Another Rim Walk and Home

On Monday, October 29th, we drove in to El Tovar for breakfast.  There were still a few spaces in the parking lot.  We got the exact same table we had had our first night, with a view (of a sort) of the Canyon, but this time it was daylight, so we could see what (little) there was to see.  We had some specialty of the hotel--three different kinds of pancake, I think, with a special syrup.  Good.

I went to the lobby and spent a long time getting intermittent Internet access, while Mary Joy went across the parking lot to Hopi House, a Mary Jane Colter-designed southwest Indianish building, used from the beginning as a store selling Indian crafts.  Mary Joy was still there when I went over, and we ended up buying a number of things for gifts, as well as some postcards.

We drove back to Yavapai Lodge and checked out.  Then we drove to the Visitor Center, where we parked and caught the Orange bus to South Kaibab Trailhead.  A number of the people there were going or coming from the (relatively) short,

(relatively) easy hike down to Ooh Aah Point.  Mary Joy talked with some Germans who were about to go down.  Then we talked with a couple (Canadians?) who wanted to know the time and were surprised that their hike down to Cedar Ridge and back had taken only a little over two hours.  We were tempted, but were under time pressure (it was around eleven), so we followed our original plan and walked the Rim Trail back to Mather Point.

This was something of a disappointment, not being as scenic as the hike the day before.  Much of it was through a burnt-out piñon-juniper forest.  In about two hours we were at Mather Point, which has yet another spectacular view.

 From there it was a very short walk to the Visitor Center.  We went in and asked a ranger about our route back to Phoenix.  He suggested the eastern route, via Cameron, but in the end we went back the way we had come.  The scenery is actually somewhat better going on U.S. 180 from the Canyon to Flagstaff than vice-versa.  We wanted to stop for lunch again at La Bellavia, but they were closed, so we went across the street and had chili at the Beaver Street Brewery (also recommended by Lonely Planet) and that was fine.

We got into Phoenix as the sun was setting, and avoided getting tangled in the traffic for a Cardinals football game.  Dinner was at La Parrilla Suiza, a decent Mexican restaurant.

The next day, we went toward downtown for lunch at Christo's, a very good Italian restaurant, where we've eaten a number of times before.  Then we left our car off at Budget, and left the lost camera at the service desk.  Later, however, they found my driving glasses in the car and eventually shipped them to me in Minnesota.  Was there some sort of spell or curse on that car?

We caught our flight, which was uneventful, and got back to MSP sometime after nine o'clock.