The Grand Canyon

---

Since we were too late getting to The Grand Canyon to see sunset we decided to further confuse our body clocks by getting up ridiculously early and watch sunrise. Our alarm went off at 4am, we quickly pulled up camp and then drove closer in to the Grand Canyon to where we could catch a shuttle bus to where we wanted to go. The morning was a bit cloudy and hazy but it was still pretty beautiful in the pre-dawn light and seeing the light come into the rocks as the sun rose was gorgeous. We wandered along the path between different vantage points, saying good morning to other early risers, and to an Elk that was wandering through the trees.

Feeling tired, we caught the shuttle bus back to our car and dozed for a bit in the car in the sun before driving out to the airport where Papillon Helicopters were based. As you can imagine, we were both pretty excited, having never been in a helicopter before (let alone flying over the Grand Canyon). Two of the other passengers were fairly substantially obese, and the pilot said something about "we are flying a bit heavy today so we may bounce off the ground a couple of times on take-off". I'm not sure if he was referring again, but the take off and flight were super smooth. After a bit of an intro chat, he switched onto the music which was "Thus Spake Zarathustra" and the drums kicked in just as we passed over the edge of the canyon. Pretty stunning stuff and the camera nearly had a melt down during this flight (we managed to fill one of the memory cards). At around $250 each, it wasn't cheap, but it was definitely worth it - an amazing experience. As we returned to the airport a storm was on the horizon, so we were happy our timing was good. We drove out through the park (through the storm and rain) and headed north towards Utah.

---

Photos

Lonely photographer
ok, there were a few other people behind him, but... in this crop he look lonely!

Here comes da sun
Grand Canyon lit by the rising sun

Colours
Grand Canyon early morning

Chris goes where he probably shouldn't...
...but did anyway.

Mules
The best way to descend into the canyon

Mules up close
Bigger than we thought they'd be.

Grand Canyon from the air
This was just after crossing over the rim. It's sooo huge!

Crazy colours
Love the layers of soils and rock types.

Cheshire Cat
Someone got to sit in the front seat! Pretty bloody excited about that.

Strangely flat landscape
with huge cracks through it.

Brown river
Lots of rain stirring up the river and washing more soil in from the sides.