DESERT VIEW

OK, I missed a day, but my excuse is that I started work, and the learning curve is quite steep. There's so much more to just driving a Bus here at the Grand Canyon. The driving part is the easy part. Getting comfortable with the buses, new policies and procedures, learning the routes, and all of the announcements that have to be made, and managing the people on often very crowded buses, is all taking most of the my free time. So yea, it's around 4am, and I'm up getting ready for the 2nd day on the job, starting time 5:30am.

Day before yesterday, Patty and I drove east on Hwy 64 to Desert View. This was the last of the places on our checklist to explore before we both started work. It's about 25 miles from the Grand Canyon Village, out to Desert View, and I was a little surprised at all of the facilities located there. In addition to the famous tower, there is a small grocery store, a gas station, restaurant, and a nice RV park and housing for workers.

Before getting to Desert View, we stopped at the Tusayan Ruins and Museum. Not much left of what was a primitive dwelling, but the visible ruins gives you an idea what the structure must have looked like, at least, the size of the rooms.

The desert tower designed and built by Mary Colter, and is synonymous with the Grand Canyon. Below the tower is a gift shop and viewing deck, with an incredible panorama of the Colorado River before it cuts deeper into the canyon, west of desert view.

When I was first offered a driving job here at the Grand Canyon, parking the motor home out at Desert View was the only option. At the time, there was no available spaces where we are now parked. I had to decline, primarily due to the 50 mile round trip commute, but if it weren't for that, the RV park was quite nice.

On the drive back to Grand Canyon Village, we stopped at all of the viewpoints, and discovered at Grandview Point, there was once a hotel, that until the railroad reached the Grand Canyon in 1901, was the most popular location for tourists. Before the railroad, it was a 12 hours stagecoach ride from Flagstaff.

Also at this location, we discovered that there was a copper mine on a mesa below the Grand Canyon Rim. It was called the LAST CHANCE MINE, and after looking at the steep, winding trail down to where the mine was located, I decided that I wouldn't take a chance on exploring the site where the mine was situated. Has something to do with the height thing!

Today is day number 2 on the job, and after this week of training and orientation is finished, I'll be on my own to do the routes. So far, everything is going quite well.