Sunrise at the Grand Canyon

I like nature as much as the next girl, so I let the Neon Beast plan our overnight stay at the Grand Canyon.  Due to his extreme luck, this trip took place a mere week before the government shutdown.

Because of a work meeting we had to leave late in the day, so we didn't get to our "hotel" until midnight local time.  We stayed at the Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim in Arizona.  According to their stationary in the room, it was built in 1928 by the Union Pacific System.

Seeing the deer by the side of the road was fun, and it was even experiencing the first cold snap of the season, so it was snowing ever so slightly.  They called this a "Forever Resort," which equaled to a literal log cabin with an apparent rodent problem.

 But to be honest, the rest of the cabin was honestly charming and cute;
 

 

Neon Beast decided that it was on his bucket list to see the sun rise over the Grand Canyon.  Because we got there at midnight, we had to heat up our cabin ASAP and get to bed.  It was hard getting to sleep right away in a new bed, and before I knew it he was waking me up.  

I didn't bother looking outside but just got on my clothes, didn't bother brushing my hair, and headed out for the 20 minute hike.  It was only when we opened our door that he mentioned how dark it was.  We went to the lobby to figure out what time it was locally, only to find out it's the same time as Las Vegas, and the sun wasn't going to rise for another hour.  We went back to the cabin and I fell asleep.  While I was asleep he saw a mouse in the other room with the bunk beds.  It became clear at that moment that I did not like nature as much as the next girl.

We got ready and hiked out, but I chickened out partway up because it was getting too high and my phobia of someone pushing me off a cliff (no doubt brought on by someone pushing me off the high dive when I was a child) hit and I couldn't go any further.

We watched the sun rise and then went to the lodge to have breakfast.  Afterwards I wasn't really comfortable with hanging out in the room with our new mouse friend, so we decided to just go ahead and check out and drive back home.

You really do only need a few minutes for the Grand Canyon.  Chevy Chase was right.