Well the name says it all really. As far as canyons go, they really don't get much grander than this one! We drove up to the south rim first thing this morning and (unknowingly) parked the van about fifty meters away from the edge of the canyon. From the parking lot, you can't see the canyon and the drive into the nation park gives no indication of anything unusual happening with the landscape. About a minutes walk from the van though, we came through some trees and were suddenly faced with this view:
It sort of comes out of nowhere really, but continues for as far as the eye can see! The scale of it is so vast, that it really has to be seen to be believed. It's so deep (over a mile deep) that you couldn't even see down to the huge Colorado River that flows in the bottom of it at first.
The colours of the rocks are magnificent and the layers in each side of the canyon show clearly how things have been eroded. We hiked west from the visitors centre along a trail that followed the south rim. There was a shuttle bus that we hopped on and off to get to various view points and back.
There was still a bit of snow on the north facing slopes and the temperature was lovely and fresh when we arrived. We were able to walk a lot of the trail alone which was magical as I suspect that in high season the place must be packed! We watched a short film at the visitors centre which was actually pretty informative, but most of our day was spent just looking, looking and looking.
After we'd had our fill of views we headed off to the town of Kingman for the night. We stopped briefly in Williams for some sustenance, then drove though the darkness to arrive at our craziest motel yet. It's on the old Highway 66, and was built in the 1930s (with little modifications since as far as I can see!). Apparently it used to be the hang out of the stars, and it's stuffed with old film memrobelia. Each room is themed to a famous person (some of whom actually stayed here during its heyday). We're in Clint Eastwood's old room, next door to Marlyne Monroe and opposite James Dean. It was late when we arrived, and then we took nearly half an hour to check in as the owners insisted on showing me every feature (i.e a bed, a wardrobe and a shower that 'may take about 10 minutes for the hot water to come through'!) of the room (including flicking through all the cable channels on the TV!!??!) and giving a high speed history of the town. I couldn't get a word in, but eventually we got to bed!
Grand Canyon though! What a place!
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