Rhonda and Gary are busy traveling the western United States touring lots of beautiful places. Zion NP, Canyon Lands, Yosemite, Bryce Canyon NP, Arches NP...the list goes on and on. What is so cool is one of their stops was Grand Canyon National Park...4 hours away from us.
We jumped on the chance to go and visit them for the day. So on Monday morning we started the drive up to Grand Canyon with the expectation of cooler temperature and gorgeous views of Grand Canyon. As always, it did not disappoint. We walked around a couple overlooks and then decided to grab some french bread, bagel crackers and red pepper hummus and hang out and watch the sunset. It was quite peaceful! We then grabbed dinner in the cafeteria by Yavapai Lodge, where they were staying and then headed in for the night.
The next morning they headed out by 8:15 am so Rob and I decided to hike down Bright Angel Trail...and we were glad we did! We saw six California Condors soaring above us and at one point, two flew right above us and we were able to see their tag numbers. The one I remembered and looked up was J1. She is a 4 year old female born in April 2009. Pretty neat! Rob has now seen California Condors at the Grand Canyon and in Vermillion Cliffs but he said this was the closest he has seen them yet. California Condors are some of the rarest birds to see in nature.
We left Grand Canyon around 1130pm and decided to stop in at Cottonwood, Arizona. We absolutely love this town in the Verde Valley. We walked around a thrift store super quick (it was named Paw Boutique and we thought it was a thrift store for dogs/cats, etc but it was not). We then tried some wines at Burning Tree Cellars and Arizona Stronghold. As always, great wines. We stopped for a quick bit to eat on the way out and got home to Phoenix around 730pm. Back to the heat!
This morning I had oral surgery to remove my last two wisdom teeth and another molar that I have been having issues with. I am feeling much better than my last surgery but as the night is wearing on the pain is picking back up, ugh!
Anyhoo, it was wonderful to get out of town for a couple days and see Rhonda and Gary at the Grand Canyon!
