We left Flintstones Bedrock City and headed north on Hwy. 64. After about 21 miles, we arrived in the tiny town of Tusayan, which is just a few miles south of the Grand Canyon park entrance. We decided to go to the National Geographic Visitor Center to see the IMAX film about the canyon. We learned a lot from the 34-minute presentation, but were all left feeling a little dizzy from some of the precarious angle shots. Before heading into the park, we stopped at the general store in Tusayan, hoping their food prices would be a little lower than in the park (we later found out that many things were actually cheaper in the park's general store).

Once we were in the park, we had to bike a few miles to Mather Campground. We checked in, set up our tents, and biked over to the showers (our campsite was as far away from the shower builiding as possible). We had to pay $2.00 for an 8-minute shower, but as always, it was worth it.

We left our bikes locked up by the showers and caught one of the shuttle buses to the visitor center. We watched another movie about the canyon and thought it was as good as the IMAX movie (and free)! We then walked toward the rim of the canyon to get our first glimpse. It was as amazing and breath-taking as we had imagined it would be. We took a few photos and then caught the bus over to Bright Angel. We gawked some more and then decided we were getting hungry. We ate at the cafeteria which offers decent food and somewhat decent prices. I'm sure it beats any of the fancy-schmancy restaurants in the area. 

When we returned to our campsite, we put all of our food and scented items up in the trees. We didn't want any critters trying to break into our tents (especially after seeing Mark's photos of the tent damage caused by a hungry raccoon). We went to bed rather early so that we'd be able to get an early start hiking the following day.