GRAND CANYON AIRPORT

On a day off yesterday, I drove into Tusayan with a couple of things in mind. First up on the priority list was a burger at Wendy's. Second, I checked with Grand Canyon Airlines to see if they had any standby availability. It turned out that they didn't, until possibly the 3 o'clock flight. That would have been a several hour wait, so I decided to try again some other day. I took this awesome flight over the canyon twice last year, and for $20 (local standby price), I'm sure I will again this year. While at the airport, I took a few pictures of the area.

The Grand Canyon Airport is about 7 miles south of the canyon rim, located in the community of Tusayan. The first dirt airstrip was on this same site, built in the 1920's for the forest service, soon after Grand Canyon National Park was created in 1919. What I was a little surprised to learn, is that the airport is the third busiest in the state of Arizona, ranking only behind Tucson, and Phoenix. In the calendar year 2009/2010, there were 91,695 takeoffs and landings. The three helicopter tour companies accounted for the majority of that activity.

A helicopter is about to land, as two others are readying for take off.

The three helicopter operations, Maverick, Grand Canyon, and Papillon, also offer a discount to locals on a standby basis. Patty and I didn't take advantage of that offer last year, but perhaps we will this summer.

The most famous landing and take off at the Grand Canyon Airport in recent years, was the arrival of Air Force One on August 16, 2009. This link shows some video of the 747. President Obama and his family visited the National Park for about 4 hours, and just witnessing that magnificent airplane coming in for a landing, must have been quite a sight. I wonder if the government billed the first family for the cost of that personal visit, or if the taxpayers picked up the tab. Hmmm, I think I know the answer to that question. The runway is 9,000 feet in length, long enough for even the biggest of jet aircraft.

Today is also a day off, and shortly, I'm off to Flagstaff, to pick up a few things that aren't available here at the park. It's the 3 week mark since I arrived here, and so far everything is going well. The weather has been unbelievably mild, with temps in the 70's, low 80's during the day, and night temps down into the 30's & 40's. Only one small rainstorm, and yea - no snow, at least not yet. Last year we had an inch or two of snow in early June.