The Grand Canyon

Yesterday I took a trip to see the Grand Canyon.
The trip started about 1/2 hour late as they were fitting new brake pads to the van - quite a good idea! The trip there took about an hour and not through desert as I thought it would be. There were trees everywhere, some of it even managed to be called a thin forest. The canyon is enclosed in a reservation park so you have to pay to get entrance. The driver and also our guide through the park decided to give us the best view of the Canyon first. So once inside a building at the side of the canyon we had to close our eyes and follow each other out to get our first view of the Canyon. This we did (looking like total fools on the way :-D) and the view was great. It's really big and even more so as the day continued and we saw other parts of it and not quite what you expect. There is nothing I can say to make it seem any different from pictures you see of the Canyon but it is different.
The guide gave us a about 1/2 hour to explore a wee bit of the Canyon so I did part of the Angel trail which makes it's way down to the base of the Canyon. I did not get very far as time did not allow it and you need at least 2 full days to make that trip and back up. It was very nice though and it was a heavy walk.
Back meeting the group again - there were 10 of us - we were taken to another part of the Canyon and had lunch. Then we started to get off the main path and do a bit of climbing and scrambling down parts of the Canyon. This is not very safe as there is no exact path and you have to do a bit of jumping etc. to get down. With sides of sheer cliff falling a mile was not really what we wanted to do but the view from the very edge was just spectacular.
Then after lunch another ride to a different part of the park where we would be doing some hiking. The older people in the group did not come with us but took a shuttle bus going round the park a bit more. The next part trail we did was the Kaibab trail or as I like to call it (much to some's desperation as it voiced our wishes) the Kebab trial! It was a steep face down the canyon with a track. Horses (or mules) take some travellers and supplies to hostels that are stationed at the base of the canyon so you have to give way to them if the pass. It was really warm yesterday, all of Arizona is really hot and very, very dry. I found the climb down really easy and I was first to reach the end of the part of the trail that we followed. I'm not such a good climber and I knew I was not going to find the climb in any way easy. The view from the 'ooh aah' (yes I do think it was invented but then you never know and I didn't ask) point was spectacluar. If you climbed, or scrambled on some rocks, a bit further out to the very edge of the rocks you could get a 180 degree view of the canyon that gave even those not suffering from it, vertigo. If you turn your head too fast as well it does not fare well as there is no base below you except a mile down and with nothing on either side it is very difficult to get back to 'safety'. But the view made it very worth while. And yes I did feel like I wanted to fall - I don't think there is anyone who wouldn't feel like that on that rock!
Climbing back up was a hard climb, your throat literally dries out to the point you have no saliva. Others that we met on the way said that further down inside the canyon the temperature was reading 118 degrees (American always deal in Fahrenhiet). It is very hot and dry. The ground you are walking on is sand, white read and brown sand - different colour depending on the type of rock that is at that level - but mainly sand as it is so dry the rocks have disintegrated. I was not the first back up the trail but neither was I the last and it was easier than I had originally thought the climb was going to be.
After refilling water bottles and downing them again we headed back and picked up those that had taken the shuttle bus option. Then we went to another view and gorgeous spot. A quick rest there and more photographs taken, of course. Then on to another point called Desert View I think mainly called that because from here is the best view of the 'Painted desert' from the canyon. There was another option to go scrambling about again which we did. This was again beyond the railing that was put up and invloved a lot of climbing and jumping on knife edge precipices. But in leaving the crowds behind the view was amazing. The sun was beginning to set as well so there were canyons beginning to be thrown into shadow and covered in mystery. I can say honestly that the Grand Canyon is the most spectacular scenery I've seen in America - but - I do still love NZ scenery. The Grand Canyon seemingly is not the biggest Canyon in America nor is it the prettiest but it is the biggest and prettiest of them all. You do get biggier, uglyier canyons and smaller, prettier ones but the Grand Canyon is the best mix of the two combinations.
The trip finished about 8pm so the sun had set by then. It really had been a good day and I was quite tired with reason. Today when I woke up and had to climb down from the top bunk I knew I had been climbing yesterday and even more so when I had to sit on the floor to put my socks on. The floor was very far away and my legs were very, very stiff :-D
Today I'm heading back to LA. I will get there hopefully about 4.30 in the morning and then I'm going straight to the airport to catch my flight to Vancouver so this will be my last posting from America. Yippee!