The Grand Canyon USA

I wrote this when I was still in the Grand Canyon, there was no WiFi so I couldn't post it earlier...there's no pictures yet because I want to download this with pictures I took from my camera, so I'll edit them in later.

For now, breakfast. Then I'll come back and add in Day 4 and today (:

Ciao(*)

Heya! Day 3, yesterday I saw the Grand Canyon for the first time ever and today I’ve been walking down part of the southern rim. I’ll start from where I left off the last entry; we arrived about 8pm to the Grand Canyon National Reserve or whatever its full name is, and we saw our first glimpse of the Grand Canyon.

No picture does it justice, it can’t. Not even I, with my word soup that tends to pour out of me in a messy way, can find the words to describe it. The colours, the magnitude, the way the sun casts shadows and shines orange light on the red wall of rock with all it’s patterns of millions of years of sediment build-up. The jagged peaks, black against the setting sun.

To be honest, at first I wasn’t all that shocked. Sure, it’s gorgeous, huge and the fall is steep, but I see this kind of thing everytime we go for a roadtrip back home. I started to get that butterfly-feeling in my stomach when I looked down because yeah, it’s huge, but it wasn’t until my older sister said something that it really hit me;

“Virgi te das cuenta de que estos no son montañas? Sino que es como una caída a la nada desde la tierra?” This isn’t like Machu Pichu, where Indians created these steps on the side of the mountain to farm. This isn’t a mountain peak where it rises from sea level up to thousands of meters high up into the sky. This is a fissure in the face of the earth. We were standing at ground level and we had this massive 2 km gorge before us with a massive river at its core that we could hardly even see.


...wow.

We saw this beautiful sunset and got back to the hotel to sleep early; we were supposed to get up at 5:30 to go hike down the Canyon because if we didn’t leave that early the sun would be too strong later for us to hike. I was up at 5:30 but we were all so tired we ended up waking up 10 past 6 and leaving the hotel at a quarter to 8. We decided to leave the Angel Trail (which is a 3 hour descent, 4 hour ascent to this point on the edge of one of the formations inside the Canyon from which you can see the Colorado River clearly) for tomorrow morning and walk along the rim of the canyon. So we set out.
Heat, heavy backpack, strong sun and the most spectacular view just about sums it up. It was incredible, as the sun was still rising and we were changing our angled view of the Canyon the view would change every 3 minutes. I was internally kicking myself for not having charged the camera very much, but to be honest I only took 2 pictures because the rest of the time I was looking at everything.

There were squirrels!!!!! I haven’t seen a squirrel in years!! Venison was seen by my little sister and my mother but I didn’t see that…a couple of vultures where circling a viewpoint and one passed over my head so near that I heard the whistling of the wind on its wings as it passed. The huge wingspan and the red heart and the hunchbacks with bright beaks gave me the chills.

A little after that, my little sister began to feel really sick, she almost threw up and everything ): so I decided to come back with her to the hotel. It’s 11am now, she’s been sleeping for a little more than an hour so I should wake her up. I’ve been sitting outside doing work and now writing this…a bunch of little scavenger birds keep coming up to me like “where’s the food at?” which is annoying…but they’re still cute!

So yeah, I’m off to see what my little sister needs. With any luck tomorrow I’ll be able to budge the family really early and I’ll be able to have a proper hike around the Canyon! I really want to go down so I can really understand the magnitude of it. Plus I really want to see the river e.e

Smelling like suncream/screen I bid you adieu for now!

LATER THE SAME DAY

My parents & older sister returned from the morning hike and we had lunch together. Apparently the best spots are where the shuttle stops are (shuttles being the buses ‘round here that run on natural gas…so ecology-aware around here, recycling signs, recycled bags papers etc.) so after the siesta that was actually replaced by a That 70’s Show marathon (LOVE THAT PROGRAM *-*) my little sister was feeling better and we decided to take the shuttle to the place we got on it to get back and see what we missed. We got some brilliant pictures, plus as it was the afternoon we could actually see the canyon in all its glory just a little bit better because the sun was higher up and there was less shade.

I actually wanted to go because I hadn’t seen the actual river yet; I saw it, got a picture and was therefore satisfied. (?) We got back at 6:30pm to rendezvous with the familia and dad decided to take us to this geology center picked especially by geologists to place that center (wonder if that makes sense to you xd)

It was incredible. The place they picked was perfect, you could see this wide scope of the canyon from left to right un-interrupted and from a point you could see all these different formations and even parts of the Colorado River. There was this whole explanation of how the Canyon came to be (can’t be bothered to write it here, if you want to know it Google it or ask me; if I’m in a really good mood I’ll explain it all. If not, sucks-boo to you.)

WE SAW ANOTHER SUNSET IN THE GRAND CANYON. FALSKDJGLAKJ.

I know that when people see the Grand Canyon pictures they think “boooring. It all looks the same.” I know, up until now it’s been like that for me. But I swear I took a thousand pictures trying and failing to capture the magnificent array and tones of colours the Canyon displayed. The reds and oranges and yellows and greys and purples and whites and shadows mixing with the sun’s rays that changed every 5 minutes with each angle of difference in the height of the sun. Also in general, the sheer magnitude and majesty of the Canyon is not possible to capture on film. If you ever EVER get the chance to visit don’t hesitate. GO.