Hide and Seek
Trip Start
Dec 06, 2006
1
96
188
Trip End
Ongoing
Grand Canyon,
Nevada,
United States
Monday, November 19, 2007
In the afternoon we drove on to Flagstaff, the nearest place to the Grand Canyon. Similarly to Yosemite the hostel organised trip wasn't really worth it and so we saved our dollars and drove up there ourselves. We saved a few bonus dollars too as someone was kind enough to leave their park pass that's valid for 7 days.
The Grand Canyon is an amazing place, it's nuts when you look at a cliff edge and think, bloimey guvnor (I always think in cockney) that's a long way down. Then you follow it down and there's just as much of a drop again. And again. You think that's the valley floor but then there's another drop until you can eventually see the Colorado river. We had a look from Mather Point near the car park and then strolled down to the information centre when a ranger was doing a talk about the geology. He said if we remembered anything it'd be the four rock types that form the layers in the Canyon. Limestone, sandstone, schist and shale. He was right. It was formed from a combination of plates hitting eachother, a bit of erosion (well a lot lets face it) from the water flow and the angle of the land. He ended the talk by asking what's the most asked question at the park. Someone came up trumps and asked how many people end up falling in each year. The reason that it's possible to fall off is because other than at the lookouts there aren't any barriers between a pleasant stroll and an untimely painful death. The answer is about 5 out of 5 million visitors so the odds were looking ok until I got struck by lightening and bitten by a shark on the way to the shuttle bus. I was singled out by him though as being a member of the demographic most likely to chuck myself in, but he might have spotted me due to my orange hat that was making an appearance to save me from some blazing desert sun.
As in Yosemite there's plenty hikes available but we stuck with the tourist wandering and ignored dicing with death on the walks in to the Canyon. Although the weather wasn't quite so oppressive at about 20 degrees celcius rather than up to 50. We were lucky with the weather as we were also told in the talk the wind was picking up and the temperatures were about to drop. They can drop pretty quickly and harshly 6000 ft in the air. Even on the tourist routes there's plenty of advice about drinking lots and taking breaks in the thinner air. We did some walking and some bussing between the various viewpoints and at the end split up as I fancied walking a couple more sections.
That was an error. We said we'd meet at the end at Hermits Rest but when I got there I did a few loops and waited a while but there was no sign of Ceri. I thought she might have got bored and headed back to the centre so I headed back there. We'd somehow missed eachother, quite impressive as Hermits Rest wasn't a big place. I had a look around the centre, the main touristy bit and so headed back to the car in case she'd gone back there. Still no sign though. The problem then was that the sun was setting, it was getting cold, Ceri had the car keys and was busy thinking I was dead as I'd not turned up and she was still sat at the end of the trail. Next plan was to get a message to the redbus route at the end of the trail so that she could head back to the car, as I didn't have the keys I couldn't drive back and couldn't risk going on the bus in case we passed eachother. I went and got one of the bus drivers to put out an APB for a Ceri Knott and then headed back to wait by the car again. It wasn't long before it was dark, the plus point being I was well placed to take a few snaps at sunset, the downside being Ceri was now getting convinced I was dead as she didn't get on a bus and I was thinking she was nearing having to walk back without a coat and water as the red route buses were about to finish. As I'm typing this I'm sure you can guess the happy ending that no one ended up in the Canyon. Ceri was told to get on the last bus and was asked her name, told where I was and 3 hours behind the original schedule we were reunited and managed to get on the road in to the small hours to reach Albuquerque.
I'd enjoyed seeing the Grand Canyon but unlike Yosemite I'd known what to expect so it wasn't quite as grand to see. If I went back I'd jump in a helicopter I think as the only real way to appreciate the size of the place is probably to be in it.
