Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon, now this one really is one of the seven natural wonders of the world!  So at the first viewing point I make sure that I capture Stuart's face when he sees his first glimpse of the canyon.

He is suitably impressed!

We have 3 nights booked at the National park campsite, and this is the only reservation we had made in advance.  We booked it the same day we booked the camper van.

Having three nights booked, we can take it easy.  So it's up at 5am to catch the sunrise, breakfast at the vista viewpoint and then a 7am hike on the South Kaibob trail with one of the park rangers!

All the rangers that we have spoken on our trip have been brilliant.  Very knowledgable and not afraid to say when they don't know an answer, so you know that what they tell you is good solid information.

Our ranger chatted all the way down the trail, telling us about how the earth's plates collided and pushed up the Rocky Mountains and the Colorado Plateau.  The Colorado river begins in the Rocky Mountains and then needs to flow down to the sea.  As the Colorado Plateau was now in the way, the river just smashed its way through, causing a canyon 5,000 feet deep.

Our hike took us down 1,000 feet, and it was a beautiful hike down, but blistering heat on the way back.

Although we finished the hike about 11am, we were done for the day, but we did manage to find time to hire a couple of bicycles ready for the next day!

We had decided to cycle along the rim to Hermit's point.  We didn't manage to set off quite as early today, only an 8am start, so it was pretty warm to begin with.  We did manage to get lost (temporarily misplaced) on the way to the trail, but Stuart was delighted to find that we stumbled across the Grand Canyon steam train

We saw some amazing views along the way, including a very green looking Colrado river.  (It is normally brown).

What is hard to believe is that the lowest rock strata is almost 2 billion years old

We also went past the Bright Angel trail overlook, and decided that this would be a good hike for the next day.  Another, hike that takes you 1000 feet down into the canyon.

Finally, we get to Hermit's rest and decide that it is just too hot to even think about cycling back along the rim, and jump on the very handy shuttle bus.

Next day, up early again, and on the trail by 6.30 am!

Another great hike down, and not too hot coming back up, as we were so early.  We would have made it back to the rim just after 9, but we got very delayed by trying to spot a condor on the side of the canyon.  The Californian Condor is a very endangered species, only 350 left.  Each one is named and numbered and fitted with a tracking device.  If any bird starts to act oddly, it is captured and examined, and if say it has heavy metal poisoning from swallowing lead shot left behind by hunters, then it will have its blood flushed.  These birds are well looked after!  They have a wingspan of 9 1/2 feet, the largest bird in North America.  We did both manage to catch a glimpse of the bird, but were unable to get any photos.  So instead, here is another photo of the two of us on the trail!

In the evening we jump on another shuttle bus and head to a sunset viewing point.  Here are a few of my pictures.  Although a beautiful sight, it wasn't exactly peaceful.  There were so many people at the site, we had to wait for 2 buses to return to camp.  In the bottom picture you can see the smoke from the forest fire that has been burning for a week on the North Rim.

It's been a long day, but is it over?  Oh no!  Stuart wants to get some night sky pictures, so at 11pm we sneak as quietly as we can out of the campsite (not easy in a a Wallowing pig) and head to one of the vista points where we can access the Rim trail.

It is dark enough for there to be thousands of stars,but it is also dark enough for our walk along the rim to look like this ....

... and we know that there is a 5,000 foot drop out there somewhere!  We don't last long and soon sneak back to camp.  

Our campsite has been really lovely, plenty of space for Stuart to test setting up our new tent

Unfortunately, as it is only a test run, he doesn't peg the tent down, and a strong gust of wind makes it turn head over heels as it blows it across the campsite to gales of laughter from the other campers.  Stuart sheepishly retrieves the tent.

We have a great camp fire one night, but it burns so strongly that we abandon the idea of making chicken kebabs, and instead chuck all the ingredients into the pot, and create a new dish coq-au-feu.  Anyone know how to turn the heat down?

This dish was so successful, that the the next night we create another new dish coq-au-van!

Grand Canyon Flora and Fauna