Grand Canyon, Part III

With only one full day at the Grand Canyon, we had to be very conscious of our time.  We made it to Tusayan for lunch at noon, but wanted to catch the IMAX movie of the Grand Canyon at 12:30.  We went to Wendy's, but the line was backed up almost to the door.  So we switched things up and went through the drive-through, got fast service, and ate in the van in the parking lot of the IMAX theater!  Then we enjoyed watching the film re-create John Wesley Powell's voyage of exploration through the canyon.

On our way back into the park, we stopped for one of our family photos at the sign:

We also happened to see a herd of elk(?) grazing near the rim:

With so much to do, we decided to split up.  Debbie and Katie took the van and went to the campground to do several loads of laundry.  They dropped Jon, Daniel, and Bethany off at the Visitor Center for a hike along the rim.

Daniel and Bethany as we begin our hike.

We hiked from the Visitor Center to Yavapai Point and the Yavapai Geological Museum.  We explored the museum and got our passport stamped.  At 3:00, we heard a talk from "Ranger Dan" about how geologists believe the Grand Canyon was formed.  It consists of D.U.D.E. (Deposition of thousands of feet of rock and sediment, Uplift of the Colorado Plateau from sea-level to a much higher elevation due to plate tectonics, Downcutting of the Colorado River through all those thousands of feet of rock, and Erosion of the surrounding area and tributaries to create the carved canyon look.)

Following our ranger talk, we hiked the "Trail of Time" from the Yavapai Geological Museum to the Verkamp Visitor Center.  This fascinating trail has rock samples from the different layers of the Grand Canyon which visitors can touch along the way.  There are A LOT of layers!

I got a little frustrated with Daniel and Bethany during this part of our day as they were constantly monkeying around, running and wrestling along the trail.  I told them the canyon rim was not the place for horse play!

Oops!  Bethany got a little too close to the edge at one point.

Having completed the laundry, Debbie and Katie picked us up around 4:30 at the Verkamp Visitor Center after we had explored that place and received another passport stamp.  The five of us then parked our van at Maswik Lodge and hopped on a shuttle bus to the western overlooks we had not yet seen.  We stopped at Powell Point and took the bus to the farthest stop on the route: Hermit's Rest:

Hermit's Rest was the farthest westward point on our Grand Canyon vacation, over 2000 miles from home!

We bought a few items at the Hermit's Rest snack stand for our supper, then caught the bus back to Powell Point.  We took a short rim hike to Hopi Point for the Friday night sunset.  It did not disappoint.

The sunset was a beautiful ending to a wonderful day.  We caught the bus back to Maswik Lodge where we also had something to eat.  We drove back to the Yavapai Lodge area for some final shopping and souvenir hunting to remember our time at the Grand Canyon.  Then it was back to our room to pack and re-organize for the trip home.