The A-Z of My Favorite Travel Destinations — Grand Canyon

Why did the Grand Canyon Disappear?

It’s not like one of the famous Las Vegas Magicians made it disappear, along with other famous sites. But rather, my pictures disappeared, and so I was unable to write about the Grand Canyon as my A-Z destination for the letter “G.”

It’s been five months since my last A-Z story, which was the letter J. So my next letter is K, but I had also skipped the letter G and needed to circle back to G and then K to move forward.

I wanted to use our trip to the Grand Canyon for my letter G, but I didn’t have a single picture as many of our pictures were destroyed. So what to do?

Write about Gilia Bend, Arizona — what an exciting story that would be. (Sarcasm)

So for five months, my A-Z stories were stuck in the mud at G and K.

But look at what I found while cleaning the garage.

A full box of three-and-a-half-inch floppy disks, many with pictures, and right there in the very front of the box was my letter “G.”

Is that serendipity or what?

But don’t get too excited. This disk was twenty-one years old and had been in a very hot garage for 21 summers. Would the disk even work? Plus, I had no way to read a floppy disk.

I bought a USB floppy disk drive from Amazon, but it said, “Disk can not be read.”

Of course, it did.

The directions said not to use an adapter, but since my laptop only has a USB C input, I had no choice but to use an adapter.

“There is a lesson here for you who may need to use a floppy drive with old pictures someday.”

So I take the drive and my floppy disk to my local Apple Store, where a girl greets me in a ponytail — she looks like she is barely sixteen years old. She looks at this old guy holding up a floppy disk and says, “What’s that.”

I explain the error message and ask if Apple makes an adapter that will work; she doesn’t know and gets her manager. He has a baby face and looks only a bit older than ponytail.

I swear this is true — as he walks up to the old guy holding a floppy disk — he starts laughing.

So at least, he knows what it is.

But do I get mad that he is laughing at the old guy holding up a floppy disk?

He says the problem is likely that the USB can’t support the power needs of a USB-C. He suggests buying a Floppy Drive that has a USB-C.

I find one on Amazon that has a splitter. (both USB and USB-C).

It works, and I now have eight pictures of our trip to the Grand Canyon. All of them are cheesy tourist-type pictures, but hey, beggars can’t be choosy.

Our visit to the Grand Canyon was in July, it was so hot it took your breath away, and there were signs everywhere to watch for rattlesnakes.

If you have read some of my other stories, you know how much I love rattlesnakes.

Mike Junior and I decided to walk the Hermits Rest Trail, which switch-backs down into the canyon and originates a 1/4 mile from the local stone structure known as Hermits Rest.

Sandys decided to go to the gift shop, which was airconditioned and was probably the smart one among us.

With my newly purchased walking stick and two bottles of water, we head off.

They had mule rides to the bottom, but when I saw how narrow and rocky the trail was, I decided we would walk and skip the mules. They were also tourist-level expensive. Today, you can take a mule to the bottom and camp overnight in Phantom Ranch, but with only ten mules, this trip is very costly and books months ahead.

I was so busy watching for rattlesnakes that I missed the beauty of where I was and then, not being “in the moment,” shortchanged myself on that trip. The only pictures I took were from the top, yet the views along the way were stunning.

The Grand Canyon is constantly changing as the sun moves and the clouds cast interesting shadows.

It was eerily silent as we got halfway down, like all the noise of busses and traffic, and people washed over the top and remained silent as you were in the canyon itself.

While there was a breeze at the top, it was quiet and barely a slight breeze against the canyon walls while descending.

And it was hot, did I say hot?

I don’t remember how long we walked, but I think about an hour down; I decided that we had another hour to get back out, and the going up was going to be harder, and maybe it was time to turn around.

We didn’t make it to the bottom, and making a full round trip would have been only for the strongest, who started much earlier and maybe on a cooler day.

My walking stick came in very handy in maintaining balance on uneven surfaces.

I have twenty-two medallions on my walking stick today, but the Grand Canyon was the very first medallion that I added right up at the top.

We spent some time in the Grand Canyon Village area, where we had lunch and saw a movie about how the Canyon was formed and exhibits of early settlers and the history of the canyon and surrounding areas.

I enjoy all our National Parks, and the Grand Canyon is a Grand Park. The village area, not unlike Yosemite Village area, is an over-the-top tourist trap in some respects.

There are a lot of people.

The Grand Canyon is the 2nd most visited National Park.

(figures below are from 2022 and from a CNN story)

1. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 12.94 million

2. Grand Canyon National Park, 4.73 million

3. Zion National Park, 4.69 million

4. Rocky Mountain National Park, 4.30 million

5. Acadia National Park, 3.97 million

6. Yosemite National Park, 3.67 million

7. Yellowstone National Park, 3.29 million

8. Joshua Tree National Park, 3.06 million

9. Cuyahoga Valley National Park, 2.913 million

10. Glacier National Park, 2.908 million

We enjoyed our time at one of the National Park's treasured locations.

And with the help of Apple Store’s Baby Face, I was able to get some pictures, and I could write the letter “G” story.

Thanks for reading; Happy Travels and Happy Trails.

Always remember to “pack out what you bring in.”

If I haven’t lost count, there are nine other Globetrotters working on the A-Z travel challenge, which was started by Sam Millichap, who has completed the journey.

Anne Bonfert, Adrienne Beaumont, Jerry Dwyer, Nishan Fuard, Jillian Amatt - Artistic Voyages, Robert G. Longpré, Darren Weir, Dan Carlson | Meandering Naturist, Ronald Smit

Here is a Story by fellow Globetrotter Osan Fernando about a reunion trip with two days at the Grand Canyon and four days in Las Vegas.

Here is a story from Anne Bonfert where she struggled with the letter P, while I was struggling with the letter G. An amazing travel story; check it out.

Another Globetrotter finished the A-Z travel series a couple of months ago, and that was Adrienne Beaumont when she wrote about Zibilje. I’m amazed at the globetrotters who have written all 26 stories as I struggle to get to the halfway point.