USA road trip, Post 12: Grand Canyon

On Thursday, July 8th, we drove all the way from Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, about 8 hours east. Much of this drive was through the Mojave Desert, which was a lot of very hot nothingness. At one stage we were worried we would run out of fuel before we came upon civilisation again... but then we found a service station in the middle of nowhere, where we fuelled up and ate lunch. Check out the sign they had on their wall!



We reached the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in the late afternoon. The South Rim is the one that most people go to (as opposed to the North and West Rims), and where there are more facilities and accommodation options. (However, we had another 1.5 hours to drive before reaching our hotel for the night - the convenience of staying at the Canyon did not outweigh the inflated prices in our minds!)

Here's a panorama showing our first glimpse into the Grand Canyon - not from an official viewpoint; we just pulled over when we saw it through the trees beside the road. The panorama is 7 photos wide (probably about a 150 degree view). It's quite a feeling to just walk through the trees and see this in front of you!



We went into a visitor centre at the first viewpoint we came to. There we saw a model of the Canyon, and I flipped through a book about the 600+ people who have died there (most of them by falling in or not being properly prepared for hiking). After reading that, I made Ben promise not to take unneccessary risks to get the "perfect photo", or try to scare me by pretending to fall off the wall - as people have died doing just that!! We also listened to a ranger give a talk on how the Canyon was formed.













The Grand Canyon is 277 miles (446 km) long, up to 18 miles (29 km) wide, and over a mile deep (1.83 km/ 6000 feet). Our photos are not going to convey the reality of that to you! The thing we've most often heard said about the Grand Canyon is that "photos don't do it justice". This is absolutely spot on... for while photos do indicate that the Canyon deserves the adjective "Grand", they cannot bring to life how it feels to stand on the edge of it. It is immense, spectacular, powerful, beautiful... and head-shakingly, jaw-droppingly enormous. A masterpiece indeed.

It is absolutely the most impressive natural formation I have ever seen in my life.

The South Rim consists of many viewpoints/ lookouts along the road that winds along the edge of the Canyon. Here's what we saw from various viewpoints as we drove east along the South Rim...





































Sunset...













And that's the Grand Canyon for you! (Check out the Picasa album to see more photos.)

After sunset, we set off for Tuba City, Arizona, were we were staying the night before continuing on to Bryce Canyon in Utah the next day. On the way, we ate a huge dinner in the restaurant of a native-owned craft centre in Cameron, AZ. I had "chicken fried steak" - so unhealthy but I had to try it at least once while in America! Ben enjoyed a stew and a type of American Indian flatbread. And Delle's enchiladas were covered in lots of that orange cheese she loves...



Our accommodation in Tuba City was the Moenkopi Legacy Inn and Suites. This was a brand new hotel that had opened in the time I was organising this trip... when I first started searching for hotels there were only a handful of poorly-reviewed options in Tuba City, so we were originally going to drive a couple more hours that night! The Moenkopi Inn is native owned and staffed, and the first hotel to be built on Hopi tribal land in 50 years. We certainly recommend it if you're ever in the area!