Navajo National Monument to Grand Canyon National Park. The decision on whether to turn right or left at the intersection was easy due to a quick internet search letting us know that the north rim of the Grand Canyon was closed until 
Memorial Day. And another online search had us scoring a campsite, with hot showers, for the evening in Grand Canyon Village. While the Grand Canyon may “only” be several miles wide going from the north rim to the south via roads would take the better part of a day. Further solidifying our decision was the our next planned stop being Sedona which is a few hours south of the south rim.
Life in the van has been good, the prior night we watched a classic, the Brady Bunch visits the Grand Canyon. I believe it was one of the only two “double”episodes they did, the other being their visit to Hawaii (was that three episodes?). Classic show, the gang rides mules to Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon where Bobby and Cindy promptly get lost. Which in reality is just about impossible, 35 years ago I hiked across the canyon starting from the south rim spent the night camping at Phantom Ranch and hiked up the north rim the following day. Bobby and Cindy get “saved” by a young native American boy. With the episode ending with them all enjoying a pow-wow with their newfound friends.
The bottom of the canyon is made up of 1.7 billion year old Vishnu rock which is tough metamorphic stuff. The Colorado River runs 277 miles thru the canyon cutting the rock on each side which due to the Vishnu being very hard forms pronounced almost sheer vertical cliffs. At the bottom aside from the small Phantom Ranch “settlement” (I did get an ice-cream sandwich there) is the Bright Angle trail with its foot bridge over the river so unless you are an serious climber there is literally no where to go.
We spent most of the first day exploring the canyon, actually just the rim, in the van. After checking in at the campground we explored the village which is more like a small city which along with the dozen or so lodges and restaurants contained a post office, bank, grocery store and train station.
The following day we hoped on our bikes and locked them up at the top of the Bright Angle trail-head. Hoku and I hiked 3 miles and 2000 vertical feet down the Bright Angle trail before deciding that we best turn around to make it back up before dark, going down was optional going up was mandatory.
Cool place, so we extended our campground stay another night. With Katie not feeling well the past two weeks Hoku’s schooling had been in somewhat of a spring break mode. So the academic counsel decided to enlist the teacher and student for a full day of instruction. This gave me the excuse to hop on my road bike and hit the section of roadway which parallels the south rim. The road west of the village was closed to vehicular traffic serviced by park service buses with bicycles allowed. Although the round trip ride from our campsite was only 25 miles total I have to say it was one of the most scenic rides I’ve ever ridden. No traffic, excellent pavement, perfect temperature with a constant vista of the canyon off to the side.
So after the ride, I swung by the grocery store to check it out and was pleasantly surprised by the greeter.
Next stop Sedona, OK it actually ended up being Wal-Mart in Flagstaff, but not for the night, we haven’t done that one yet.