Grand Canyon National Park February 12, 2020

The Grand Canyon day 2.  I parked at the main visitors center pretty close to the entrance of the park.  It also contains a large parking lot, access to the canyon and the south rim trail and its a stop for the shuttle buses.  Only two of the three shuttle buses function during the winter: the orange and the blue lines.  The Blue line was a longer line but catered mostly to people moving between the main visitors center and the Village.  I'd walked a good portion of that already, so I jumped on the Orange Line.  This take you to three scenic viewpoints in one direction, then back to the Visitors Center, then three scenic viewpoints in the other direction.  That works for me.  I got some great views, great photos and got to see some elk.  Also did a walkthrough of the Geological Museum and got in a lot of steps.  I looked at the stops that the Blue Line went to and decided to skip it, most I'd already seen.  Got in my car and drove all the way up the scenic drive to Herman's Rest and got some great photos of parts of the canyon significantly different than the ones I'd been seeing.  And watching the sun setting over the canyon did some beautiful things with the light.  I'd like to go back during the summer and take the shuttle all the way to Herman's Rest (that shuttle doesn't run in the winter) and walk all the way back to the Visitors Center.  It would be a long hike, but the elevation differences on the Rim Trail are much less problematic than most of the other trails.  

I had originally planned on camping and staying at the Grand Canyon for multiple days, but the time I spent over the two days there were enough.  The weather wasn't too bad, but it was still chilly and all that hiking I wanted to do required functioning knees and after a couple of short starts, that ended quickly.  I knew that I wanted to be back in Flagstaff for the Pluto celebration over the weekend, but I decided to head back Wednesday night.  I could use the gym to shower. I could use the library to do my photos.  I could maybe catch a movie.  I could go back to the Observatory to catch some of the shows I'd missed before.

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