Day 9 - The Grand Canyon!

We were met at the front desk by our guide Michael and his minivan at 9am along with an aussie guy, 2 swedish girls, 1 welsh girl, an american lady, japanese guy and another american guy. Was about an hour and a halfs drive to the Canyon we saw some antelope on the way and learnt about the active volcanoes in the surrounding area. The last eruption was only 1000 years ago! After getting some lunch we headed for the south rim. On arrival Michael made us all cover our eyes and follow the person in front untill we reached a small wall on the edge of the Canyon. Then after 3 we all uncovered our eyes and... WOW!!! It was amazing, breathtaking, extraordinary- take your pick! It wasn't how we expected it to be- the north rim was about 16 miles away and was barely visible in the distance. We couldn't see the colorado river as it was so far down but we could see where it had cut through the immense rock. There was a large number of pieces of rock that looked stranded out in the middle of the canyon like tents but from above they look like fingers coming off from the rims where smaller tributaries have cut through the rock too feed the main river. Standing there in front of this immense view was very surreal and actually felt like we were looking at a painting!?

We decided to walk down part of a trail with a sheer drop on one side (eeek!) and saw some native indian wall paintings on the side of the rock that date back over 700 years (we think?) It was a wonder how they even got to the places they were. We also encountered some pack mules heading up the trail, one not looking very pleased due to the obese American lady hanging off its back.

We then took a 5 min drive to another incredible viewpoint to have our lunch. With legs dangling over a 6000 ft drop we munched away whilst our guide took us through the history and forming of the canyon. You can clearly see the different layers in the rock due to their colours- iron reds, limestone whites and then the eldest dark rock at the base. It was amazing to hear the intricate series of events that made the canyon- it was not just the river erosion it was also tectonic plates overlapping, pushing up a huge area now known as the colorado plateau among hundreds of other factors.

After this we drove again to the start of a hiking trail and saw all the mules in their paddock at the top. It was 1.5 mile down (that we would walk- about 1/4 of the depth) and took us only 45 mins to get down in the heat. We also saw a load more squirrels who cause the most injuries in the canyon per year- more than the canyon itself! In fact, the canyon on has, on average, 10 deaths per year which seems pretty amazing due to total lack of any barriers. When we reached the end of our trail we got a cool panoramic shot of the canyon. There were also some cool leafless trees forming odd and artistic shapes. On our way back up Michael pointed out the eastern viewpoint, our next stop, and we watched a huge rainstorm descend over it. After another short drive we arrived at said viewpoint to find exactly what we were expecting- a huge storm! Hailstones rained down on the minivan and even though we were parked on the edge of the rim we couldnt see the canyon at all! Crazy stuff. We decided to exit through the eastern gate of the park through the Navajo indian ranch but still couldn't see much but it was fun to look out of the back windows and watch 4 storms converging whilst most other people slept. We even saw some really impressive fork lightning kissing the ground all around us.

When we got back to the hostel we decided to save money and walked another 2 miles return trip to the supermarket to buy some pasta and pesto to cook in the hostel. After a long day we slept soundly :)

MS and AC xxx