The Grand Canyon National Park

We arrived at the Grand Canyon National Park and the nicest man welcomed us at the gate and told us to have a 'Grand stay' see what he did there?! We drove along the road surrounded by trees and suddenly there was a break in the trees and we nearly drove off the road! The Grand Canyon was right there and it was absolutely breathe taking. We found a campsite and got one of the last spots, as we had the rest of the day left we headed straight to the visitor centre to find out the best spots to see. We were advised to do a short hike down into the canyon for the best views. We caught a free shuttle to the trail head and set off, the views were immediately stunning, you could see the deep canyons and the colorado river running through the middle, the different sediments were visible in perfect lines running through the canyon. They were different shades of red and orange to cream and brown, it was beautiful. It was so stunning that it didn't seem real, it was almost as though a huge canvas had been draped across the skyline to fool everyone into thinking the canyon was real! It was all so still and serene, it was also slightly disorientating as you couldn't really gage how far away anything was. We headed down the trail which was very steep. We passed exhausted looking people coming back up and thought they must be unfit as although it was hot we were doing fine. We made it to Ohh Haa point and were rewarded with incredible views of different parts of the canyon, I ventured out to the unfenced edge and sat on a rock. It was scary as the rock dropped off to a vertical drop thousands of feet below but it felt strangely relaxing sat on the edge. We admired the view for a while and got some excellent photos, then we began the journey back. No longer were we judging the people coming back up the canyon! The extreme heat and steep terrain made the walk absolutely exhausting, the dusty air didn't help as it dried out your throat ten fold. Every spot of shade along the way had groups of people escaping the heat and resting on their ascent. We made it out alive though!

We cooked some dinner and then headed back to the free shuttle service to catchy a bus to a spot famed for sunset. It wasn't as busy as i thought it would be and we certainly weren't disappointed, the sunset was beautiful, the canyon and the sky shifted colours and the lower the sun got the brighter the inside of the canyon seemed to get,. It was really hard to capture with a camera but i can assure you it was sublime. We got a bit lost on the way back but managed to find our campsite eventually. I was reversing into the spot and Izzy was helping as it was so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, the lights on the van weren't helping much. I could see in my mirror that i was fine and Izzy said i had loads of room on her side so i carried on reversing. Unfortunately neither of us saw a tree sticking into the path on the passenger back side. There was a Big Crunch and we both froze. I pulled forward and Izzy got out this time to direct me in. We got a torch out and saw a dent in the right side at the back of Suzanne! Luckily it was only superficial damage and no windows or lights had been damaged. Even more lucky was the fact we had the sense to take out the Full Camper insurance with Escape Campervans! We're not sure if we will need to pay an excess but hopefully it won't be too much :( Although a bit shaken by the experience we took the opinion that s*** happens and that's what insurance is for!

The next morning we woke up at what we thought was 8 but was actually 7 so we were making good time! We drove along Desert View Road and stopped off at the viewpoints to get a few last looks at different angles of the incredible Grand Canyon, even after seeing it so much it still took our breathe away. It's just so big! As it was so early there weren't many other tourists about so it was much quieter which only added to the experience, all you could hear was the wind and birds.
We headed the rest of the way out of the Canyon and were on our way to our next stop Las Vegas!