Day #37 –
Friday July 22nd, 2016 – Our Journey to the Grand Canyon, Bearizona & Peach Springs (Grand
Canyon Caverns Inn)
As much as we
tried, even leaving early it still took us awhile to leave Las Vegas today! We
left our hotel at 8:30am and had a 4.5 hour drive to the Grand Canyon, a 45
minute drive to Bearizona and about an hour and fifteen minute drive to our
hotel and to dinner. We stopped for a little breakfast at a small place called
Checkers, right near our hotel and then we were on the move. I drove the first 4 hours, stopped at a gas
station and bought a hotdog for me and one for the homeless guy outside. When
we went back out he was gone, shucks!!!
Doryn switched and started driving to the Grand Canyon, the
closer we got the more our anticipation grew. I didn’t remember the last time
that I had been there – maybe as a child and Doryn too. As we approached the
main entrance, we were marveled at how large the land was, the road through the
park was long and I felt we’d never reach the canyon. We got a little lost
(thanks OnStar) due to all of the signs but eventually found our way to the
parking area. Now, just a note for those of you who haven’t been or it’s been
forever; park in lot #1, it’s the closest and the shortest walk to one of the
viewing areas of the South Rim. So we followed the signs, trekking past the
shuttles and buses, past the restrooms and up a walkway. I wondered how far the
viewing area was from where we were at…. Long walk, but good for us. I think it
may have been the elevation that was hard for me.
As we approached one of the many viewing areas we were in awe
of what was before us. It looked like a perfectly painted picture, it didn’t
look real. I heard a lot of other people there say the same thing, they felt
like they could reach out and just touch it, but I didn’t get too close to the
edge. I just stood there snapping photos of the sight from different angles,
each view was even more gorgeous than the last. I wished that I could be in the
middle of the canyon taking a panoramic picture of it all…. There are no words
to fully describe how I felt looking at another one of God’s amazing creations.
I could say Breathtaking and Inspiring, Moving and Inspirational… but that’s
not enough for all this….. Directly in front of me. Behind me was an auditorium
of rocks, Doryn stood at the top of it to catch some of the best shots, I’m
scared of heights so I didn’t venture up there – especially without railings. I
felt that the view I had was more than perfect. And I was surrounded by lots of
people viewing and taking photos and selfies, while I was just in awe….
Soon, I noticed a storm approaching and I alerted Doryn that
we needed to leave, as we had quite a walk back to the car. The trail back was
hard to find, so our walk was a little longer than expected, but this wasn’t a
bad thing. As we walked away from the path and wandered on, we came across a
buck or an elk. It was right in front of us and there was another couple taking
shots of this beautiful creature. We continued to take photos as it crossed the
road towards our parking lot. I walked around till I could access our lot, the
three of them continued to take shots of this creature who wasn’t at all
bothered by their curiosity. Doryn ran over to me to help me over the rocks to
get to the lot and told me that someone had approached them and threatened them
for taking photos and videos of the animal saying it was illegal. Imagine that,
illegal to take photos of animals.. I guess so in a National park. I found
those rules in the guide that they had given us. I’m glad we got the photos we
did.
As we left the Grand Canyon behind us, we saw the storm ahead
of us. The fierce black clouds and flashes of light. We soon heard the
monstrous growl of the thunder that surrounded us and then…. The hail and hard
down pour on our car! It continued for a few minutes and then we just saw
lightning and hear the thunder pounding. We continued on like warriors with one
goal in mind to reach Bearizona before closing time. We only had a short
distance between us, but we hoped that the rain would stay at bay so we could
enjoy this drive through wildlife park.
Well, we made it with time to spare. There’s a really cool
archway as you approach the wildlife park, accented with models of a bear, a
wolf and a mountain goat. You drive up to the entrance and are given the rules
which include not stopping in bear areas, keeping window closed and doors
locked at all times, plus the additional “do not feed the animals” mention. We
were given the map which detailed what areas we’d drive through. This isn’t the
exact order but this is what we encountered: Mountain Goats, Mule Deer, Elk,
Siberian Wolves, Black bear cubs, Bison, Donkey (burro), other wild wolves, big
black bears and big horn sheep. We were told if we drove through once and got
through it before 6pm, we could drive through one last time. The first time,
there was a car ahead of us with their son hanging out the passenger side
window, luckily nothing happened to this foolish kid. As we drove through the
first time, some of the animals were sleeping, including the wolves. The Bison
were eating and we found one very playful bear cub enjoying a nice bath in the
heat. We even spotted a big black bear hanging out on a rock and one asleep in
a cave, some of the animals were active, while others were sleeping. So once we
got through the park in about 30 minutes, we decided to go through it again –
to get more photos and our money’s worth of course!
