In the morning, we packed up our tent, ate a little breakfast and headed out for the day. Our first stop was to get coffee and plan out our hike at the Visitor's Center. After talking to a park ranger, we found a hike that didn't appear to be too difficult for our crew and set off.
Our trail of choice was Bright Angel trail. It had a couple of tunnels/archways and a very nice view of the canyon. This is us at the first tunnel. We hoped we might make it to the second tunnel but our crew was getting tired, and considering the fact that we had to hike back up, we wanted to turn around sooner rather than later.
After all that hiking, we were ready for some lunch. We wandered around the market place, looking for a pressed penny machine (unfortunately it was broken) and settled on some postcards to send to a friend and show to our class back home. Then we headed out to the picnic tables and enjoyed our lunch in the cool shade.
Before we left, we headed back over to Mather Point for another look at the spectacular views. The kids also got to climb around a little which made all of them pretty happy.
Enjoying the view.
Hanging precariously from the canyon wall.
Actually, there was a pretty large ledge there. Asher was wandering around behind Tyler in this picture.
All that hiking and climbing wore these two out. I love their matching sleeping expressions.
We left the Grand Canyon (stopping to get that pressed penny at a general store just outside the park) and started our drive to Las Vegas. As we were driving, we saw this large sandstorm forming to our north. It was really cool to watch. When we stopped for gas in Kingman, we got an alert on our phone warning us about this sandstorm. Luckily, when we turned north we were on the other side of a ridge of mountains so we didn't get stuck in the storm.
After a few more hours in the van, we arrived at Hoover Dam. I had seen quite of few references to Hoover Dam in different movies but nearly all of them were from the mid-90s so they didn't have the awesome bridge.
It was 111 degrees outside that day. Ugh!
A family divided.
After all that hiking and no shower, we were a pretty grimy group when we got to Las Vegas. Check out those dirty feet!
This was our hotel in Las Vegas. Our room wasn't in the main building of the hotel so our kids didn't see any of the hoopla. We did drive up and down the strip once after dark though so we could all experience the lights of Las Vegas.
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