Grand Canyon Day 1 - Desert View and Sunset

Our first stop in the Grand Canyon was at the Desert View on the East side. We were blown away.

Stunning views!

Blossom takes a look with Max.

Sunshine is not impressed.

But I made him pose for a picture anyways.

Inside the Watch Tower there was alot of interesting art.

Click on this to enlarge it and read about the artist.





It is hard to imagine the scale of the Grand Canyon.

The rock formations are very interesting.

No guard rails here.

After getting to Mather campground we headed out overland to the South Rim to watch the sun set.

A beautiful view!






Blossom enjoys the sun set.

Monument Valley - Gouldings Campground

As we headed West the landscape changed very quickly.

The colors and patterns were striking.

In fact everything was so pretty that I didn't take many pictures. I was too busy looking out the window and didn't want to miss anything.

But the few I did get remind me of how stunning it was.

Mexican Hat is a well marked monument.

We had reservations for the night at Gouldings.
http://www.gouldings.com/campground/

It was a very pretty campground in a stunning location. Unfortunately just after we got there a dust storm blew up and I didn't get pics of the surrounding area and the monuments we could see from the camper.

As dusk fell things cleared up enough for us to get out of the camper. There was a hiking trail into the rocks right from the campground. You can see it on the left in the picture below.

The light was starting to fade so all the pics. don't reflect the gorgeous red color. Sunshine and I start out on the path.

Lots of rocks to explore which Sunshine likes.

Max and Blossom were ahead of us as I headed back to get my camera as soon as I saw how pretty it was.

There were many interesting rock formations.









The next day the dust storm came back so we didn't get to finish our hike as there was a path we didn't get to before dark.

Gouldings had an interesting history movie that they offered for free on the founders of the Goulding trading post. I would have loved to spend more time here as they also offer tours from the campground but we pressed on.

Dog's travel accomodations

Our dog's travel in the safety of crates which we have seatbelted to the floor with the existing chair seat belts. The seatbelts go around the base. On top of the straps we have placed thick foam pads. We also got them the water hole style water bowls which don't spill and attached them to the crates with Velcro straps.

We bought them the garage door style crates so that the door stores in the top when the crates are open and doesn't block the hallway. In this photo they have just finished their dinner. The bowls will come out but we leave the water in while traveling.

Cayton Campground

We continued making our way to the Grand Canyon. On the way we came upon Ridgway State Park. The water looked tempting and there was a swim beach.

But the water was ice cold so we only got in up to our ankles. In addition the water looked pretty dirty so we were happy to not get in.

We had some pretty scenic driving.

Pretty soon we saw snow on the peaks as we headed up, up, up.

I had found a campground on-line that I liked the sound of and hoped to get a site.


We arrived and they had one site available so we lucked out again. It was a beautiful one, surrounded by tall trees.

Many sites were on the river but ours was across the campground road. Which was OK as rivers can be quite noisy.



The dogs wanted to investigate.



Sunshine takes a look.

But says, no thanks.

Even Blossom says it is too rough for her.

Back to the campground road.

Max takes Blossom for a walk.

Sunshine likes to explore the campground roads also.

A muskrat lives under the rock that is near the campground host and the placard commemorating the campground. He comes out and chirps whenever a dog walks by.

As usual we asked about any hiking trails from the campground. So we started up to take advantage of what was available.

The hike was on a road that went, up, up, up.

We saw many pretty vistas.

Some times we were in an open field.

And then it was back into the trees.

We got closer and closer to the sun and sky.

Pretty soon the Sound of Music tune "Climb Every Mountain" seems to be appropriate.



After we hit private property we came back down to the campground.


Again, all too soon it was time to leave this lovely spot.