The Grand Canyon State

  Of course the Grand Canyon state is Arizona. Our drive from New Mexico to the Grand Canyon was about 390 miles and luckily we gained an hour because of the time difference going from Mountain Time to Arizona time. Geographically Arizona is in the Mountain Time zone but they do not recognize daylight savings time so therefore they are on Pacific Time.
  We took advantage of the extra hour by taking a detour through Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Parks.

  The parks are conveniently located directly off of I-40 exit 311. A 28 mile drive through the parks brings you out onto US 180 which takes you back to I-40 at Holbrook Arizona.

The first stretch goes through the Painted Desert:

Old Route 66 cut through the National Park:

The road then goes through the Petrified Forest:

The forest lays on the ground I guess.

The 28 mile detour took two and a half hours. All together this trip was about eight hours. We arrived at Grand Canyon Camper Village in the town of Tusayan about 6 PM:

Before going anywhere I to attend to another repair job. The plastic corner cover was dangling and the entire nose cover was separating from the body. 

I had to screw in the covers and I didn't have black caulk so I used heavy duty GOOP.

The job was done by late morning thanks to a friendly fellow camper next door who supplied me with the screws I needed. So we were finally off to the National Geographic Visitor center in town to plan our visit. We ended up going on a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon:

Tim, our pilot looked to be fresh out of flight school

Just amazing views that you can't see anywhere else

Here the Colorado River can be seen near the bottom

The ride lasted about 30 minutes and was worth every penny.

After the ride we were off to the visitor center in the park. Our campground was only two miles from the entrance and there was no wait getting in, but road construction inside the park did cause delays.

At the visitor center we were able to plan our visit for Doreen to optimize her chances of seeing as much as possible. 

The Rim Trail travels the entire length of the south rim, about 12 miles. Some sections are paved, some are not. The western section is closed to auto traffic with the exception of park buses and persons with mobility disabilities in which case you can get a pass and gate code to gain access. 

Dee has turned into quite a shutterbug:

The end of the line is Hermit's Rest:

An enterprising fellow built a lodge for travelers back in the early 20'th century and it is now a gift shop.

The Colorado River:

A panorama shot:

I have to say that I was in awe of this national treasure. The vastness is something you can't grasp in photographs alone. 

We spent our entire visit on this end of the canyon where the crowds were sparse and traffic was virtually nonexistent. 

After a long day of sightseeing we had to cool off and souvenir shop.

My favorite kind of souvenir: 

The next day Doreen rested while I went for a ride into the Kaibab National Forest:

An elk getting some respite from the afternoon heat:

  That does it for Arizona. Now it is off to Sin City, Las Vegas.