The Grand Canyon

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Ok, so where was I?

We were half way to the Grand Canyon right?

The first thing I remeber about the Canyon was stepping off the bus and into the freezing cold wind. It was bitterly cold - but oh so worth it. The Canyon was amazing. I knew everyone said that photos you see do not do it justice, but I didnt appreciate how true that is.

We were very lucky and had decided to stay over night and not take the one day tour (5hours out there and then 2 hours in the park and 5hours back didnt really appeal to me but we were the only ones on the bus tour that had opted for overnight...).

It was just heading into sunset time when we arrived in the park so we didnt even worry about checing into the hotel and ran straight to the rim. The colours were very pretty when we first arrived, but it was more the size that caught our attention but as the sun started to set and the sky changed colours and so did the rick faces, it was amazing.

I am reading this and I know it doesnt really portray the experience, I hope the photos help (I think I took two and a ahlf rolls of film plus whatever Tim has on his digital...)

As it finally got dark, we managed to pull ourselves away, although the fact that we no longer had any feeling in our hands, legs, faces etc kind of helped - I heard reports it was minus 8 but the wind chill must have brought it down much lower than that!

We were determined to be up for the sunrise the next morning so had an early night. Actually I think it was about 7.30 and we were both alseep (remember, two days on almost no sleep).

We did make sunrise which I think was even more spectacular than sunset. But it was also alot colder than sunset... we thought we would be smart and take a cup of coffee out with us but I think it lasted about 2 minutes and it was stone cold - better luck next time.

Again we lasted until the sun was barely fully up before we lost feeling from the cold and ran to get a very hot breakfast and free refills of coffee (we were there for a while).

We went and heard a geological talk on the formation of the canyon from one of the most enthusiastic and entertaining geologists I have ever met... well he was the only geologist but you get the idea.

Then we headed out for our main adventure, a helicopter ride over the Canyon. OMG! The perspective from above is phenominal. Unfortunately, I was the smallest person on the flight (and Tim was the second smallest, to give you an idea of the size of the other four people) and to balance the helicopter I was put in the back row in the middle 😞 But even from there it was amazing. We looped in and through the walls and saw the differences from both sides of the canyon. (All of the touristy stuff is on one side as the opposite walls are eroding faster and give a more spectacular view). It seemed like it was all over so fast but we have the photos and a video to remember it by.

After that, it was about time for us to leave. We had a full 24hours at the park but I would have loved to have spent about a week and been able to hike down and into the canyon and camp there to see it from the bottom up. It is on my list for the next trip.

And that was our adventure to the Canyon. I hope the photos give even a small impression of how fantastic it really is!

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