The Grand Canyon is AWSOME!

Yesterday is did The Grand Sunset Tour (http://www.grandcanyonjeeptours.com/) which started with a tour through the Kaibab forest. The driver Buzz had a great sense of humour and lots of interesting things to say along the way. The "jeep" was a shaded pickup truck with seating for 12 people, and Buzz gave the suspension a good work out bouncing it around the forest tracks.

Finally we made it to the rim of the canyon and it is stunning. It is about 220 miles long and about 1 mile deep! True to its name, we arrived about 15 minutes before sunset and saw so many beautiful colours in the rocks. There was lots of shadows, lots of soft light, and lots of folk rushing back and forth trying to get the perfect camera shot. 3 hours very well spent.

This morning I did the IMAX cinema presentation on some of the history of the Canyon. Interesting stuff and the IMAX sized projection made a fair effort and conveying some of the enormaty of the canyon itself.

Then, this afternoon, I did a helicopter trip (http://www.maverickhelicopter.com/). Stunning flight over the South rim and seeing the ground plummet away from you, with lots of buffeting from the swirling winds. The pilot mentioned that if he were to throw one of our cameras out of the helicopter, it would take a minute to reach the bottom. The flight went over to the North rim and back again, taking about 45 minutes in all.

The only odd thing in the flight was the pilot Tanner who openly described how he was fed up with the job, and we spent a fair portion of the flight discussing his career alternatives. Points for honesty I suppose, but perhaps not quite what I expected to be discussing amongst such majesty.

The Rough Guide is somewhat cynical about the Grand Canyon. It says that "Until the 1920's, the average visitor would stay for two or three weeks. These days it's more like two or three hours - of which forty minutes are spent actually looking at the canyon". Well I've spent two very enjoyable days here.

Tomorrow I head off for the Hoover Dam and then Las Vegas!