Our trip to the Grand Canyon and thereabouts
This fall, Maria (wife), Toby (canine) and I went to the Grand Canyon and thereabouts for our fall trip. This is my little trip report along with a few pics. (I took a lot of pics, but most of them were, as usual, miserably bad, so I deleted them.)
From Angel Fire, we again made it to Farmington, where we again overnighted at Mom and Pop's RV Park. Pretty much like last spring's trip to Zion and back.
From Farmington, we also made our pretty usual route: Kayenta, Tsegi, and Tuba City, where we turned down to Cameron, and into the Grand Canyon. Two highlights on this segment: First, we stopped at Mexican Water (just over the border into AZ on the Navajo reservation) and grabbed what we really needed: An Indian taco! Then we moved on to Navajo National Monument, where we found that the only site that can accommodate our 30' rig was free. We set up, took a nap, and got up in time for a couple of sundown shots. (All pics are thumbnails here and below. Click to enlarge; back to return.)

That second pic is a little interesting because, shooting right into the sun, I got a goofy sun reflection right on the lens. Decided to keep it instead of deleting this time.
From Navajo National Monument, it was on to the Canyon with a nice stopover at Cameron Trading Post for a little tourist shopping.
And then to the canyon, where we stayed at Trailer Village in the park. Our original plan was to stay five nights, but we decided to extend two more nights: There's just too much to enjoy at the Grand Canyon for a measly couple of days!
Alas, the photographic conditions were not ideal during our stay. The north rim closes on October 15, and shortly thereafter the forest service started several controlled burns on that side. The smoke was quite visible, on some days hanging low in the canyon and obscuring nearly everything. Here's a landscape shot from Bright Angel, where you can see the smoke plumes on the other side:

Without consulting our trip notes, I already get confused about where we went on each day, so I'll just group the experiences.
On our last trip to the canyon, we'd hiked from Bright Angel along the rim westward towards Hermit's Rest, but hadn't made it very far, so this time we continued that hike. Made  it almost to Hermit's Rest and took the bus the rest of the way. At Hermit's Rest, we took a few shots:

On another day, we drove eastward along the rim, stopped over at Tusayan Ruin and Museum, and then on to the east entrance, where we visited the tower. This is pretty much my favorite area to view the canyon. Took several shots from the tower toward the west:

 

 

Also at the east end, a shot down at the river, entering here from the north, several miles from where the Little Colorado leads in:
And, of course, we were at Bright Angel and over by El Tovar:

So our time was up, and we'd seen a lot, so we left the canyon and headed down through Flagstaff, down Oak Creek Canyon (wow!), through Sedona and to Cottonwood, where we stayed at Dead Horse Ranch State Park for a couple of days. From there, we toured Sedona (a lot of traffic and high prices), Jerome, and Tuzigoot National Monument.  Did manage one shot from the highway:

Finally, it was time to head in the general direction of home, but not quite so fast! From Cottonwood, we drove east through Camp Verde (passing I17) and then up the Mogollon Rim, entering Winslow and I40 from the south. Made it to Albuquerque the next day, where we spent some quality time with my cousins and their kids and grandkids down in Los Lunas. Shopped way too much,  packed it all into the rig, and got back here a bit over two weeks after departure. Travel is great, but it's nice to be home, too.