The next morning we awoke fairly early for two main reasons - (1) in the darkness of last night we hadn't managed to pitch the tent under the cover of trees so the sun was streaming in early and the tent was like a sauna by 7am, and (2) Mather campground is right by one of the major routes through Grand Canyon so the noise of the traffic was pretty loud. We got up and had a good look at our surroundings. For US$18 / night we had a site with a bbq table, a wood grill and a decent sized car parking space. No electricity or water (although you could get water at other spots in the campground), and the showers cost $2.00 for 8 minutes, but on the whole, not bad. You should see some of the other setups though. The Yanks sure do love their RVs - and we sure saw some doozies here. Great big buses complete with satellite dish and Harley on the back, or at one stage even we saw a bus-RV towing a 4WD (obviously to use the 4WD as the run-about in the town). In my mind its kind of like the yachties with their little runabout dinghys for motoring to shore and so on - some of those yachties have got huge motorboats as their runabout - and its the same sort of thing here. The RV business sure is big.
Anyway, I digress. So we got up, but we didn't really have any food suitable for breakfast (houmus and crackers, anyone?). So we jumped in the car and headed off for the little shopping complex up the road. Here we at least managed a cup of coffee before heading off in search of the various trails and viewpoints of the canyon.
We parked up at the Visitor Centre and luckily they let Agnieszka plug in her new phone (see the next blog for the phone saga).
We walked out first of all on the Rim trail, which is by far the easiest, as it is an easy stroll along the edge of the canyon. The views this trail afforded were just astonishing. When you first see the size and scale of the Grand Canyon - it literally takes your breath away (and you realise just why it is called 'Grand').
The only problem with this walk is that because of its easy nature, every man and his dog is on it - so getting a clear photo is nigh on impossible as you battle with everyone else for position. We spotted, however, a cute little jutting out bit that very few could be bothered to venture out on (probably because it is a bit dangerous and there isn't a protective railing). Danger? Ha, I laugh in the face of it. So off I went, out on the limb (literally) and posed for several impressive photos. Then the moment of truth - just how good is the Grand Canyon really? Will it give that elusive Grand Coo-ee? So I puffed up, several deep breaths, and let rip with one of the most magnificient coo-ee's this side of the Black stump. I mean, this thing was just gorgeous, the echo went on for at least 3 or 4 seconds, and when I came down off the ledge, a few people actually congratulated me on it. Crocodile Dundee, eat your heart out.
But we soon hungered after more adventure than the Rim trail afforded, so we jumped in the car, and set off for the start point of the Bright Angel Trail. This trail takes you into the heart of the canyon, right down to the Colorado river, although the National Parks people don't recommend you actually try hiking down to the river and back in one day as clearly, its a very long way, its extremely hot, and the climb back out of the canyon is practically dead vertical. Oh and the most obvious one, they don't want to have to rescue you if you perish. Now me, I'm no stranger to hiking - I mean I've conquered Yorkshire's Herriot Way, you know - but even I know my limits, so we decided just to hike down to the first rest area and back again, and boy was this tough enough! The climb back damn near nearly killed me, I thought my heart and lungs were going to explode! But with plenty of water, and plenty of breaks - I could do it. Of course, we had to find things to entertain ourselves during those breaks, and seeing as a bunch of Yanks were just randomly yelling out in the Canyon to see what sort of echo they'd get (seriously, "hey" doesn't cut it!) - so me, being the excellent teacher that I am (just ask Ofsted), decided to give them a bit of a lesson. I will later on post some videos of my efforts, so you can judge which was the best one - but I think the Angel trail ones far outshine the Rim trail efforts.
Anyway, after this, we went back to the visitor centre to collect Agnieszka's phone, an then we had a very long and complicated palaver about activating the silly thing over dommer back at the South Rim Hotel. After all this, plus the exertions of the day, and despite drinking gallons literally of water, I had a bit of a migraine coming on, so I was glad to get back to the tent and crash.
We had had a fabulous day in the canyon, it was truly an amazing experience, one I will never forget.
No comments:
Post a Comment