13 October 2015, Tuesday

Breakfast is quick and easy this morning. We share a giant cinnamon bun from El
Tovar and have coffee yogurt and peaches along with it. We begin
checking off the final items on our agenda. We return to the visitor
center to make sure it’s OK to walk out to Shoshone Point since the
sign in the parking lot says “use restricted, check at visitor
center.” We tell the ranger at the desk we just finished a rim to
rim hike with GCFI (Grand Canyon Field Institute) and the leader suggested we go out to the point.
“Oh yes! With Jack and Mike. They’re my neighbors.” He assures us
it is OK to go there and he is unaware of the sign.

Next stop, the Yavapai Geology Museum. O wishes we had gone there before
our hike, but I’m glad we went afterwards. It would have been too
mind-boggling for me beforehand. Now I am able to appreciate the
detailed geologic information provided, and from the windows of the museum I can
pick out points on the trails we hiked. O and I even spot the North
Rim Lodge with our binoculars.

Our next destination is the top of the Bright Angel Trail, just beyond
the tunnel. We go back to get a better view of the pictographs with
our binoculars and to take some photos with my better camera. Many
people passing by ask what we are looking at. We point out the
Mallory Grotto. Most are amazed and grateful to us. I feel like a
tour guide.

It is bright and sunny and warm so we stop in at the Bright Angel Lounge
for a beer and veggies with a bean-garlic dip. It’s a perfect prelude
to dinner. We drive to the Shoshone Point parking area. There are
only two other cars there. We pack O’s Kelty pack with our
backpacking stove, water, rice, a spicy Indian dinner – ready made,
some wine and our last two brownies. We hike along the wooded road to
the point. The view is striking. There is at least a 270 degree view
down and up the canyon. We set up the stove on a picnic table. The
few other people on the point have left. We have the entire place to
ourselves. It is peaceful and beautiful. A flock of raptors circles
high overhead as we eat. As we are finishing our dinner two other
couples arrive, but there is plenty of room for all of us to gaze out
at the canyon and to experience its peaceful grandeur. I take many
photos as the shadows deepen in the side canyons, in an attempt to
capture the immense beauty of it all. Of course that is impossible. I
can only capture small bits. That will have to suffice. What a
wonderful way to close this part of our journey. Tomorrow we will
head south, perhaps camping in the Superstition Mountains on our way
to Tucson.