Grand Canyon - Part 2

After the rush to get to the Grand Canyon before sunrise, we went back to our hotel and ate breakfast then we went back to the Grand Canyon. I was a bit surprised that even though it was the beginning of March a number of the hotels had no vacancy.

As we drove into the park, we saw a mule deer. It reminded us a bit of Yellowstone.



We started off at the Visitor's Center so the children could pick up the book for the Jr. Ranger program. We have done it at a number of the national parks and I find it a helpful way to get some educational aspects into our visit.



One of the things that was required for the Jr. Ranger program was to attend a Ranger program. We went on a nature walk with one of the rangers. We did learn some interesting things about the yucca plant -- the Native Americans used the roots to make a soap as well as a few other things.

We then drove along the rim towards the watchtower. J really wanted to hike and he was able to "hike" to the watchtower. We stopped at a few places along the way back to the Visitor's Center.



There was a bit of snow on the ground so we can prove that we were there in the winter.

Kylie had spent the previous day looking out the car window and thinking that the hills we saw were the Grand Canyon. In preparation for our visit, we had watched Awesome Science Grand Canyon video. It was a good introduction to the Grand Canyon.



We learned that the average visitor spends 3 1/2 hours at the Grand Canyon. We were a bit higher than the average as we stayed about 6 hours.

It was a fun day and I am glad that we were able to take the children there. Now we continue our drive across the country.