Okay, I went and saw (a bit) of The Grand Canyon. At first, I thought the whole shuttle process seemed like a good idea, but after seeing their map, I'm beginning to wonder if it isn't similar to amusment parks, where since not everyone can be served at the same time, they work out ways for you to be otherwise occupied, or delayed. At amusement parks, this entails, eating, drinking, waiting in line, watching cheezy shows, walking around, etc.

For the national parks, it appears the process to occupy your time will largely involve waiting for, and then riding shuttle busses around. It also seemed the arrangement was also designed to make you walk around. While this seems a little annoying, I suspect the average American could do with a little more exercise, I'll have to admit.

The purple bus (purple route) coming from "town" (Tusayan) drops you at what appears to be a new visitor center. From there you can walk about 5 minute, to get to another bus, which takes you further in (The Blue Route). If you wanted to go to hermits rest, you would then catch the Red route bus, from the far side of the blue route. (Blue route takes 60 minutes round trip, according to the signs.)

This reminds me a bit of Yosemite, where you need a PhD to figure out their bus system. At least the London Underground has widely available maps. I considered taking the blue and then red buses to make it out as far as Hermits rest. (For me, a lot of the process, is making the "full trip.") I took one look at the blue bus disgorging a herd of people from a standing room only situation, and decided that 5ish seemed a little too close for dinner, and I didn't want to be packed in like a sardine, only to spend half my time (at least) in a shuttle, rather than seeing things.

We'll have to plan a trip up here some time, (not the 4th of July) where we have a few days to linger, and navigate the new process.

PS: You probably figured out that my sequence of panaorama shots in my last post didn't quite sequence like I'd like. Hopefully you get the idea, though.

~r