Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 8 years and 1 month old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

We woke up this morning and had breakfast at the buffet at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel before loading our bags back into the rental car. Then it was on to watch the western cowboy show before boarding the train for the ride up to the canyon’s south rim.

My wife and I had been to the Grand Canyon back in 2000 but this was the first time for my daughter. It was great seeing her reaction when she saw the canyon for the first time! We spent about 90 minutes on a bus tour of the south rim and then still had time to hike around the rim ourselves before catching the train back to Williams. I would have liked to do some hiking down into the canyon (like my brother and I did back in 2011) but we just didn’t have the time.

Back at the hotel in Williams, we grabbed dinner at the buffet and then got back onto I-40 East to our next hotel in Flagstaff. After checking in and unpacking we headed over to the Lowell Observatory for some stargazing. This stop was probably my daughter’s favorite of the trip so far. The line for the 24″ Clark Refractor was too long but we did get to see Castor A/B through the 16″ McAllister telescope, and also some star clusters (stellar nurseries) and the Orion nebula through some extra 16″ Dobsonian telescopes they had out on the grounds. It was a chilly night, and well illuminated by the full moon, but still an incredible viewing experience. And did you know about how Subaru’s logo is based on the Pleiades star cluster? Informative! 😉

Tomorrow is a big driving day for the road trip …