Bearizona and Yaki Point Sunset

The next morning we took a little side trip south to the town of Williams and visited Bearizona.  Besides having a very good pun-based name, Bearizona is a drive-through wilderness park that is home to wolves, sheep, mountain goats, burros, bison and of course, bears.  It was raining a little when we drove down to Williams, but the animals were out and about.  The drive passes by all the other animals (which kinda reminded me of the first Jurassic Park), and then finally enters the bear section. 



I was actually a bit surprised at how close you can get to the bears, they walked by our car and crossed the road in front of us. We did, of course, have the windows rolled up and the doors locked! They didn't seem to mind or notice the cars slowly driving by them.



After getting lunch in Williams and visiting a local brewery (The Grand Canyon Brewery Co. - highly recommended!), we headed back up to the Grand Canyon. There would be time to catch the sunset, so I decided to visit Yaki Point. The overlook can only be reached by shuttle bus, so I boarded one and rode to the overlook. The view is amazing, of course, like all of the Grand Canyon views.



Clouds obscured most of the sunset, but there was some interesting light shining through.



After the sunset, I set the camera up to get a few shots while waiting for the shuttle bus to come back around.





I took pictures until it was dark (this shot below was a 30 second exposure), with the camera trying to capture any of last remaining light hitting the canyon. There wasn't anyone left at the overlook, they had all caught the last shuttle bus. I hoped that the shuttle bus wouldn't forget to make the stop here. And that the only bears I would see that day were at Bearizona, and not slowly making their way through the darkness towards the guy taking pictures by himself in the dark.



A bus finally drove up, and when I boarded the driver jokingly said "we took bets on whether we should stop for you or not." Which for someone standing in the dark waiting for a bus isn't the funniest joke. We headed back to the visitor center in the dark, but we would be visiting the Grand Canyon again the next day (more photos coming soon!).