{"id":339,"date":"2014-08-26T00:42:20","date_gmt":"2014-08-26T04:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rootbeertogo.com\/?p=339"},"modified":"2014-08-26T00:42:20","modified_gmt":"2014-08-26T04:42:20","slug":"finally-grand-canyon-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rootbeertogo.com\/?p=339","title":{"rendered":"Finally, Grand Canyon National Park!!!"},"content":{"rendered":"

We started the day in Holbrook, AZ by taking some photographs about sunrise of the few signs and structures of interest in town.\u00a0\u00a0 Since the Wigwam had no coffee either in rooms or lobby, we also stopped at Joe & Aggies Caf\u00e9 for coffee to go.\u00a0\u00a0 Then back to the Wigwam to finish getting ready for the day and a few additional photos.<\/p>\n

We departed Holbrook about 8 AM–early for us!\u00a0 We passed through Joseph City, AZ and stopped at the Jackrabbit Trading Post for a geocache and a few pictures.\u00a0 Once again we saw a lot of BNSF trains between Jackrabbit and Winslow, AZ (yes, the famous Winslow in song). In Winslow we stopped to take a few photos of Gary and Joyce with the statue that is a requisite stop on Route 66 trips.<\/p>\n

Good night from the Grand Canyon National Park Area.<\/p>\n

Oh, yeah, maybe Joyce is right and we haven’t been here before.\u00a0 Of course the decision still depends on reaching the North Rim sometime in the next couple of weeks.<\/p>\n

We also stopped for a geocache at the famous La Pasada Hotel in Winslow.\u00a0 It is the last of the hotels that were associated with the railroad stops and AMTRAK still stops there today.\u00a0 It was a very beautiful hotel.<\/p>\n

It was about 11:30 AM (MST) when we arrived in Winslow.\u00a0 After our caching and photography opportunities, we continued on our way to Cameron, AZ where we had decided to spend two nights.\u00a0 We arrived at 12:30 PM (MST)\u00a0today and were able to check in to the famous Cameron Trading Post and Motel.\u00a0 Have a nice room overlooking the Little Colorado River and some nice red rocks.<\/p>\n

After checking in, we decided to make our first foray into the Grand Canyon National Park. It was 25 miles from Cameron to the East entrance to the park.\u00a0 We drove the additional 30 miles to along the South Rim to the main visitor area.\u00a0 We stopped at 5 or 6 places to take some beautiful photos.\u00a0 We arrived at the main visitor center around 5 PM.\u00a0 Took a few photos, but the sun was fading behind clouds and there was some lightening and thunder in the distance.\u00a0 We left!\u00a0 Figuring that we’d be back tomorrow for more photo ops.<\/p>\n

Somewhere along the GCNP visit today, Joyce learned that the Grand Canyon is bigger than the state of Delaware.\u00a0 Perhaps shocking, but really, no surprise given the smallness of DE!<\/p>\n

It took over an hour to return to Cameron for our hotel.\u00a0 About 60 miles.\u00a0 It included a brief stop to photograph two elk fighting for dominance and a geocache find in a primitive camping area just off the main road.<\/p>\n

Here are a couple of photos from today.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the other 4 couldn’t be uploaded due to slow internet connection.<\/p>\n

If you think you internet access is slow, you should try these remote areas of the country.\u00a0 It reminds me what a vast country we have to provide infrastructure for and the difficulties those of us with faster connections have when we are without!<\/p>\n

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We drove about 250 miles today including the 120 from Cameron to GCNP and back.\u00a0 We also decided on an unscheduled side trip to see the Meteor Crater.\u00a0 When we got there we discovered it wasn’t part of the NP system and cost $16 per person to look at a big hole in the ground.\u00a0 We decided against this activity and kept on drivin’ on.<\/p>\n

After getting back to the hotel, we found a nearby cache and took a few photos of the last remnants of the sunset.\u00a0 Dinner was from our supplies and included cheese & crackers, peanut butter crackers, apples and, of course, red wine.<\/p>\n

We plan to arise early tomorrow and make our way before sunrise to the visitor center and take the park provided shuttles to the areas west of the visitor center.\u00a0 The day is basically unstructured otherwise.<\/p>\n

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We started the day in Holbrook, AZ by taking some photographs about sunrise of the few signs and structures of interest in town.\u00a0\u00a0 Since the Wigwam had no coffee either in rooms or lobby, we also stopped at Joe & Aggies Caf\u00e9 for coffee to go.\u00a0\u00a0 Then back to the Wigwam to finish getting ready … Continue reading Finally, Grand Canyon National Park!!!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-route-66"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4GgIT-5t","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rootbeertogo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rootbeertogo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rootbeertogo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rootbeertogo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rootbeertogo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=339"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.rootbeertogo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":343,"href":"https:\/\/www.rootbeertogo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions\/343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rootbeertogo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rootbeertogo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rootbeertogo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}