Our expectation was that it would take about 3 1/4 hours to get from Page to Grand Canyon Village. We were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves at the entrance station to the Grand Canyon within 2 hours and 10 minutes. What we hadn't taken into account was that it would, in fact, take another hour to actually get to our campsite in the Grand Canyon Trailer Village. We had forgotten how huge this park is. Luckily, there was not much traffic.
Our campsite has full hookups, meaning it has water, sewer, and electric. (What? No cable???) For a National Park campsite, though, it really is luxurious. Another bonus is that it is within an easy walk to the canyon rim. After setting up, we took a short (about a mile) walk on a paved path to the Visitor Center. Temps were in the high 50s, low 60s, and very comfortable. From the Visitor Center, we walked about 2 miles along the Rim Trail, which, as the name suggests follows the South rim of the canyon. Expansive views of the canyon spread before us every step of the way.
A big difference now, from previous times we have been here, is that for most of the year, you cannot drive the main park road that goes out to Hermit"s Rest at the westernmost point of the South Rim. The park service runs natural gas powered buses on a 15 minute schedule. So we were able to walk along the rim, and then take the shuttle back to the campground.
One big surprise was that there is cell service and 3G (thank you, Verizon) here. Because the nightly temperatures fall into the 20s, we unhooked our water line for the night. It would not be nice to wake up to a burst water hose.
After dinner, we went out for a short walk away from the lights, and got the best show of the day: in the cold, clear, dry night, the Milky Way spread out in the sky before us. Spectacular!!
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