Touring the Grand Canyon and Heading to Kanab UT (Day 25)

I am not much of a sleeper, so I woke up well before sunrise. I think I woke up at 4:45 a.m. I went outside and it was relatively cool as temperatures had dropped down into the 60s. I sat on a bench for a little bit until the sun started to rise. It was peaceful and beautiful.  

There was a lot of foot traffic coming out of the hotel at that time and it was apparent I wasn't the only one that wanted to see the sunrise. It was beautiful and well worth getting up early for.  

Like the sunset, there is a lot of beauty in seeing the sun shine off the rocks of the Grand Canyon and the colors produced.  

Soon after sunrise, I got to see some mule deer running around having fun and playing while their parents ate some vegetation.  It was pretty fun to watch, especially as the young deer bolted off at the end.  

After watching the mule deer, I went back to the hotel room and waited for my family to wake up. Once they did wake up we checked out of the hotel room.  Before driving over closer to the Hermit Road shuttle bus pickup area, we did visit the Lookout Studio where there were some beautiful views.

Walking to the Lookout Studio, we saw one of the performing Grand Canyon squirrels just laying down on the edge of the cliff.    

In order to get to Hermit's Rest, you must take a shuttle bus.  The bus was free and ran about every 10 minutes.  It was never hard to get on or off and it was never full.   

Once on the shuttle bus, we stopped at several points along the way to see what's going on at different points along the Grand Canyon.  Again, any pictures we took did the view no justice.  You have to experience it for yourself.  We did see several posing squirrels along the way again.  

We took the bus all the way to the end to Hermit's Rest.

There is a shop out there where you can buy snacks and other souvenirs.  It is a beautiful building made of stone with an amazing fireplace in there.  

There the girls got some ice cream and of course, the performing squirrels of the Grand Canyon showed up looking for any dropped crumbs or drops of ice cream.

After riding the shuttle bus back to the Village, we departed the Grand Canyon. We exited the Grand Canyon out the east entrance, stopping along the way and Cameron, Arizona for lunch we ate lunch at the Cameron Trading Post. I had a Navajo taco and it was delicious. I made sure to get some Navajo bread for the girls as they had never had any before. 

After eating lunch we headed north and decided to take Route 89A through Marble Canyon and over the historic Navajo Bridge. I chose this route as we were going to Page, Arizona the next day and didn't feel like driving the same road twice.  Great decision as that bridge was amazing and beautiful, as was the landscape around it.  As usual, I hate heights and wasn't walking over the bridge, but Manina did and said it was amazing.  

After looking around the bridge, we started heading towards Kanab, Utah. Along the way we stopped at some large boulders and a Cliff Dwellers Stone House. Norah was really excited to go explore. 

We continued through Jacob Lake, which is due north of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was amazing to see how much forestry had been burned in that area from wildfires. We continued through Fredonia, Arizona and up into Kanab, Utah where we were spending the night. 

The girls were excited as we arrived. The hotel had a pool with an amazing view.  

We ordered Pizza Hut and the girls thought it was amazing that pizza was delivered to our hotel room. We called it an early night as we have a long day the next day.