Memorial Day Weekend at the Grand Canyon

by Virgil

Over Memorial Day weekend, we went camping south of Williams. We found a nice spot in the Kaibab National Forest where we were all by ourselves. On Sunday we drove up and spent the day at the Grand Canyon. Afterwards we went to the Grand Canyon IMAX and watched the movie. Marcia also bought a nice blue coat at the Grand Canyon gift shop. It was windy out and she was cold while having to yell at Virgil to "Get away from the edge!"

Quartzite and Palm Canyon

Summer is getting closer and the temperatures are starting to heat up. We drove over to Quartzite and camped just south of town. Normally the area we stayed would be packed with motor homes and fifth-wheels. We usually visit this area in the winter time and it was a little odd to see the place so deserted.

Palm Canyon isn’t too far from Quartzite and is fairly easy to get to. It is the only place in Arizona where palm trees grow naturally. We hiked about a half mile up into the canyon where the views are gorgeous. We even scared out a family of bighorn sheep and stopped to watch them move from one side of the canyon and climb the cliffs up the other side.



My first picture is looking towards the east up into the canyon. The palm trees are off to the left of the picture, but I couldn’t get a good shot of them since the sun was shining just right and caused a large shadow over the area.



After we got back from our hike, we drove on a 4wd trail just to the north of the canyon. After going as far up the wash as we wanted to go, we stopped and ate lunch. The trail was just a road cut up a wash and kept getting narrower as we went. Along the way were some interesting rock formations and even a cave that we stopped to explore.



Once we got back to our campers, we put out the awnings and did our best to stay cool under the blazing sun. The temperatures only got up into the 90’s, but the Arizona sun can make it feel 10 times hotter than that. Remind me to never try to camp here in the middle of the summer.