Grand Canyon

I woke up early, after the night I had had there was no way I was going to sleep late. The sun had just risen and I headed into the park. At the entrance to the park there is a ranger and you have to pay your fee, I stopped and the ranger asked me where else I was going and if this was my first national park. I explained that I was going to go to a few more and had already been to Yellowstone in the past few weeks. She suggested that I buy an annual pass for $80 and she would credit the $25 that I had paid to get into Yellowstone. It was also $25 to enter the Grand Canyon park so the pass is a good deal. I pulled back around from the pay booth and parked up to find my Yellowstone receipt. Thank God that I am anal about keeping receipts, it was in the first place I looked. I did feel a bit sad as I couldn't find my Yosemite receipt as well, but there you go. I handed over my $55 and got my annual National Parks pass. I was good to go.

I parked up at Mather Point and walked to the rim in time to see the sun coming up, I have to be honest and say that it wasn't very spectacular. It is interesting but I was glad that I hadn't got up specifically for that, I would have been disappointed.

I drove a little further into the park and laid in the front seat and took a nap in the warming car. Followed by a very welcome hot shower that cost me $2, it was worth every cent. I got my act together about 10am and caught the park shuttle bus to the end of the route, Hermits Rest and walked the seven mile rim trail back to Grand Canyon Village. I didn't hurry my walk, it was a lovely day and there is just so much to see. Of course I knew that the canyon is huge and over a mile deep in places but nothing prepares you for the sight of it. I took so many photos, most of them the same I'm sure, in an effort to try and capture what my eyes were seeing. Unfortunately photos and words just can't do it justice, the Grand Canyon is really just one of those things that you have to go and see for yourself.

When I arrived I had had an idea that I would hike down into the canyon, stay overnight at the lodge there and walk back out the next day. I looked at the descent trail and knew I couldn't do it. My fear of heights had struck again. I think I may be able to do it if I were hiking in a group, but not by myself.I guess I'll have to come back, but that's why I ended up walking the rim trail and even that took some will power whenever the trail went close to the edge. After the village I walked to Yavapai Point and sat down to watch the sunset, again I wasn't impressed. I think that the problem was that I had expected to see all of these amazing colours during sunrise / sunset and I just didn't see it. There was just a gradual creeping of shadow over the canyon, no dramatic change of colours whatsoever. Maybe it is the time of year or I need a SLR camera with various filters, I don't know. I am glad I did it for the experience, but still a little let down. It was very anti-climatic.

I went to a talk by the Grand Canyon artist in residence that evening, anything so I didn't have to retreat to the car too early. I planned to sleep in the car again that night. I worry about money too much, always have, but the car rental had really eaten into my budget and I felt that I needed to watch what I spent. Any accommodation inside a national park is more expensive than outside and I didn't feel like driving to find a mediocre hotel room for an inflated price. I would make sure that I was better prepared than the previous night. After the talk and watched some baseball in the laundrette and parked up for the night about 9pm. It was a much better night than the previous night and I slept relatively well, I'm sure it was a combination of a poor nights sleep the previous night and walking over ten miles during the day.

I woke warm and only a little cramped, much better than the previous morning. I headed for the shower block and got clean, it's amazing what a shower can do for you and it's such a simple pleasure. I went to the park headquarters and waited for a ranger led program to start. It was a short walk towards the village with the ranger explaining a little about the flora and fauna of the area with some geological info thrown in for good measure. It was a really interesting couple of hours and it was nice to be around other people and talking again. Much better than talking to myself. The talk took me to lunch time and I caught the shuttle bus to the other end of the route and got off to take a look at the view from Yaki Point. There is no complete rim trail from here so I took the bus back half way and started the trail back towards the park head quarters. This part of the rim trail is a lot busier than the one from Hermit's Rest, but this was good for me as there were a lot more people around to take photos for me. The walk is beautiful and the weather was too, I was being really lucky and I seem to have been in perpetual summer for the past six months. Long may it last.

I settled in at Mather Point to watch the sunset, I was underwhelmed. I asked a guy to take a last photo of me in the park and I headed north to reach the town of Page that night. It wasn't too long before it was dark and I had no idea of what I was driving through. Every now and again my headlights would catch and flash of red but nothing more. I reached Page and parked up for the night in an empty parking lot.