THE GRAND CANYON

I'm sure most everyone has seen pictures or been to the Grand Canyon. It is one of the seven natural wonders of the world and the only natural landscape visible from space. It is 277 miles (446km) long as much as 18 miles (29km) wide and a mile (1.6km) deep. Many better writers than I have been unable to describe the magnificence of this place and a thousand pictures cannot capture the immensity  of the canyon.

 We spent four awe filled days here. On day 1 we were at the north rim, it is visited by only about 15% of the people who come here. The north rim is over 1000 feet higher than the south rim and therefore normally about 10* cooler.

You can just barely  see the south rim in this pic even  though at this point it is only 10 miles away. We were told that the air in the canyon gets a little bit more hazy every year as a result of the west wind bringing the air from the heavily populated southern California and Las Vegas area.

 We had both seen pictures of the Grand Canyon sunset and really wanted to experience it Here you can see the shadow across the canyon floor. The best colour is suppose to be the  sunset bringing out the colour of the rocks.

We waited, and waited

 And this was the best we got.

 So we turned towards the sun for this. We were quite disappointed.  We later learned that the picture that get published everywhere was taken in 1998.

 WE need to go to Flagstaff and this was the road, taken through the windshield.   Don't know about the purple color.

 The road goes through an area called Vermillion Cliffs

This is the starting point for a raft trip through the canyon. Trips are from a 1 day to a 13 day 280 mile ride.