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Driving Tour of the South Rim

We had some extra time in the morning so we loaded up Bev ("Beverly" was our Chrysler rented mini van) and drove out to Desert View, and stopped a few of the other overlooks on the way. As it turn out, we would visit some of these same places on the "Buck Wild" Humvee tour, but not Desert View, so I'm glad we did.

Desert View itself is neat, but it's a modern structure trying to look old, much like Hermits Rest is.

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  These buses run all over the south rim

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  Duck on a Rock

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  Desert View Park

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Grand Canyon iMax

I don't have pictures of the iMax ("Grand Canyon: Rivers of Time"), I'm mostly just mentioning it because we stopped here for the show on the way to the Papillon helicopter tour, being it was in Tusayan just up the road. The show was entertaining, but mostly about John Wesley Powell's navigation of the Colorado river than anything else. Later we watched the show at the GC Visitor's Center (free) as well, and it touched more on the formation of the canyon and the native American connection, so they're probably both worth doing.

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  These maps were in the foyer of the iMax

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  The iMax

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Helicopter Tour - Papillon

One of the things I really wanted to do was take the helicopter tour. I wasn't sure when or if I'd ever be back, so I really wanted to take in the entire canyon experience, sospending time on both rims was part of that, but so was seeing it by air. Fortunately John and both our wives were onboard with that, because it is a bit pricey, but it felt like a once-in-a-lifetime chance.

I picked Papillon, and their Ecostar EC130 hour long "Imperial" tour, because the big new helicopter with large windows seemed like it would offer the best experience. As a bonus, you could could get it with a sunset Humvee tour the same day. These both were starting in Tusayan, which is also where the iMax and "We Cook" Pizza & Pasta was, so it kind of made a day of it. The pizza was expensive and plentiful, and since I'd finished my hike I was taking a birthday break from the low-carb lifestyle and gorged myself.

The tour itself was pretty cool, we flew out over the Kaibab forest low, maybe 700', and then broke out over the canyon, flying down it's length for awhile, and then got to fly below the rim in a section that is outside of the park. On the way back we saw a group of bison resting in the park. Our pilot, Doug, was a former Coast Guard pilot, and put up with a lot of "we're pilots too" questions with a smile on his face. The fall colors were changing every day, and the weather was gorgeous, so it was a really, really nice flight.

         
Climbing out      Over the Kaibab forest      Nearing the canyon

         
The canyon and river      I'm enjoying the ride      Below the rim

         
More canyon      More canyon      Over the runway

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  Papillon EC130

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  The gang's all here

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  Don't stand on the toilet?? Who does that?

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  Arriving at the airport

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  The terminal

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  Fleet of EC130 helos

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  And some old Jet Rangers from the 80's

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  Getting ready to board

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  Greg, our pilot

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  Checking out the sectional

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  John and Tammy up front

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  The terminal from the flightline

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  Departing

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  Climbing out

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  We're collectively flying...

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  Coming up on the canyon

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  Kaibab forest

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  Our hero

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  John and Tammy

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  Elizabeth and Doug, our Coastie

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  The Colorado river

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  Colorado River

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  Colorado River

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  Colorado River

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  In this section of the canyon Greg was able to descend below the rim of the canyon for some cool views

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  Fall colors in bloom

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  The Aspen trees are turning, and they're gorgeous

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  The herd is resting

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  Where the buffalo roam

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  Bison close-up?

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  One last look at the river

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  The Flightline

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  "Our" EC130

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  Me!

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  Bison!

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  Another helicopter outbound

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  Greg let Elizabeth check out the sectional for the canyon, with it's restricted airspace

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  Flying back into Gran Canyon airport

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  Our chopper

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  The gang's all here

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  Our ground crew/helicopter loader

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Sunset Humvee Tour - Buck Wild

The other half of our Papillon tour was the sunset Hummer/HumVee tour. I'd oringally looked at the "Pink Jeep" tours that appear to be favored (and offered through) the park, but in those you are seated down the sides looking at the other tour guests (in relatively narrow looking seats). When I was looking at the Papillon Helo Tours, however, they partnered up with (actually I think they own both) the "Buck Wild Hummer" Tours folks. Not only did their seats seem more generous, you get to see where you're going, and look outside the vehicle more easily. That seemed like the way to go, and they're located close to each other.

As I mentioned in the section above about our morning drive down the south rim to Desert View, we covered some of this ground on our own, but the tour was still fun and worth doing. Our tour guide ("Sam") was really friendly and personable, and seemed (at least initially) pretty knowledgeable. He'd previously been with Pink Jeep, but apparently most of the housing in Tusayan and the "near canyon" areas is owned by the operating companies, and Pink Jeep wouldn't allow him to keep his mom's cat. Bummer. Anyway, the first part of the tour was a little repetitive, because we had been there in the morning, and we did have to make a stop to pick up a family in the park (which would've saved us a bit of time if we'd known that was an option).

But, once we got "on tour" proper, we visited the Hopi House and El Tovar, which was OK. The Hopi House was mostly a gift shop, but it was a neat building in the native Hopi style. El Tovar was also interesting, and super dark, but some of the stories our guide had told us about Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders were contested by the folks running the museum there. This made us wonder about some of the other interesting "facts" that our guide gave us, some of which are below:

• The red color of the canyon is because of a layer of Iron in the soil
• This iron is why the older pines (after 25 years?) become dark redish/brown (and smell like waffles)
• The Grand Canyon area gets hit by lightening more than any other place in the USA (on earth? I don't recall exactly)
• Pine trees that are hit by lightening, and are not killed, have a yellow stripe running up-and-down the bark that never goes away, but the strike and healing process makes them much stronger
  

Watching the sunset over the canyon was nice, and really brought the colors out. It was getting a bit crisp, though, so it was nice that they closed up the plastic sides of the hummer for the ride back. Afterwards when stopped at "We Cook Pizza and Pasta" for dinner.

 
Nearing Sunset

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  "Sam", our guide

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  Elizabeth and I looking pleased

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  eBeth, Tammy, and JT

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  The south rim mule pen - is much larger than the one on the north rim

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  Me in front of the Hopi House... I hope...

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  Hopi House

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  El Tovar Hotel

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  Inside the El Tovar

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  Elizabeth and Sam, our guide

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  Elk - the Mule Deer have big ears

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  Tammy

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  The whole gang

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  We met a guy with a scope that showed us the river and bridge from outside of Hermit's rest, and he told us there would be astronomy/stargazing event that night at the Visitor's Center

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Go back to [[[Wednesday 25 September 2024|Wednesday the 25th]] or on to Friday the 27th