A couple of hours north of Flagstaff is the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, the North Rim is not accessible in Winter. We pass a couple of view points along the way that have Indian stalls set up hawking jewellery. This is indeed Indian land and it almost has a South American quality to it, run down shacks selling rubbish near amazing scenery. The Grand Canyon National Park does not allow such sales so at least you're spared any hassles here like you possibly would be at other major world sights.
We arrive into the park and walk to the first view point of many throughout the day. To be honest it wasn't that impressive at first glance. Many people have said they were awestruck and the like but I felt a bit 'blah' about it. There's a watchtower built next to the lookout and we climb it in hope of a better view and it is slightly. It all seems a bit unreal. Luckily along the scenic rim drive the many lookout points get better and better to become spectacular views over differing parts of the vast canyon.
It's a wide canyon for sure and the river that caused most of the carving, the Colorado, seems but a thin brown line at the canyon's floor. It's a bit messy at points meaning that getting a good photo is difficult in that the whole thing is just too vast and has too much things going on for the camera to capture.
You can see the lines of rock in distinct colours along the canyon's face and pillars not yet eroded fully by wind and time. Some parts of the canyon have eroded faster than others creating many 'islands' of rock that seem to jut out from the ground. It seems strange that the top layer of land is completely flat all the way across the canyon. Yet the floor seems to just drop away at given points uncovering layers of rock beneath that are all in a perfect line also.The whole place seems like someone has put a huge photograph in front of you. Walking into the canyon would probably give a more real perspective to this huge place.
Snow lies around the start of most trails into the canyon itself and it's a long hike, not that we're going to attempt it in these conditions. Besides it's a much longer hike back up than down and camping in these cold temperatures didn't appeal. People are doing it though and you can see the donkey trains carrying the baggage down below, from the cliff edge they look like ants.
We stop at a variety of lookout points with a variety of idiots from around the world, one guy climbing over a wall next to me slips on ice and staggers towards the edge of the canyon. I felt a cold chill pass over me at what I thought I might see next but the guy regained his balance in time. At another lookout a group of American Pensioners are feeding a crow cheesy wotsit-type crisps and gasping with delight, the bird has probably since fallen to the floor of the canyon from gastrointestinal disease. After a few hours I've seen enough.
We do stick around for the sunset and although it is decent enough I've yet to see any sunset in the world to rival that of the stunning sights over the Lake District.
We try and stop overnight in the park but the lodgings are just too expensive and we get a much cheaper deal just on the edge of the park in a small town.
The next morning we head back into the park for some breakfast over looking the canyon. It is an awesome sight, of that there is no doubt, but I'm not wholly sure it ranks up there on a world scale of amazing sights.
I've started to think that the Colorado River may have carved this huge canyon but it was the American hype machine that made it.
Thankfully the great American hype can't ruin everything and we head North over the border of Arizona into some of the strangest and most stunning landscapes I've ever seen. All this in a state I know only a couple of things about, and one of them is that it was set up and run by Mormons. Hello Utah!
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