MONDAY APRIL 6, 2009 - Last night, we set the alarm early and this morning we were up and ready to go to The Grand Canyon by 6:45 am. We arrived there around 10:45 and tried to check into the Red Feather Motel where I had a reservation but the room wouldn’t be ready for an hour. It is situated about 12 kilometres from the South Rim and we wanted to register before going to the Canyon because we expected to be coming back later in the evening. So rather than wait around at the motel and to put us in the mood for visiting the Canyon, we decided to go see the IMAX movie about the Grand Canyon which was playing right next door to the Red Feather. The movie offers a different perspective of the Canyon because it is an exciting 35 minute exploration of the bottom of the Canyon and delivers a thrilling ride down the Colorado river. When visiting the canyon like we did, unless you go on a mule expedition for a few days, you get to see the Canyon from the top down, the movie presented the perspective from the bottom up. Because of the effect of being right in the picture that IMAX delivers, and with the scenes of white river rafting and the birds eye view of the camera thrusting in and out of the cliffs and valleys, Rosella spent some of the movie with her eyes shut. This movie in its IMAX format It is very well done and worthwhile seeing, specially if you are going in to explore the Canyon. After the movie, we checked into our room, had a bit of lunch and headed for an unbelievable life time experience.
Panoramic view of the breath taking
Grand Canyon!
The vastness of the Canyon which at the National Park, the point we were looking at it is anywhere from 11 to 13 miles wide and in total almost 300 miles long is really not describable and is absolutely beyond words. We spent the balance of the day travelling on the free bus shuttles which transport visitors from one vantage point to another. There are three routes, the Red, the Blue and the Green routes which cover approximately 20 miles of the Southern Rim and approximately 25 vantage points.
At one stop, we decided to walk a trail along the edge of the rim to the next vantage point, a distance of about two and one quarter miles. This trail at a few points was at the very edge of the rim with a distance of approximately 5,500 feet to the bottom. For me it was very exciting and exhilarating but Rosella found it very frightful. We could have gotten off the trail and on to the road but she was determined to walk the whole thing and she did.
Hang on tight Rosella!
It's a long way down!
We had timed our schedule so that we would view the sunset at Hopi Point which has the highest elevation and is the lookout that protruded the farthest into the Canyon. The sunset with its reflexions, and shadows in the Canyon along with the ever changing colours was, of course, beyond words. By the time we took the shuttle busses to get back to the parked car and returned to our room, it was past 9:00pm and had viewed about 70% of the sites along the Rim.
TUESDAY APRIL 7, 2009 _ We decided to get up at 4:15 am today to go view the sunrise which was scheduled for 6:05 am at Yaki Point, the most Eastern viewing area on the Rim. In order to get there, we either had to arrive at the Village early and take the shuttle to the point or drive to the gate to the road which entered the site which was only accessible by bus. We were on the road by 5 and decided to drive to the gate and walk about one and one half miles to Yaki Point.
When we arrived at the site, there were only three other persons there but by the time the sun started rising two or three dozen other people had shown up. The sunrise and the colour effect on the Canyon was even better that the sunset at Hopi Point. We stayed there for almost two hours taking dozens of spectacular photos and admiring the effect of the progressively rising sun on the Canyon landscape. We were both very happy that we decided to get up for this almost surreal experience which was also beyond words.
The Grand Canyon?
Truly an experience to remember!
We then walked back to the car and headed for the Western end of the Rim. We parked the car at the Backcountry Information Centre and walked to take the Red bus which took us all the way to Hermit’s Rest and points in between which we had not visited yesterday. What is very interesting about visiting the various areas of the Canyon is that due to the vastness of the precipice, essentially a person is viewing the same landscape but always from a different perspective and each view is new. We made our way back to the car and the motel by 11:00 am and we were both exhausted. I asked for a late check out which allowed us to both take a nap till noon. We had a bit of lunch and by 12:30 pm, we were heading home after a couple of days of extraordinary experiences. When we got back to Phoenix, the temperature was over 90 degrees F (remember that is dry heat) so we put our bathing suits on and went for a nice swim in the pool before supper.
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