Epic Round The World Trip Adventures! Stunning Photos & Articles - A fascinating gap year travel journal covering every stop of their journey.

Grand Canyon - USA
Round The World Trip Journal

(26th - 27th August) Grand Canyon

WOW!!!!!

Well we could just leave it at that really - what a place. It is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World and nothing can prepare you for the immense beauty and size of the Grand Canyon. It is incredible and a 'must see' in your lifetime. The photos do it no justice at all but believe us when we say it is one vast constantly changing tableau of colours. You just have to sit and let it all wash over you. It really puts you in your place and makes you realise just what a small part of the world you really are.
Our jaws dropped as we approached the rim at Mather Point for our first glimpse of the Canyon. The range of colours is amazing - greens, reds, pinks, browns, yellows. We had condors flying overhead and prairie dogs (like a squirrell crossed with a meerkat) underfoot just to to add to the atmosphere. You never get a bad view of the Canyon wherever you stand and it all changes just by walking a few more feet.
We spent 2 days here - on the first one we drove out along the East Rim Drive. Our favourite viewpoint was at Lipan Point as you could see both east and westwards and down to the Colorado River flowing right down at the bottom of the inner Canyon. The inner canyon itself is taller than most canyons in the world at 1000 feet high and the whole canyon averages one mile deep and is 270 miles long. Out here we spotted a coyote at the side of the road too. We drove back into Tusayan village and went to the Imax cinema to see the film shot from a helicopter sweeping across and down into the Canyon - stomach churning stuff at times. That night we ate at the Yippee-Ki-E steakhouse and Jo had the best steak ever - even better than those in South Africa or at Hogs Breath Cafe. And all complemented by the cowboy waiters and cow hide patterned table cloths!
On our second day we'd set the alarm for 6am as we'd intended to see the sunrise over the canyon but it was completely overcast. At 7am it was chucking it down so back to bed again. At breakfast at 9am we sat and watched the thunderstorms pass overhead and watched as cars tried to plough through the flooded roads with raging rivers coursing down them. Another hour later and suddenly the skies cleared and we had blue skies and sunshine! We rushed up to the Canyon and caught the shuttle bus out to Hermit's Rest to the west of the rim. This is a hop-on, hop-off bus so we stopped at every single stop on the way out and were rewarded with the most stunning views - the sunlight really highlights all the different colours and the wisps of cloud still remaining down in the chasm really added to the mystique. Our favourite view was from Hopi Point, named after the Indian tribe. We came back here later to watch the sunset - along with a couple of hundred other people too! On our walk back to our car we spotted a female elk and two calves grazing and while driving back to our hotel, the traffic suddenly came to a standstill. We were amazed to suddenly see three huge adult elks wander by our car! It was a bit dark by then but hopefully you can make him out in the photo.