Grand Canyon National Park

Oct 13 - 17....Grand Canyon National Park -- what can we say, it was GRAND! The Grand Canyon is truly a site all of it's own. We walked about 2 miles on the South Rim walking path the first day we got there. We took in the sunset and even the sunrise overlooking the canyon. We were out there at 610am (that's early for us now). Both the sunset and sunrise was a beautiful site. The pictures turned out the best at sunset. It was kinda hazy (pollution from CA & AZ according to the signs). One day we decided to try a hike down into the Canyon. We left from Yaki Point and hiked down & "back up" 600ft - 3/4 miles each way. It wasn't very far but it was pretty 'straight' down. Once you get over that weird feeling looking down it wasn't bad. They say to allow twice as long coming back up as going down - we made it in 35 minutes down and 40 minutes up (were in better shape than we thought! Next trip to the canyon we would like to make the hike down to the bottom to the Colorado River (7-10 miles depending on the trail) & overnight at the Phantom Ranch and then return up the next day. We will definitely need to be in better shape & be better equipped - we're getting into this hiking thing! We met a few guys that hiked down from the North Rim and were on their way back up to the South Rim - 14 miles down and 7 up (obviously that didn't happen in one day). There are caution signs everywhere advising not to go down and up in the same day. We pretty much covered the South Rim of the Canyon - from Desert View to Hermits Rest! Speaking of getting in shape, we didn't start off to good today as we stopped at 'Twisters Soda Fountain' on Historic Route 66 in Williams where we had a milkshake! Today we are headed to Camp Verde, AZ.