The Grand Canyon National Park is surrounded by the Kaibab National Forest, an immense plateau of who-remembers-million acres of yellow ponderosa pines. You drive into the park and you don't even notice the canyon, because the road follows the plateau until the vista points. We stop at Desert View, which offers the first real glimpse of the real Grand Canyon, and also has a historic watchtower. The first impression is, this is GRAND, it's majestic and magnificent, it's huge, deep, wide and scary. It's everything I have imagined, and more. It's its dimension that really blows my mind away, not so much its beauty. It drops one mile below you and the other rim is on average 10 miles away. On the floor, 277 miles of the Colorado river have been carving the canyon for the last six million years. It has exposed rocks up to 2 billion years old, or about half of earth's life.
With no reservations, we find a camping spot at Trailer Village, smacked in the heart of the canyon. We decide to hit the trails rightaway, taking advantage of the free shuttle busses that operate throughout the park. By now we are experts and our technique is fool-proof: we take the shuttle to the farthest point, in this case Hermit's Rest, on the Rim Trail, then work our way back to the departure point. This time though, we have decided to walk the entire 13 miles back to Bright Angel Lodge, where we will board the shuttle to the campground. The hike takes us a good part of the day, well after sunset, especially because parts of it are moderately strenuous, others are so impressive that we simply need to stop, and others are sooooo much on the rim that if you loose your footing you're bye-bye without a second thought. A few stops stand out: Pima Point, which offers the best view of the Colorado river, and Hopi Point, the highest in the park at 7071ft. They are also the most crowded, because tour buses and shuttles coming every 12 minutes unload throngs of people. The rest of the walk is quite solitary, just a few brave souls here and there going in the opposite direction. This gives us time to experience the place for ourselves in some remote parts, to see the drop right under our feet, and experience an occasional slip of the foot. On the last .7 mile of our hike, we cross path with a couple of elks. We have learnt that they are particularly aggressive at this time of the year, so we try to make noise as we walk by, and they don't bother us.
Back to the Village, the store is still open and carries a good selection of goodies. We buy bread, cookies, and olive paté and in complete darkness head back to the RV, ready to face a night with a forecasted temperature of 24ºF. Will we survive it? You will know by clicking on the next day!
A solitary horse grazing in the Navajo Indian Reservation, against the Vermilion Cliffs.
The Vermilion Cliffs on the horizon.
The little canyon carved by the Little Colorado river near Cameron, AZ.
Welcome to Grand Canyon National Park!
First view for first-time visitors: Desert View.
Another look at it from the watchtower.
Walking over to the rim below the watchtower. Can you see the river below?
The colors are washed out, but believe me, the red rock is still here!
My head with a bold spot in the foreground. I really did not need to know that!
Back at taking pictures of the canyon.
Laura walking on the Rim Trail, and looking ahead to where it goes.
The view right below my feet.
Another view from a different point.
And another again.
Detail of the trail. No, there ain't no railing!
A panoramic view.
And another.
Laura on the edge of the abyss. Petr tried to tell her to take a step back for a better picture, but she is smarter than that!
Still Laura on the trail.
Another detail of the trail. I wouldn't advice it with kids.
We are going to walk over to that top point there.
And this is the view when we get there.
Another panorama.
Petr at Pima Point.
I don't know how many of these I can take.
It keeps going and going and going...
Laura back on the trail.
Another view down below.
This is one of the widest point to the north rim.
The shadows in the canyon are getting longer, we must hurry back.
More of the canyon.
By now the bottom is completely dark, whoever is down there better be ready for the night!
You cannot see the river anymore.
The colors are more vivid as the sun goes down.
One of the elks crossing the street after our close encounter.
By now, just the tips are illuminated.
If you hit it at the right time, these are the colors you get.
It's getting darker...
...and darker.
By now the sun is all gone! We are almost home too!