So Doryn and I headed through again, this time the animals
were livelier; like the white wolves approaching the cars and smelling them. We
had to stop a few times so we wouldn’t hit them. Eventually they moved from our
car to a red one behind us. We circled to get one last glimpse of these active
wolves before moving onto the next exhibit, the bear cubs who were between the
ages of 1-3yrs old. We had arrived and stopped to watch a staff member in a
white truck ahead of us chasing the cubs with his car to get them away from
something. It looked as if he was playing with them and they were in turn
enjoying it. I think he may have riled them up with this and he got out of his
car to grab something on the ground and left. Well, he had done it!! They were
even more active this time.
As we approached, there were many that were closer to the
road. One started walking in front of us and so we stopped (No stopping in bear
enclosures, was on my mind), but we didn’t know how to divert from hitting it.
Instead of if moving past us it approached the front of the car and started to
smell it, Doryn immediately locked the doors again and this bear cub crawled to
the driver side, I heard a noise as if it was either trying to open the door of
pound on it. I have to admit I was a bit freaked out, but nothing prepared me
for what followed. As I sat there, suggesting we go in reverse so we wouldn’t
hurt them another one approached my side of the car, close to my window. My
heart beat faster as it got on its hind legs and got up towards my window,
putting its paw on the side view mirror. At this point I was in fact terrified
and asked Doryn to reverse the car, he tried but the bear cubs stood their
ground. Next we had another bear behind us…. As if they had done this before
(which I didn’t doubt). The one of my passenger side was trying to shake our
car. As I sat there and Doryn was reversing, a black SUV passed us, taking photos
of us… yes instead of trying to help! Eventually we were able to escape. I was
so scared….. We continued through the rest of the park until we reached the end
and asked the staff member about what someone should do this that situation.
She really didn’t know and laughed about it. As for me… I was scared out of my
wits. We pulled out to the restrooms and I just sat there, breathing until we
left. I’m sure that in the future, I would honk and push forward. I didn’t have
time to take photos as I was scared…. Sorry Guys! :-/
(Now you know if you have Facebook why I posted that “Random”
question… It wasn’t random now was it?!)
As we left the park, I was looking forward to getting to our
hotel to rest. Our drive was about an hour and a half and it was getting late
and restaurants in the small town ahead of us were closing soon, so we opted to
head to the restaurant first. We drove down a few dark roads and passed our
hotel the “Grand Canyon Caverns Inn” and continued on the dark road past a
Youth Detention Center in the middle of nowhere and to our restaurant, actually
the only one that was open at 8:30pm. We went inside and ordered. My food
didn’t come out right unfortunately, but we were thankful to be eating
(whatever I could). We left shortly after and headed back down the dark road to
our hotel. The road seemed darker than before, which made arriving at this
hotel beyond creepy! We pulled up to a junkyard of old cars and a dimly lit
front entrance to the hotel. I got out and approached, it was 9:30pm, so the
main lobby was closed but the overnight staff was in. I rang the bell and
looked around me at the swarms of flying bugs hovering around me, in front of
me, on the building and above me by the lights. This was honestly creepy. The
girl answered and checked us in. We drove to the far back of the hotel and
found building 3 and room #32. We walked into the room hoping it was nothing
like the front desk. To first sight it looked nice, but then there were bugs.
And we found them everywhere in the room including dead in the lights and on
the walls. Doryn was indeed an exterminator of sorts with his swatting towel in
hand. Because it was so late and there were no hotels for over a hundred miles,
we stayed there and planned to check out as soon as we got up in the morning….
A long day tomorrow over 6 hours to Cardiff to see Kelly, Jim
and the Girls
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