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Outside Bright Angel Lodge I saw condors for the very first time. Three of them were circling over the South Rim wall of the Grand Canyon and over us. They were so close I could clearly see their tagged numbers. These condors were attracting a large crowd who were momentarily focused upon birds rather than stoney cliffs of the canyon.
Rob and I decided to go for a walk along the South Rim, along a sealed trail that hugges the canyon cliff face. This was a path set amongst the vegetation and was often shaded, which was most appeciated as it was now midday and quite warm. We walked for 3 1/2 kms, went to two lookouts, and had amazing views of this section of the canyon. The rest of the group hade decided to do other things, so this was a great time for Rob and I to soak up our last moments in the canyon. The trail was not very busy, but enough people not to feel isolated.
At Maricopa we decided it was far enough to walk before catching the shuttle buses back to our red Feathers Hotel in Tusayan. Maricopa lookout had nearly 360 degree views - two thirds canyon and one third forrest. Standing out on the canyon cliff edge, a barrier had been erected to keep the lookout safe, we were once again overwhelmed with the sheer size of the canyon , its various shapes, colours and contours. Another photo was required, so after politely asking a Frenchman to take our photo, handing over the camera, the battery went flat! But, being totally prepared for every emergency, including flat battery, we whipped a spare one from the bag, and our photo was taken!
We got back to the hotel at 3.45pm, rather exhausted after catching 3 buses (it had nothing to do with the hiking and walking for over 12 kms on a warm day) to have just enough time to shower and get down to the Imax theatre to see the film "Grand Canyon". It was a good film tracing 4000 years of known human habitation and interaction with the Grand Canyon. Quite incredible cinematography capturing traversing the Colorado River in wooden boats by early explorers. I am certainly not keen on white water rafting the canyon!
Dinner was back out in the Canyon Park at Bright Angel where we saw sunset. It had been a fabulous day in Grand Canyon National Park.
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