...we eat a McDonalds breakfast which turns out to be poor value (not enough food, overpriced) and we set off for the Grand Canyon. After calculating pros and cons we decide to buy the annual all national park pass at $80 instead of just paying $30 for the canyon.
...we get used to driving to get any meal including breakfast even if the restaurant is just 5 mins walk from the hotel for example. Oh God!!!
...we take a loooot of pictures at various viewpoints along the scenic drives in the park - the views are hallucinating!
...much delayed we pack and descend into the canyon - we wanted to do a steep trail down and another one more gentle back up but the steep trail head has no parking and then there would be the logistical nightmare of getting from trail B to trail A after getting back up. So we go the gentle way both ways.
...trail is quite slippery (snow and ice at first and then mud) so we proceed slowly. Walking sticks come in handy. It gets dark fast so when we meet a campground 1000m below we set up camp!
...the campsite is extremely well organized with tables at each tent station and metal boxes for keeping food from scavengers. There is also a ranger who has a comfy house with a vintage record player and Internet (she is from Alaska, admittedly she says conditions here for rangers are much better than there) and who informed us this is only halfway to the campsite we were aiming for but its too late to change campsites now... - we heat our raviolis, drink our wines (US$1.5 for a small airplane sized bottle of Gallo -
nice!), stash the rest of our food and go to sleep. The night is chilly and still (5C in the tent).