The Grand Canyon
What can I add to the torrent of words that have been written about the Grand Canyon? How can I describe it? I’d seen pictures, of course, but my eyes could never make sense of it and, to tell you the truth, even in real life it was difficult to comprehend such awesomeness.
We stayed a couple of nights at the South Rim, and on our full day there we hiked 1.5 miles down into the Canyon and back up. We were still quite jet-lagged which meant we could set off at 6am and be back up before it got “really” hot. That may not sound much, but it was enough for me. We spent the rest of the day hiking along the rim itself.
The North Rim is only ten miles away as the crow flies, but it’s over 200 miles by road which means it’s much quieter – the big population centres of Phoenix and Las Vegas are such a long drive away. The route goes via Marble Canyon where a new bridge was opened in 1995 – the old Navajo Bridge (1929) is now open to pedestrians and has an Interpretive Centre.
We stayed three nights at North Rim, and definitely liked it better – although “quieter” is a relative term: it was still very busy. It’s also 1000 feet higher than the South Rim so the vegetation is different – much greener with what could almost be Alpine meadows at the highest points. As before, we spent most of the time hiking. It was wonderful!
I’ve already written about the two stops after the Grand Canyon during last April’s A to Z Challenge. Yay, I’m ahead of myself! See P is for Page and Lake Powell and U is for Utah. I’ll pick up the story a few days later in my next post…
The Glasgow Gallivanter 
wow – doesn’t it look stupendous. We’ve yet to make it here – one of these days. Now I know though to go to the North Rim!
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I definitely preferred it. Quieter (though as the post says, that’s relative) and much less tacky.
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Sold me on less tacky!
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I remember the first time I took Em there. We were visiting my bestie who lives in Prescott. We drove from there, singing most of the way, and when we got to the parking lot we got her out and covered her eyes. She was about 11. I had been telling her about the GC her entire life and she was like “yeah yeah” and we got her to the rim and uncovered her eyes.
I will never forget the look on her face. Pure Wonder. Pure Amazement. An unforgettable moment for all of us.
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It is amazing! We went through Prescott at one time on our Arizona trip – just a quick look round and a coffee but it looked lovely.
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Beautiful shots!That little cheeky squirrel(?) looks like he’s posing for you. I was there years and years ago. I’m not sure if our photos are some where never to be seen again, we lost the camera and didn’t take any or what. I got really nervous about the heights even though I knew I was perfectly safe.
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We had a few shots of that little fella – they are all so tame they come right up to you. Probably because they expect to be fed, which you’re not suppose to do but it doesn’t stop some people.
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These are such great pictures and it must have been amazing to actually see this. One day i will. Now, since I always bring up heights, I don’t think I could do the donkey ride and the picture of you on the south rim….I want to pick you up and bring you closer to me-you are too close to the edge for me-hahahaaa. I didn’t realize the other rim was more grassy. I love it that you saw the Condor-ugly birds but they were so endangered and now they are doing better. The one picture of the North rim (to left of the condor) is a beautiful shot
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It’s never quite as dangerous as it looks! I agree with you on the donkeys – we weren’t on those, we just met them on the trail. I’m ok on my own two feet but I didn’t fancy sitting high up on a swaying beast that I wasn’t confident of controlling.
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