Grand Canyon

Leaving the almost Disney like appearance of Monument Valley behind, I am now heading almost due east towards the Grand Canyon, I am not a lover of deep holes, but I must see this one after all, it is one of the seven wonders of the natural world. 

I am told the south rim is the place to go, so after a flat boring drive through a pink desert I arrive at Grand Canyon by way of Williams which is situated on the old “Route 66”, being quite a tourist centre the town of Grand Canyon was very busy, even this late in the year, a number of RV sites were full. 

I got into one, it was fine, just a large terraced parking lot, but a good point was the free shuttle bus called at the entrance and one stop took me to shops and restaurants. To see the Grand Canyon is simple, as everything is when you know how, take the bus to the central terminus, decide which direction you want to go, east or west, take the (once again free) bus the few miles to the end of its run, get off and walk back to the centre by way of the rim trail, just over an hours walk in the sunshine with an amazing view, what more could you ask and the view really is amazing, as you walk along you become aware of bluebirds flitting about.

I spent four nights here and enjoyed it more than I imagined I would, so much to see and watch. It is possible to go down into the canyon by mule train, it goes every day, no point in me going, my eyes would be so tight shut I would see nothing, the steep trail down is only a mule wide, no horses, they are not sure footed enough and are too easily spooked.

The rim trail is a tarmac footpath following the contours of the canyon sides, surprisingly it has no form of fence or wall, put one foot off the path and you will be in freefall for the next five minutes.

Where there is a rocky outcrop where a better view is possible they do have a fence, people even climb on it.

Some visitors to the Grand Canyon arrive on the daily train service, it runs from Williams, about an hour’s run, long enough for lunch, it is a vintage diesel pulling probably ten coaches, a big long silver train probably from the 50s.

The canyon is so deep, looking down on the mighty Colorado River is like looking down on a little stream.

The rock strata is amazing, being able to look at hundreds and hundreds of feet of rock face all exposed showing all the different colours, different colours depicting some huge sudden change in the geography, the canyon is about 277 miles long and ranges in width from 4 to 18 miles, and attains a depth of more than a mile. More than 2 billion years of the Earth’s history have been exposed.