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Published: August 21st 2010
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Grand Canyon Sunrise
Sunrise over the Grand Canyon from Yavapai Point I can safely say that the best way to experience the first sight of the Grand Canyon is at sunrise. I drove in early, along with a surprisingly high number of other people. We all parked up and they walked to the canyon edge (if ever there is a time to be careful where you are walking in the dark) and then waited for the light.
In some ways it was not the best of sunrises, but as the light broke the experience of seeing the peaks of the canyon emerge from the dark and mist was particularly spectacular.
In some ways it made it worth the disappointment of not being able to run there yesterday (see
The Pink Jeep Tour).
By far the most spectacular views that we saw however were from a helicopter, which we had booked for later in the morning). We needed to sell one of the children to pay for it, but it was absolutely fantastic. It took off from the airport near Tusayan and flew over the national forest for a while until we reached the canyon. Suddenly the ground dropped away and the canyon opened up around us. Despite the aerial view, the canyon
Helicopter View
A view of the Grand Canyon from our helicopter is so vast that we could only see about a fifth of it at any one time. We flew along the canyon for a while and then crossed to the north rim for a while, which is much wetter and greener, and the trees are a lot taller. We then crossed at another point along the canyon and back to the airport. Absolutely fantastic.
Despite having the kids with us, we thought we would give the Bright Angel Trail a go, although we would obviously not be going all the way to the bottom. That was the highlight of the visit for me when I was here last time (see
The Third of The Three Grand Canyons), but it would be too much for the kids, especially given that it was the summer, unlike last time. We had been told that there was a water station about a mile and a half down and that was a common point for people to turn around. We didn’t measure how far we had walked, but I can assure you that it was more than a mile and a half and it was nowhere in sight. There was definitely a lot of unreliable information going around.
Once
Helicopter View
A view of the Grand Canyon from our helicopter in the park, there are free buses that take you around the south rim, including one section that is only open to the buses. We did a rim tour last time, but that would now be a complete waste as you can take the bus for free once in the park. The only issue was the length of some of the queues.
We were a bit surprised by the lack of commercialisation in the park, particularly at the top of the Bright Angel Trail, where the kids were desperate for an ice cream to cool down after the walk, and we also needed some more water having not reached the water station. What little there was there had such long queues that we really couldn’t face it. I thought that Americans would have all that well sorted, although I can understand why they would want the commercialisation kept under reasonable control, otherwise it could end up like that nightmare near Niagara Falls (see
Niagara Falls).
One piece of advice if you are going to more than a couple of American National Parks, is to get an annual pass. This is $80 and will allow a car and everyone in
Bright Angel Trail
The canyon from the upper part of the Bright Angel Trail it to go into any National Park across the whole of The States for a whole year. Otherwise each park is $25 and the pass lasts a week. Considering the number of parks we were planning on going to, this would easily pay for itself. If we were American, I am pretty sure that we would have one permanently on the go.
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