The Magnificence of the Grand Canyon

This summer, the wife and I were contemplating where to go for vacation. We had been to all the beaches in Texas and several other states over the years, so we were looking for something different to do. We said we wanted to go somewhere we had never been before. While sitting in the doctor’s office this past summer looking at one of the outdated magazines, there was an article about the Grand Canyon. The more I read and looked at the pictures I said, “That would be a cool place to go.” So we decided we would to go to the Grand Canyon. We made all of the flight, hotel and rental car reservations ahead of time and waited for September to get here.

Our adventure started out with a flight from Love Field to Las Vegas on Virgin America airlines. Upon our arrival we picked up a nice Toyota Corolla rental car and checked into our hotel. The next morning we decided to check out Las Vegas, as we had never been there before either. Since neither one of us are gamblers we skipped the usual entertainment and went to see the sights. We spent the day and that night driving around looking at the lights and the unusual people. The next morning, we headed east towards the Grand Canyon. We were told no trip there would be complete without seeing the Hoover Dam, so we made a stop there to check it out. Hoover Dam is an awesome thing to see. While we were there we learned about the history of how it was built and the hardships that the workers and their families had to endure. When you see what they went through, it makes you realize just how fortunate we are these days. Ninety six people died during the construction of the Dam from 1931 to 1936. Interesting tidbit: the first man to and the last man to die during construction of the dam were father and son. After learning all we could about the dam and 25 pictures later, it was back on the road.

The next morning we drove the 60-plus miles from our hotel to the Grand Canyon National Park. We entered the main entrance and discovered there were still several miles to go until we reached the actual canyon itself. While driving in we saw two huge elk, one standing and another just lying by the side of the road enjoying the scenery. I got out of the car and walked right up to a huge bull elk with massive antlers and took his picture. If you have never seen one of these magnificent animals up close it is an awesome experience. So, we get to the parking lot at the Grand Canyon visitor center and find a parking spot. We went into the visitor center and looked at the exhibits but as usual I was getting antsy to see this giant hole in the ground that everyone had been telling us about. So we walked down a path to the first look out location and when we got through the trees and caught the first glimpse of the Grand Canyon it was breath taking. We stood there in awe of what we were seeing. It didn’t look real at first. It looked like we were staring at a giant post card. The depth of the canyon and the colors of the rock formations were spectacular. We stood there for several minutes trying to take it all in. We discovered there was a shuttle bus that took you to all of the lookouts along the canyon so we hopped on the first one and took off. At every stop along the canyon it was the same awe inspiring feeling. Once again the colors and the terrain were beyond description. My first thought was God sure is a good sculpture and painter.

While we were only there for one day we witnessed one of the greatest natural attractions in the United States. It made me feel like breaking out in song and singing America the Beautiful, but I didn’t want to scare off the other tourists. Seeing the actual Grand Canyon for the first time was an experience we will never forget. (Naturally we took the Bee paper with us in order to get a cheesy photo op.) If you have never been to the Grand Canyon I would highly recommend it for your bucket list.