In Which Andrew and Frances Solve the Problem of Food in the Grand Canyon

Tuesday started with another dawn shoot. I caught the 5.30 shuttle bus to Yaki Point, which was full, but to my great surprise almost everyone got off at the prior stop, and I had the sunrise spot almost to myself. Initially I thought this might be a mistake caused by poor announcements on the bus, but the following day another possible explanation presented itself. Either way I got some great sunrise shots, in near solitude.

After breakfast we headed to the village, the old centre of Grand Canyon activities. Nowadays with the newest lodging and market a couple of miles away and the main visitor parking and visitor centre at twice that distance there’s no longer such a single focal point, but it’s still the start point for the shuttle-only Western Rim route.

We worked our way Westwards stopping at most of the viewpoints, ending up at Hermit’s Rest in nice time to have our picnic lunch. This was accompanied by a "hermit mocha", (coffee with some hot chocolate mixed in), but the latter was somewhat delayed by a camera crew who had temporarily taken over the cafe window and kitchen.

We then worked our way back through the viewpoints accessible Eastbound, but we were clearly going to be far too early at our target for sunset. We therefore stayed on the shuttle all the way back to the village, and went in search of a latte. We reached the cafe at the Bright Angel Lodge, and were shown to a table in an almost empty room and handed a dinner menu, at just before 3pm. We had broken the system! Not looking a gift horse in the mouth we ordered pulled pork and prime rib "sandwiches", wine and beer and had an excellent "tunch". The friendly young staff were lusting after our colourful clothing, so maybe we still have some style…

Appetite sated we got back on the bus to Hopi Point, and watched the sunset combined with photographing large raptors, eagles or maybe even Californian condors, and having a delightful chat with a retired American teacher.

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