Morning at the Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon National Park - Sat, 12 Sep 2020, 10:30am
For our visit to the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park we chose to stay at the El Tovar hotel. It's a historic property, built in 1905 (yes, in the US, particularly the western US, that's old!) inside the park itself.
It's a spendy property. We decided to splurge for the novelty of a historic property right in the center of the action. We're paying almost $300/night, and that's for the smallest room on a shoulder-season sale.
When we arrived last night we were skeptical of the wisdom of our choice. The bathroom looks to be 1930s vintage, and while there are modern conveniences like a mini-fridge and wifi, the room is very small a la 100-years-ago standards. For example, there is just one bed and no room even for a sitting chair. There are chairs outside in the staircase lobby. (There's also no elevator. That was another disappointment arriving late at night and having to haul our bags up to the 3rd floor.) But then this morning we looked out the window....
Yes, we can see the Grand Canyon from our window. Somehow when we booked this hotel we thought it was it was "a 5-8 minute walk" from the rim. That was based on reviews at TripAdvisor. It still seemed closer than many other hotels, so between that and the historical nature of the property we decided to splurge. And thus we were impressed this morning to find we were right at the rim. We walked out the building and across a stone terrace to the wall at the rim itself.
If we'd known we were this close we would've gone out for a look last night, regardless of how tired we were. Of course, we wouldn't have seen the canyon. There's no light! But because there's no light we would've gone out to look at the stars. Light pollution in modern cities makes it difficult to appreciate the night sky in the way that Hawk and I remember seeing regularly as children.
For our visit to the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park we chose to stay at the El Tovar hotel. It's a historic property, built in 1905 (yes, in the US, particularly the western US, that's old!) inside the park itself.
It's a spendy property. We decided to splurge for the novelty of a historic property right in the center of the action. We're paying almost $300/night, and that's for the smallest room on a shoulder-season sale.
When we arrived last night we were skeptical of the wisdom of our choice. The bathroom looks to be 1930s vintage, and while there are modern conveniences like a mini-fridge and wifi, the room is very small a la 100-years-ago standards. For example, there is just one bed and no room even for a sitting chair. There are chairs outside in the staircase lobby. (There's also no elevator. That was another disappointment arriving late at night and having to haul our bags up to the 3rd floor.) But then this morning we looked out the window....
Yes, we can see the Grand Canyon from our window. Somehow when we booked this hotel we thought it was it was "a 5-8 minute walk" from the rim. That was based on reviews at TripAdvisor. It still seemed closer than many other hotels, so between that and the historical nature of the property we decided to splurge. And thus we were impressed this morning to find we were right at the rim. We walked out the building and across a stone terrace to the wall at the rim itself.
If we'd known we were this close we would've gone out for a look last night, regardless of how tired we were. Of course, we wouldn't have seen the canyon. There's no light! But because there's no light we would've gone out to look at the stars. Light pollution in modern cities makes it difficult to appreciate the night sky in the way that Hawk and I remember seeing regularly as children.