A NATURAL WANDER

DAY 18: The Grand Canyon

An early start was needed for today's visit to one of the original Seven Wonders of the World, The Grand Canyon. The weather was not on our side, with rain, cloud and even snow forecast.

The hour drive to the South Rim of the Canyon, at Grand Canyon Village, started off with a bright, but chilly day.

As we approached the final 15 miles of the journey we could see a full panorama from left to right of a completely flat horizon - sitting 5,000 feet below, The Grand Canyon. At this point the excitement was replaced by anxiety as on the horizon we could see a belt of thick, low lying cloud wedged in the Canyon.

Having waited my whole life to see this amazing natural sight, I was feeling a bit cheated until we caught a glimpse of the spectacle through some trees on the approach to the village. We pulled over immediately, walked through some bushes and bang - what a view!!! The biggest, deepest, widest, most vast and jaw dropping natural sight I've ever seen. Even with the cloud, which luckily was sitting on top of the Canyon, not in it. It was just so big - 'grand', you might say! Again, a camera does it no justice.

The National Parks Service run shuttle buses on different routes around the rim, so we took a route that would take us about 7 miles along the rim to the end of one of the routes at Hermit's Rest. We stopped halfway there for a spot of lunch whilst gawping at the immense views, but it had started to rain and the cloud was thickening and getting lower. By the time we left Hermits Rest we could hardly see anything, so we reluctantly decided to call it a day - disappointed the weather hadn't allowed us to see this awesome sight in its full glory, but grateful that we did at least get to see it and appreciate its awesomeness (it's a real word, if you have seen 'How I met your mother' you'll know).

We returned to Williams for a lie down before heading out for a very cheap dinner - soup at Safeway, followed by a little look around the shops to buy an obligatory Route 66 sign. As I'd spent over $10 I was allowed a go on the shop's free prize wheel of fortune and won myself two magnetic rocks. Luckiest person alive!

Retired early for much needed sleep as a seven to eight hour drive back to LA awaits us tomorrow.