The Grand Canyon (and more!)

The Grand Canyon

This was an AWESOME weekend! My dad and I had been planning on hiking the grand canyon for almost a year but unfortunately I had gotten a knee injury, so we tried to come up with something but we only had a day to find out what we were going to do.

 My dad actually found something, but it required me to not go to school Thursday or Friday. When I got home from school on Wednesday, I asked him what he found and we were still going to drive up to the canyon but we were going to go on a 2 day camping trip close to the rim instead.

 It was really exciting, but the problem was that we did not even know if we were going to get a site since there were no reservations! That was why I could not go to school at all Thursday, because we had to leave early in the morning to try to get a campground.

 It turns out that we left just on time. By the time that we got on the small road after going into the actual national park, we had to pass lots of people that were most likely going to the same spot, and when we got there, there were only three sites left! We went and registered at the machine by the bathrooms (convenient),and then set up our tent. The tent was not actually ours, but a friend of my dad's let us borrow a tent and sleeping bags.

 The tent was super easy to set up and in a short time everything was ready. The campsite was in walking distance to the Desert View historical watch tower, so we walked

Historic watch tower

down there and also looked at the canyon. when we walked back, we hung out and by around 4:30 we had to get things ready for night because it gets pitch black. When it did get dark, we made a fire and roasted marshmallows and ate hot dogs, and then it just got to the point where it was freezing cold.

 So we put on all of our extra layers and got in the tent, watched a movie on my dad's phone, and went to the bed. It was not the most comfortable night, and I was ready to get up in the morning.

 The next day, we made a fire in the morning, and then went down to the visitor center, where we looked at some different trails we could try next year, and also got to watch an intriguing 22 minute long movie titled: The Grand Canyon- A Journey of Wonder. I have to say it was pretty good, but a tad dramatic as well. We went back to the site, and played catch and played with the soccer ball for a while, and then, once again, got things ready for night.

 This night was supposed to be colder than the first, and it was supposed to rain as well. The guy working at the little store even said that at this elevation it could turn to snow. He was right. We woke up and it was still snowing, and our tent was covered with it. We were going to make another fire, but we forgot to cover the wood, so that was not an option.

Snowy campsite

 Since we could not sit in front of a fire and it was freezing (literally 32 degrees) we decide to not wait around before we left. We folded up the tent and eventually left the site. We stopped at one more place to look at the canyon, and then we went back home. We got back Saturday afternoon, and the next Sunday was Mother's Day.

 We got up early and got bagels to eat in the morning, and after giving our mom our gifts, we relaxed for a little bit. Then she went to go have lunch with her mom, my aunt, and my aunt's mom while we did yard work. Then at the end of the day my grandparents came over so we could give my grandma her gifts and also celebrate my grandpa's birthday from the day before.

 They left, and we all went to bed, me with the unsettling knowledge that I would have to go to school the next day... So thanks for reading and tune in next week on TBB!