We (me, at least) awoke this morning somewhat fatigued by Grand Canyon. I know that sounds like heresy! We have learned the lesson the hard way that it is always best to leave a park before you have seen everything you want to see rather than be tired of the park when you leave.
Looking down on to The Bright Angel Trail.
If you leave things undone, that also leaves a good reason for a return trip in the future. We decided to head back to the Visitor Center area and park our car and make the 5 mile roundtrip journey by our bikes along the parks paved Greenway Trail. It was a scenic route (although not on the rim) that did take us by canyon viewpoints at Pipe Creek Vista and the South Kaibab Trailhead. It was great exercise even if the views were no match for the Rim Trail- and one of the few places other than Hermit Road in the park where you can ride your bike. We then headed into the small town of Tusayan during the heat of the afternoon and stopped at the National Geographic Visitor Center for the highly acclaimed 34 minute IMAX movie, “Grand Canyon: The Hidden Secrets”. The movie shows on the half hour all day and was fantastic. It showed us park scenery that 99.999% of the park’s visitors never get to personally experience deep inside the canyon walls and high above in the sky. Although it was pricey ($12 adults, $10 kids under 11), it was likely the best IMAX outdoors-type movie that we have ever seen.
We saw elk very close to the road on our way back to the camper.
After returning back to the camper, we rested a bit and then headed back towards the GCNP Historic District for dinner at the Bright Angel Lodge (should be skipped) and some time out on the rim to enjoy the setting sun. We had a great 3 ½ days here in Grand Canyon and leave here with two items on our bucket list for the future: an out (and hopefully back) two day hike on the Bright Angel Trail and a longer duration rafting trip along the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon! On to Flagstaff tomorrow!