Rick Melick - Vacation to Grand Canyon, Part 3

Rick (Dad), Gilly and Eli visit the Grand Canyon in June, 2004.

6/21/2004 - We spent the day in the park on a guided tour of the South rim of the Grand Canyon, seeing: Yavapai Point; Grand Canyon Village (Hopi House, Bright Angel Trail, endangered California Condor birds, El Tovar Hotel, Santa Fe Depot, Klob Studio); Grandview Point; the Tusayan Ruin; Desert View tower. We saw a lot of things through our guide's scope, like: Wotan's Throne, Vishnu Temple, Cardenas Butte, Venus Temple. We learned about plants in the area, such as desert sage. We learned about many of the ecological challenges to the canyon, like: fires, land reclamation initiatives and the humanization of animals. We learned about canyon safety and how others have been injured and died in the past. We learned how to identify the Raven bird (round tail). We learned about the native Humpback Chub fish, and the non-native Rainbow Trout. We learned about the Colorado River, dams and lakes. We learned why the canyon is so wide. We learned about some important people to the Grand Canyon, like John Wesley Powell and Mary Colter.

6/22/2004 - Today Eli and Gilly flew over the canyon on Grand Canyon Airlines, taking pictures and video of the flight. We bought gifts for family at shops in Tusayan. For himself, Eli bought a local wood carving of a Raven as a souvenir to remember his trip.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Family
• Vacation
• Grand
• Canyon
• 2004

[Visgekken]

Bin there in 2002.

Did ya see the condors?

I took some amazing pics whyle flying over.