20240918 EF Go Ahead National Parks Bus Tour Day 7/20 - Grand Canyon - one word - WOW

American West Bus Tour Day 7/20 - Grand Canyon by air, bus, and foot

Buckle up, folks. This post is going to be photo-heavy and narrative-light. There simply aren't many words that would enhance the experience that we had today. Here we go...

We were up at the crack of dawn for our early morning helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon at Papillon at the South Rim Flight Terminal. The temperature at 7:15 was 36F. Dang, that's cold.

Our aircraft, a Bell 206, coming in from the first flight of the day

Seated, buckled, headphoned, and ready to fly

The Bell 206 has six available seats. The pilot sat front-right. A Dutch man sat front-left. We sat right side, Arlona facing back and me facing front. Two French women sat left side. We were off.

We flew from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon north to the North Rim. That meant for the first half of the flight, Arlona and I would be facing the Sun, washing out photos and showing little color in the canyon. 

Taking off

Paralleling the South Rim

Heading north with the Sun in our face

The Colorado River, catching the Sun

But, when we turned, we were facing west and everything changed. The photos speak for themselves.

Cruising over the Ponderosa Pines

The town and airport - the heliport is obscured by the trees at the left end of town

Our hotel, the BW Squire Resort

Coming in for landing - that black bus is ours

Tour Director, Geoff, caught our departure and return.

All smiles after the ride

The bus brought us back to the hotel where we grabbed a quick breakfast and changed from cold-weather gear to more moderate-weather clothes. The temperature was warming up to the 70s so shorts were in order.

We bused back into the park. Options today were a 2.5-mile walk along the rim, independent exploration, or using the park's Red Line bus for different vantage points into the canyon. We chose the bus as it would give us very different views of the Grand Canyon.

We boarded at Bright Angel Trailhead. We skipped the Trailview Overlook and Maricopa Point stops but got off the bus at all other stops.

Here are the views we saw, more or less in order, all the way out to Hermits Rest.

The black is referred to as desert varnish

Arlona saw this busy guy in a tree

We saw several helicopters hauling what looked like supply baskets on a long line

Sightseeing helicopter

That stretch of the Colorado River is more than a mile long

This very vocal raven was loudly squawking 

Another sightseeing helicopter

Perhaps this is who the other raven was calling

They are so shiny

Everything, including their eyes, is jet-black

It is so hard to tell sizes - these are probably over 1,000 feet tall

We made it to Hermits Rest

We caught another Red Line bus back to the Bright Angel Trailhead

We found the historic Kolb Brother's photo studio

We walked back to the Bright Angel Lodge and met our bus for the ride back to the hotel.

After a short respite at the hotel, we met Tour Director, Geoff in the lobby. We walked as a group for about ten minutes to the Visitor Center and IMAX theater for a 35-minute IMAX film about the history of the Grand Canyon.

After the movie, we had free time for dinner on our own. A bunch of us wound up right next door at Foodie Club.

I had a burger

Arlona had the bacon, chicken, ranch wrap

I didn't want three beers, but it was buy two, get one, so...

As we walked back to the hotel, one of the group noticed some elk roaming across the street so we wandered over and watched them for about 15 minutes. They were beautiful.

Nice rack!

Nom, nom, nom

Where was this fine dining?

Mickey D's - you can see him in the lower left by the yellow pole

A herd was out there

Always watching his harem

That was a terrific topper to a terrific day. We returned to the room to get things packed up as we're moving hotels again tomorrow. We plan to be rolling by 7:30 so that means an early breakfast, so showers and packing before bed were a must.

We depart for Utah and Zion tomorrow.