July 27 - Dinner at El Tovar, a brooding GC, and some sunset pictures

Food in the national parks is always an adventure.  But as I often say, you don't come to Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, or any of the other 57 national parks for food. So Susan and I have been looking forward to a "real" dinner at El Tovar, the premier hotel and restaurant in the GC. Reservations are required and we got a great window seat which provide a glimpse of another Canyon sunset.

In 1540, the Coronado Expedition came north from Mexico looking for gold and silver (the cities of Cibola). However, Hopi Indians greeted them instead and showed them the Grand Canyon. There was a detachment from the Coronado Expedition, led by a man named Cardenas. So you might wonder why the premier hotel in the GC is not named the Cardenas Hotel?  Fast forward to around 1900, when the Fred Harvey Company is building hotels and restaurants along the Santa Fe Railroad Line, all the way from Chicago to Kansas City to LA to San Francisco (including several hotels in the Grand Canyon). Fred Harvey already had a Cardenas Hotel in Colorado, so they named their premium hotel in the GC after the number 2 man in the Cardenas Detachment, Don Pedro El Tovar. Sometimes it pays to be second, since the Cardenas Hotel is long gone...and the El Tovar will be around for a long, long time!

Susan enjoyed an El Tovar specialty, roast duck.  She said the crisp crust was done just perfectly. I had pork medallions with a delicious sauce. Susan is wearing her squash blossom necklace that my mom gave her. She wears it at work at the Hopi House, which is directly across the street from El Tovar. I've got on my Thunderbird bolo tie that was specially designed for the tour bus drivers. For the Hopi, the thunderbird means power and strength. Let's go with that!

Quick aside - just before going to El Tovar for dinner, we were treated to a special visitor. Big horn sheep can be found in the Canyon, but usually at lower elevations where it's more desert like. After all, they are actually called Desert Big Horn Sheep. But one young buck worked his way a mile up from the Colorado River, to 7000 feet (just below the rim). 

I'm looking forward to doing my first, really long tour here in the Grand Canyon - Desert View Watchtower. Most tours are 2-2.5 hours; Desert View is a 4 hour tour. But I believe that will be easy compared to some of the 10-12 hour tours I did in Yellowstone last year. 

The Canyon at sunset is typically spectacular, with intense yellow walls reflecting the setting sun.  

But sometimes we get the moody, brooding Grand Canyon, like the following pictures. A completely different look of the same incredible place. All beautiful in their own way.  

I couldn't decide which of these pictures I liked best. What's your choice? Same place; different exposures and zoom.

Here's another pair for you to compare. Same place. Same time. Different exposure settings on my camera. Zoomed in followed by zoomed out. What's your preference?

And then of course, sunset.  Brilliant!

We're getting into the monsoon season. Across the way, the North Rim was firing up with lightning and thunder.  And down inside the rim, it's raining like crazy behind us. So we'll say "see you soon" from the Grand Canyon.