Advertisement
Published: August 6th 2007
14/04/07 - 15/04/07 Grand Canyon
On all the lists you can find of the worlds 7 natural wonders, the Grand Canyon holds its place. Here’s the facts; it’s 217 Miles (349 km) long, between 4 and 18 miles (6-29 km) wide and a stunning 5000ft deep. The fast flowing turquoise Colorado river has been slicing its way through the Colorado plateau for 6 million years say the experts, accounting for it’s depth, but the canyon’s impressive width has been formed by erosion through weathering of wind and rain and most powerfully through ice.
We drove Desert View stopping at the various view points, starting with the Watchtower. In the early evening light the Canyon looked slightly hazy and impossible to photograph. Although impressed by it’s majesty, we were tired from a long day’s drive so we decided to find accommodation and appreciate being in such an amazing place with fresh heads the next day. Most visitors to Grand Canyon appreciate the views from the air and we were no exception, opting for a 45 minute Ecostar Jetcopter flight. The most incredible moment of the flight was when the helicopter dipped over the canon’s edge with pine forest suddenly turning
to the 5000 ft drop of steep rock walls. We spied tiny yellow dots - the rafts of a rafting trip on the Colorado River below and rounded many famous rock formations of the Canyon, the Battle ship and Dragon, two I can remember.
Back on the ground, the Imax theater presentation on the history of Grand Canyon was well worth seeing. Cameras swept through the canyon, making us feel slightly dizzy. The history of the Canyon was played out, with the Spanish stumbling across it in 1540, whilst hunting for the ‘Lost cities of Gold’ and the tale of the first people to successfully run the river through the canyon facing it’s grade iv rapids led to the name of one of the rapids - Separation Rapid, where one group opted to continue down the river and the other group decided that the rapids were too dangerous. The group that ran the river where written into the history books, and the other group who started to walk off toward the canyon walls were never heard of again.
Its virtually impossible to photograph Grand Canyon successfully - It’s just too big and impressive to try to capture. You
have to experience it for yourself!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.308s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 40; qc: 161; dbt: 0.2045s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb
Nobby
non-member comment
You're right
You have to see this place! The real meaning of the word awesome.