Grand Canyon Day 4, Part 1: Million Years March

11:00 p.m. Check out time; just leave the bags in the room and let the front desk know you're leaving, they take care of the rest. After dropping by the cafeteria for a quick bite, we decided to work off three days of eating and sitting by taking a long walk along the canyon rim to the Information Center. The path took us all along the canyon rim.





The sun covers a good portion of it, so sunscreen's a good idea. Maybe because of the earlier hour, there was no wind at all which took some of the edge off all the kooks I saw way too close to the cliff.


Look behind you, guys!


Some of the highlights:





- Several picture-perfect clearings, with benches perfectly placed. From here, the canyon looks like somebody's art project because of its clean rows and crisp colors. Even where cracks exist, they give the wall the appearance of square building blocks neatly inserted into place.





- A new exhibit all about the geology of the canyon. Several signs illustrate and explain how the canyon evolved over hundreds of millions of years. Beginning with the shifting of two of the earth's tectonic plates (the same collision which spurned the Rocky Mountains), and continuing with the erosion by the Colorado River (which looks jumpable from up top, but in reality is the size of a football field). Some rocks at the bottom are said to be 2 billion years old!




2:00 p.m. Thank GOD there were restrooms at the Information Center! At that moment, nothing could have been more beautiful. A shuttle whisked us back toward the lodge and train depot area. Note: This was the "Village Shuttle," or blue route. As a bonus, there was a general store en route, just he place to restock snacks for the cross-country ride home.


Ahhhh....