Grand Canyon...Day 1

The big day!  Woke up to a beautiful, if chilly, morning.  After a marvelous breakfast, it was off to the depot to catch our train...

Ok, I admit, this wasn't our train.  This is a display.  They do actually run steam powered trains in the summer but not in the 'off-season'. 
Being frugal gets you a basic diesel engine.  Still a fun ride...

Prior to the train ride they have a little cowboy skit.  One of the cowboys said, 'Hey Carolina...come pet the horse!...Now!'  We tried but something about having a stranger tell Samuel to get his picture by the horse had the desired effect!

The horse was named Spot.  Anyway, there was entertainment on the way to the Grand Canyon.  This guy was pretty funny.

The hostess in our car was very informative and knowledgeable.  Hate to admit that we never took her picture.  I'll still make a shout out to Morgan from the Grand Canyon Railway.  She did an awesome job.  Before we knew it...we were there!

I want to start with this picture of a plaque outside the Lookout Studio.  We didn't see this until the second day but I think it sums up what we were about to see.

And at our first stop on the bus tour...WOW!

I can tell you now.  No picture, commentary, exaggeration, nothing, can capture the grandeur of the Grand Canyon.  It is immense.  Someone said before we went that you can't describe it or capture it with a picture.  They were right.  What an awesome creation God has made.

We have gobs of pictures.  I'm sorry, they just don't do it justice.  But here are a few anyway.

One more picture...This is Plateau Point.  A mere 5-6 mile hike down the Bright Angel Trail.

That is the most zoom our camera has.  If you enlarge the picture, you might be able to make out the mule train coming back.  They would be the black dots single file on the trail.

Ok, one more.  Here is a picture of part of the trail we would be hiking on Friday.  We didn't go down this far into the canyon but it was just like this at the top of the trail too.  Intimidating...by this time Melinda is saying, 'I don't think I can do that'.

 

Another shout out to Joe our bus driver.  What a help he was.  Once again, we didn't get a picture of him but he pointed us in the right direction all the way.

After a little 'hike' (thanks to my amazing directional abilities! Ok, so we got into a little pine forest we probably shouldn't have been in), we made it over to the rim for sunset.  Stunning doesn't even come close.

I wise I was eloquent enough to capture some of my thoughts in words.  If you ever get a chance to see the Grand Canyon...do it!