Day 24 (9 August 2016) - Grand Canyon South Rim and Page

The last leg of our journey was going east from Las Vegas to cover the main part of the Grand Canyon. Our original plan was to cover the north and south rims but the north rim was closed and so the route to the south rim was the default choice. This was just as well as getting to the north or south rim from Las Vegas is a mammoth four hour drive and there is no way to cover both rims in a day by driving the distances are too vast.

Our route to the Grand Canyon and onto Page which was our stop for the night is shown below.

The drive is a long drive so trying to do the South Rim in a day from Las Vegas will be pushing it. The South Rim is the main part of the Grand Canyon and part of the US National Park service. Its not part of the rip off west rim. This meant that our Annual Pass worked and the way to visit the rim is very similar to the other national park. There is a parking area and then you take the free shuttle buses to the various view points along the rim. We parked in the Grand Canyon Village and essentially walked the Rim Trail and took the free shuttle buses for the view points further away.

Grand Canyon South Rim

This is want you can expect to see at the South Rim.

As you can see from the top picture we managed to go on a spectacular day where its was raining over part of the canyon and the top picture captures this. After the initial awe at this sight it became clear that we were going to get a soaking.

While typically you would think that a this would mean a lovely cooling shower it became clear that the situation was a little more precarious. Apparently the rim is prone to lightning strikes and when it rained we saw a number of lightening strikes across the rim.

The national parks had to evacuate the rim and the shuttle buses which displayed a 15 minute periodic lethargy started to come thick and fast. It need the classic American urgency and anger to kick things into shape but things usually more when this happens the Americans really get things moving.

After a 30 minute wait with wet clothes and a whole load of shivering we boarded the bus back to Grand Canyon village. When we arrived at the village we were pretty much ready to drive to Page having concluded that we had seen enough sunsets on our trip. But the Grand Canyon had one last surprise for us.

We were gifted with a spectacular sunset, the photographs above do not serve any justice to the beauty. So it you go do ask about the sunset at the time of the year you go there and if its worthwhile given the weather forecast.

We left the Grand Canyon in the dark and drive the couple of hours needed to get to Page. Where we were staying for the night.