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Orlando Bingles’ Western Adventure: Day 4

by Bingle on Jun.06, 2008, under Richard Bingle Family

Day 4 would be Rich’s scariest day, visiting the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Why scariest? Well, I’ve apparently inherited some of my father’s fear of heights. Not only am I somewhat uncomfortable being near the edge, I don’t particularly like it when I see other people near the edge (especially when there is literally nothing between them and a fall to certain death or when they’ve decided to leave the path to get a closer look or better picture).

Sitting Pretty

We started the day by parking at Maswik Lodge and taking the park shuttle “Red Route” west out to Hopi Point stopping at each overlook for pictures and “oohing and ahhing”. In hindsight, it might have been better for my nerves if we had saved this for last and worked up to it as the overlooks in this area are somewhat more rustic and uneven and I felt compelled to keep telling the girls to hang on to the railing or someone’s hand. But, we survived and took the shuttle back to the village for a walk along the rim from Bright Angel Trailhead (where the mule rides enter for their trip down to the canyon floor) over to Yavapai Observation Station. Most of this 1.75 mile walk is pretty close to the rim but offers some “protection” with a low wall between the path and certain death, so I just held firmly onto Amber’s hand and toughed it out.

Close Elk

When we were done with our walk, we boarded the “Blue Route” shuttle back to Maswik Lodge to pick up our van and head east along the canyon a bit to check out some views we had glimpsed the day before on our ride out to our smooth water raft trip. On the drive over, we spotted some elk right next to the side of the road and stopped for a bunch of pictures and video. They were so close to the van that it seemed like one of them was thinking about sticking his head in the side window to say “hi”. It is amazing how they figure out that since they are in a national park they have little to fear from humans.

The Grand Canyon is a simply amazing place. With it’s sheer enormity and its awesome beauty, it is easy to understand why it’s called they called it Grand!

Next stop, Karen’s (soon to be) 100 year old Grandmother.


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