Grand Canyon: Rain or Shine! ... Or Hail?

We arrived at the koa kampground near the canyon at about 7:30am as planned, set up our tent, and caught a few hours of sleep. When we awoke, we were extremely disappointed to find that it was raining and the sky was looking pretty dark all around! We decided to head up towards the canyon anyways, with hope that the weather might clear up for a little while so we could go on a short hike around at least part of the canyon. As we approached the canyon village, the sky opened up and it started pouring! So we went to the imax theatre to see the national geographic film on how the canyon was discovered and its earliest documentations. Who would have known that several busloads of Chinese tourists would have the sake idea?!? The entire place- gift shop, cafe, restrooms, and every inch of space was crawling with them! It wasn't an issue, except that as we were standing patiently in line at the concession stand, waiting to get our popcorn, candy, soda, etc., they kept rudely running into us and pushing us around, without even a hint of an apology! Additionally, the attendant at the concession stand was very maddeningly meek and slow and kept serving people who would blatantly cut in front of the line! To top it all off, one of the Chinese people stepped in front of everyone to ask the girl what the price was on a t-shirt... ok, a) this was a CONCESSION stand! b) the price was printed ON THE SHIRT! c) it took them at least 10 MINUTES to understand $20 and that they had to go pay at one of the gift shop registers, and d) we had already been waiting in line for 15 minutes and there were only 2 PEOPLE in line in front of us when we first got in line!!! So yes, it was quite a test of patience for us to stand there and keep our mouths shut, and even MORE to be polite when the girl told us she couldn't accept our credit cards because the machine wasn't working... a sign would have been nice, but apparently made too much sense to post... So we had to put our already-made order to the side, run out in the pouring rain to the only atm in the whole place, and then pick up our cold popcorn and get in the now mile- long line for the movie... which skipped/stopped several times in the middle of playing... Needless to say, we were not very impressed with the grand canyon imax experience and would not recommend it to anyone!

It was still pouring out when we left, so we decided to go over to the local grocery market to pick up some food supplies. Everything was ridiculously overpriced, so we only purchased some items to make sandwiches and some bottles of water. As we left the store, the sun was finally peeking out from behind the storm clouds, so we decided to make the most of it and headed up to the canyon. We were able to see part of the canyon for about 15 minutes & snap a few pictures before the skies filled in again with black clouds & the wind and rain drove us back to the jeep. On the way back down to the campground, we spotted some elk in the woods off the side of the road, so that was a pretty cool ending to a pretty crappy day. Even the 15 minutes we got of nice weather at the canyon was enough to completely erase any negativity from prior events, it was absolutely breathtaking!!

We spent the rest of the evening cuddled up in front of the fireplace at the lodge, listening to the rain gush down and hammer on the roof, wondering how much water would be puddled up inside our tent... Surprisingly, there was only a little water in one corner, and that was probably mostly from the water that poured in when we opened the tent! So we bundled up and fell asleep listening to the thunder and rain pummel the earth around us.

Throughout the night, I kept waking up because the wind was buffeting the wet sides of the tent onto me, and the rain had finally won against the waterproofing spray and was sprinkling in on us. I also believe it was hailing at one point, because I put my hand against the side of the tent, and what was falling from the sky actually stung my hand! At about 12am there was a brief pause in the hurricane-like conditions, so I got up and grabbed our spare tarp out of the jeep and staked it down over the tent. It worked amazingly well to keep us dry for the rest of the night, although it was much louder in the wind.

We awoke in the morning because heavy winds were threatening to rip the tarp right off the tent. So we got up and put the tarp away, hoping the wind and brief glimpses of sun would dry the tent before we had to put it away. We headed into the lodge for some breakfast, and by the time we were done, it was raining again! We rushed out to pack up the tent & all of our gear before everything got even more soaked, chucked it in the jeep, and hit the road again, destination: San Diego, California.

We decided to take a detour into Phoenix, and found a Starbucks where we could go online and find a place to stay in SD. While we were there, the skies cleared up a little and allowed the sun to shine for about a half hour, but as soon as we stepped outside to leave, it began hailing golf balls!! Shortly after the hail started, it seemed like someone had opened a firehose on Phoenix because it must have rained at least 4inches in a matter of 15 minutes!!!

Just as quickly as the storm started, it stopped and the sun came out again (and we think New England has crazy weather?!?), so we hit the road, hoping to escape the weather and get as far away from those dark clouds as possible! On the way to the highway, we spotted some of the aftermath of the storm, including flooded roads, piles of ice/milestones, and on a brighter note, we spotted a beautiful rainbow!

There must have been a bad accident as well, because once we got on the highway, we were sitting in the same spot for almost an hour! We were finally able to creep off to the right side of the highway and exit into a nearby town, with the intention of catching the highway further up. However, hundreds of other people had the same idea, and to make matters worse, the town we were in had lost power so none of the traffic lights were working! We eventually made it out of town and back onto the highway, and were finally on our way to the great state of Californ-I-A!

Interesting side note: the gps took us on the southern Rte.8 which follows the border of Mexico verrry closely, so we passed through several border patrol check-points... Being the proactive girl that I am, I was also thinking over my options and plans of escaping if we were to be ambushed by Mexican drug dealers or otherwise hostile border-people, and so I was prepared and vigilant for the worst-case scenario... Fortunately, I didn't have to test these plans, and we made it to our 2-star motel safe and sound!

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