Grand Canyon, Day 7 Sunrise at Yavapai Point

Thursday

As this was our last day here at the Grand Canyon, we wanted to see the last few places we hadn't seen yet. We decided to take the shuttle bus to Yavapai Point for the sunrise. We drove to the Visitor's Centre to catch the bus to save some time. Wow, absolutely worth getting up at 5am even though it was a cool 36 F.

All bundled up with about 4 layers, lol.

Back on the bus to go to Yaki Point. It was quite breezy and we were the only ones there. Amazing.

You can see Ray's shadow on the rock to the right.

This sign board shows the bridge that the mules and hikers use to cross the river.

Ray managed to just catch a glimpse of the bridge, the blue structure on the right-hand side.

That's the trail the mules and hikers take down into the canyon to the bridge.

Back on the bus to the Visitor's Centre.

What an awesome morning. Back at camp after Freya was walked, Ray laid down for an hour or so while I tidied up our house and threw in the last of the laundry as we are leaving tomorrow.

At lunch time we took the bus back into the Village for lunch. While there, Ray called our dish installer in Utah and received good information regarding why we are having trouble with it. Apparently we build up static electricity while travelling and all Ray needs to do is go up on the roof and unscrew a couple of cables and screw them back in and gently tighten and all is well! I also called Dish and gave them our new zip code in Utah as we were moving tomorrow and did not know if I would have cell service.

After our phone calls, we went and checked out the Hopi House again. We did not get to see it when we came up by train as Ray had whacked his head (on their very low doors). :)  They have a wonderful collection of authentic Navajo artwork for sale. Unfortunately too rich for our blood. When you see how many hours it took to craft a rug of around 400 hours you understand why it costs $400 plus for a 3' x 4' handmade rug.

Hopi House is another Mary Colter designed building.

Peek a Boo

How they make the rugs.

A rug design painted on the floor.

No wonder Ray hit his head last week here ... look how short the door way actually is.

After Hopi House we headed to the Bright Angel Steakhouse for lunch. Great Prickly Pear Margaritas and Ray had a burger and I had a Prime Rib beef dip. Once we were pleasantly full, we decided to take a walk down the Rim Trail to take a few pictures of the other historical buildings. Here is a portion of the Rim Trail in front of the buildings.

Look at the guy posing way out on the ledge ... crazy!

Here is the Kolb Studio.

The Lookout Bookstore and Gallery

We walked past Bright Angel Lodge and then a little bit down the Bright Angel Trail into the Canyon to see the Pictographs. One of my bus drivers mentioned that they are just after the arch about 300 yards down the trail. So off we went dodging all of the mule poop. lol We walked past the arch and down around then next corner before calling it quits. Turned out we saw the pictographs on the way back up as they were 50 feet up on the cliff. No wonder we did not see them at first.

Carrying my leftovers for Ray's dinner. lol

It's a long way down!

We only walked to the corner in front of those people. Definitely not down the switch backs. lol

Fortunately for Ray and I, we've been at this high elevation of 7000 feet for two weeks so it was not as hard as it was for most people. We could hear them wheezing as they walked back up.  Mind you I would too after hiking a mile pretty much straight up!

Back to camp to walk Freya. Ray went back up on the roof and did what Fred from Southern Utah Satellite Service said and removed and reinstalled the one cable port giving us trouble. He did get a spark of static electricity. After that I turned on the TV and voila! We have all our programming. Sure wish one of the 5 technicians I had spoken too over the last week had the answer!!!

Ray and I had a fabulous week at the Grand Canyon. We have seen everything you possibly can other than all the way down to the Colorado River. We can definitely check this one off our list.

Tomorrow we head out for our next adventure, Monument Valley.