Day 3 - The Mighty Canyon

Panorama shot of Red Rock State Park, about 135º angle.

David's Journal

Our third day started with a hike through the Red Rock State Park.  This park had the rocks & cliffs that Sedona is apparently famous for.  After our hike we had lunch at Tlaquepaque (don't ask me how to pronounce it, I even heard it several time...), then we piled on board our bus to head on up to the Grand Canyon.  Technically you're not supposed to visit the Canyon until Day 4, but Chris and Tiffany decided since we had extra time that we should go ahead and see it on Day 3.  So we got our first look at the canyon and spent about an hour there with Tiffany while Chris took care of getting our hotel rooms arranged for us.  After that we went and checked into The Grand Hotel, which was honestly only a mediocre hotel, but given the area it was pretty much the best available.  Then we had a western style buffet dinner with some country and western music and Native American dancing.  Then Chris and Tiffany threw in another surprise for us and got us all tickets to see the Grand Canyon IMAX movie at the National Geographic Visitor Center Grand Canyon.

Amber's Journal

Day 3 The Mighty Canyon
 
Early to bed, early to rise and off on the bus to go hike Red Rocks! We met up with a local guide to hike Red Rocks park.  We went along a pretty little trail that started by following Oak Creek for a while.  Lots of beautiful things to snap photos of...and the scenic trails are so far, free of Nazgul! (David thought part of the trail looked like something out of Lord of the Rings...)

The whole Red Rocks area looks like it was painted and sculpted by some brilliant, tripped out artist. It's filled with twisty, gnarled trees, some live, some dying, and some dead and even partially burned from controlled fires.  The rocks themselves are rusted and surreal--abstract natural sculpture!

In the middle of nowhere is the House of Apache fire which was built by a wealthy couple. It's now kind of falling apart--I hope they make it into a museum or spiritual retreat or something as it was a very neat looking place.  Our local guide was great--he told us lots of stories of the area, and pointed out the different kinds of plants we were seeing like pinyon pines, yucca, and the various grasses and shrubs eaten by local sheep and cows.

After a couple of miles of heat and incredible scenery, we were gathered up and taken to a arts and crafts village/shopping area called Tlaquepaque.  This was neat too--lovely local art, a sculpture garden, and lots of stores with tempting stuff to buy. David splurged and gave me a chunky amber bracelet! (I was eyeing a darling enamel and pearl pin shaped to look like a pea pod...maybe it'll follow me home on another trip!)

Our guides felt that since the theme of the day was The Mighty Canyon, we had to get a peek at the Grand Canyon, so we drove out and had a little while to absorb the surreal splendor of it.  The Canyon is so deep and huge that it just doesn't look real! Everything looks like a huge backdrop, not like a real canyon!! We quickly nosed through the Visitor's Center, and (of course) snapped off a bunch more shots of everything around us!

After luxurious shopping and Canyon peeking, we arrived at the Grand Hotel.  This is about the best in Tusayan, but not nearly as plush at the Amara. We had a buffet barbecue dinner, and a couple of Indian dancers.

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