Road Trip (before Covid-19) - Grand Canyon Desert View Tour

***** Not much food in this one, mostly just photos - just clearing out the memory card

When planning our road trip to visit Antelope Canyon and Flagstaff, I decided to do a small group day tour of the Grand Canyon from Flagstaff. Why a tour you might ask? Well, the main reason being that it was Labor Day weekend and I didn't want to deal with traffic, parking, etc, etc..... I thought doing a small group tour might work out well and it did. Plus, I figure we'll be back someday....I can take my time and meander around then.

I'm going to try to keep the verbiage down. There are many resources out there for visiting the Grand Canyon.

This tour took the less crowded East Entrance (currently closed due to Covid-19) from Navajo Country into the park. Our guide/driver was a hoot....warm, funny, knowledgeable, just a great guy.

We met at our assigned time in Flagstaff, loaded up the van and were off.....the group was on the older side; so folks were really mellow, even the three biker guys who had ridden in from California. We drove in through the East entrance not running into a single other vehicle until we came to Desert View known for the historic Desert View Watchtower.

Talk about wonderful scenery!

We enjoyed wandering around....I could probably spend an entire day here.....

And of course we spent some time in the watchtower, which only dates back to 1932 and was designed by Mary Colter; Chief Architect for the Fred Harvey Company and one of the few women architects of her time.

The tower was designed to resemble Pueblan Watchtowers, though it is much taller than any known traditional structure. The interior is also quite stunning.

Among the various landmark signs is this one.

Which recalls a terrible tragedy, the deadliest plane crash/collision of its time. Because of this and other tragedies and near misses that followed the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 was passed which became the FAA.

We had a few more short stops......

Before heading to the Tusayan Ruins. Our guide got us to the site just as a Ranger was ready to start his tour.

I could probably do a whole post just on this site; but I think you'll enjoy the National Park Services document much more.

After a quick stop at the Museum/Gift Shop, it was time for lunch under a nice patch of trees. Just simple sandwiches and chips....which did us just fine.

After lunch our next stop might have been my favorite; Grandview Point. The views from the point are amazing.

The Grandview Trail also starts here.

I was just happy with the views.

And our guide made sure to take photos of everyone (who wanted) on the rock outcropping.

There's also quite a bit of history here.....

Would you believe that a hotel once stood on this ledge?

Yep, the Grand View Hotel once stood there! Man, I wouldn't want to be walking around outside the place after having a few whiskies.....

Beautiful, ain't it???

We made a couple more stops before ending things at Grand Canyon Village.

As you can tell; some rain had rolled in right before we stopped here.

So, while folks went to take a "bio-break", got some coffee, or did some shopping, the Missus and I explored this structure.

It's another structure designed by Mary Colton; the Hopi House. Designed to resemble a Hopi Pueblo.

There's an actual Hopi door from Oraibi which leads to an altar room. If you'd like to read more about this amazing architect you can do so here.

From here we headed back to Flagstaff. We'd really enjoyed this small group tour. It gave us a nice taste of the Grand Canyon; I'm sure we'll be back. It was well worth the time and money.

We got back to our room, had a short nap, and got ready for dinner.

Yes, this is still a food blog, so I'll get to that in my next post. Thanks so much for indulging me!

 

Comments

[kat]

pretty scenery!

[Junichi]

Nice pics! Never been to the Eastern side of the Grand Canyon.

[Kirk]

It was so beautiful Kat!

We really enjoyed it Junichi!