On the Holiday Road 2013: Grand Canyon to Vegas

July 11, 2013—Day 6

We were up at around 4:00 am to head out for the sunrise. We drove to the visitor center at Mather Point (I think) and didn’t see one other car. We also had no idea how far it was to the rim from the visitor center. And, it was dark. My niece got a nosebleed. We decided to drive to the next lookout point, which was, I believe, Yavapai Point (or something like that). Still no cars to be seen. I volunteered to see how far the rim was from the parking lot. Armed with the tiniest flashlight ever, I cautiously started down a path. Something small, white-ish, and furry darted in front of me. I stood stone still, afraid that furry thing’s larger, ferocious mother might pounce on me. I thought about my dad’s sighting of a “panther.” Hmmm, was this really worth it?

After a few seconds, I sucked it up and walked a little way to find that we were at the EDGE! I went back to find the rest of my party, and we made our way to a seating area on the rim. We could see a faint orange glow in the distance, but for the most part, we were socked in with clouds and weren’t expecting too much. A few other people trickled in. It was cold and windy. But, we were loving it.