Grand Canyon (Arizona)

"A place more than a great chasm carved over millennia through the rocks of the Colorado Plateau. A powerful and awe-inspiring landscape, it overwhelms our senses through its immense size. Its beauty and size humbles us. Its timelessness provokes a comparison to our short existence. In its vast spaces we may find solace from our hectic lives......"

Day 8 (8 August '07)

The reason we were at Flagstaff was due to it's close proximity to Grand Canyon. Though many people would also set off from Las Vegas, but Flagstaff would be our choice.

Waking up early, we got a bus tour to catch that will bring us to the South Rim of Grand Canyon at 8.30am. Fortunately the place where our bus was is only about 10 minutes of walk away....

Arriving at the train station, which is also a station where our bus set off, the surrounding is just too beautiful - trees, mountains, cloudless blue sky...

At a junction::Walking along the street
The visitor center::Train station
40 minutes after we left, we arrived at a break area, the Grand Canyon Railway. In fact, initially we planned to take this train to go to Grand Canyon but didnt in the end. I think it will be a very nice experience to do so....

It's all trees::The Grand Canyon train
Entering Grand Canyon national park::Maswik Cafeteria and my breakfast
Finally arrived at Grand Canyon's Maswik Lodge at 10.45am after another 1 hour of journey. It is a place with shops, motel rooms and cafeteria. We have yet to see the Grand Canyon at this point, so we decided to have our breakfast first. My US$5.60 breakfast Burrito consists of scrambled egg in the wrap and potatoes. Simple and nice.

After breakfast, we slowly walked to the direction where the Grand Canyon is supposed to be at....

Just trees around
Nothing in sight yet as we walked....

We saw something in the distant
One of the 7 natural wonders in the world, the Grand Canyon is our 2nd one after the Niagara Falls. Getting excited about what we would see as we walked.

Then finally, the view of the magnificent Grand Canyon came into our sight. It was as if it just rose in front of us as we walked....

The first sight of Grand Canyon
Stunning view
The entire stretch of Grand Canyon is very long. There are also shuttle buses that would bring us to various points of interests and views. However, we started off with walking first as the next point is just 1km away. Besides, when we walked, we could take pictures along the way. Ha....

Between the trees::Between the rocks
In picture and in real
Can't see the fault..
Insignificantly small
But interestingly, every point of Grand Canyon probably looked the same to us amateur natural wonder visitors. And we were getting tired, thirsty and drowsy after walking for a long time, climbing up and down under the hot sun and dry weather...

Somewhere::One more step and it's doom...
The road near Hopi Point::At Hermits Rest
So we took the bus to the end of this trail to the Hermits Rest which is actually about 13km away from where we had started.

The shop at Hermits Rest::A black bird
The view there::Shuttle bus
After some momentary rest, we proceeded to another point of interest which is at the other end. So we took the bus, and rest along the way...

On the bus::Some plant
At Yaki Point::That's Grand Canyon!
Comparing::The small peck of cloud in the sky
The jutted canyon::We like to jump!
If one does look carefully, Grand Canyon definitely is not the same everywhere. The structures, the sizes are different everywhere.

More pictures in wide angle:







Actually the Grand Canyon also includes the North Rim which is 16km across from the South Rim. However a drive from the South to the North would take 5 hours! Both rims have their own point of interests and different perspective of the Grand Canyon. Also, the Grand Canyon is about 446km long, which means, we probably only have seen less than 10% of it...

The various points at South Rim

After the last point, it was already 5pm+++ and we had to get back to Maswik Lodge for the bus back to Flagstaff. Time was limited and we didnt really explore every part of Grand Canyon. We could actually hike and venture down to the base of Grand Canyon. That will be very interesting.

Different outlook at different time::Flagstaff train station
The street and setting sun
So after we got back to Flagstaff, it was already 8.40pm. The weather had also turned cooler at night. Then we went for dinner at a Chinese buffet restaurant where we had our fill. Back to hotel after that.

All in all, the Grand Canyon is definitely breath-taking and beautiful. More exploration could be done to see it all, but i think once is enough. Haha.

But it would be nice to be able to witness the sunset and sunrise at the Grand Canyon ....


Day 9 (9 August '07)

It's National Day, but we seemed to have forgotten about it. Ha.

Checking out of the hotel in the morning, we set off to the nearby Greyhound bus terminal again where we took the bus to our next location.

Our hotel at Flagstaff::In the middle of a desert
McDonalds!::My US$1 McChicken Spicy, delicious!
Along the way, there was a resting point and the weather was so hot. Yes, we were in some desert still. Haha.

It's all sand::Hot sun
Too excited::I'm levitating
After the break, it was another 3-hour journey and then, we arrived at our destination......


Previously:
In transition
Orlando, Florida
New York, New York
The Very Last Week
Reminiscing Cedar Point...
Niagara Falls Trip
Cincinnatti + shopping Trip
Trip to Aurora, Ohio