I will never again make a trip to the Grand Canyon from Iowa in only two days. There are just too many things to see on the way. However, because we were on a time crunch with last-minute reservations in Grand Canyon Village for Saturday night and a long-standing commitment with friends to go to a concert, we left our home on Thursday afternoon and went a little out of our way, west and north to Sioux City, Iowa. However, it was well worth the detour as we were able to see Crosby, Stills and Nash in concert!

We spent the next day driving through rain in Nebraska and Colorado, arriving in Colorado Springs in time to see prom goers arriving at our hotel. However, our unexpectedly upgraded room, far from the revelers, gave us a refreshing night’s sleep after a 12-hour drive. We awakened to watch the sun rise on Pikes Peak.

From there we began our trek across Colorado on Highway 160, passing the Four Corners into Arizona and seeing mountains and natural monuments as we pressed on to arrive at the Grand Canyon that evening.

Coming down from Wolf Creek Pass, we rounded a bend and drove past Treasure Falls. Fortunately, I was able to make a quick u-turn and spend a few minutes enjoying the beauty and the wildlife.

You can tell these chipmunks are often fed by humans since this one came right up by my leg as I focused my camera on the hoary comma butterfly.

We missed the turn to the Four Corners (the point at which Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona meet), but I wouldn’t have seen Chimney Rock if I had followed directions. By the way, I left my GPS at home and was relying on my smart phone that was having battery issues. So, it was not the only detour we took.

Once we made it into Arizona, I took lots of windshield photos, wishing we had time to stop

Finally, we were on the home stretch, only about 30 miles to the East Entrance of the Grand Canyon. Seeing the Little Colorado Gorge gave us a little twinge of excitement for what was about to appear.

Well, those were the sights “on the way.” For a few of our Grand Canyon pictures you can check them out at the Weekly Photo Challenge: Forces of Nature.

This post is in response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “On the Way.”