Day 5, Saturday, May 3, 2008

We got an early start on the Grand Canyon, and it's a good thing. Things definitely got more crowded as the day wore on.

There is simply no way to describe the Grand Canyon. It is awe inspiring, majestic, beautiful, surprising......... You get the idea. I'll try to put up some representative pictures. First, though, I think it helps if you have a little orientation type information.

The Canyon itself is 277 miles long, and averages 10 miles wide. It runs more or less on an east-west line. The South Rim of the Canyon is the one we visited. Here are a couple of maps of the area.





We started at Mather Point, the spot marked with a black "You Are Here" label on the map. The Canyon is about 8 miles from rim to rim at that point. Here are a few of the best pictures from that area.



This is a broad view of the Grand Canyon from Mather Point looking toward the west.



And this is from the same spot looking east. The pictures don't begin to show the magnitude of the Canyon.



This is looking west again, but a bit farther this time, so you can see the overlook at Mather Point. Seeing the people in the picture gives you a little better idea of scale.



This is sort of a central shot from Mather Point. One of the things that surprised me was how much green there is. Plants try to grow anywhere they can get a foothold here. In all the pictures I've ever seen of the Grand Canyon, people have emphasized how beautiful all the rock colors are. The rocks are indeed breathtakingly beautiful, but the Canyon is also very green. Most of what looks gray in these pictures is actually a silver green type of grass and small bushes.

The line you can see on the flat area at the center left of the picture is a trail that travels into the canyon. And in the very center of this picture you can see a tiny slip of the Colorado River. Here's a close-up of the same spot.



Here are a couple of shots that show a couple of the different types of rock formations here.





And here's a picture of one of the signs that explains the different layers of rock in the Canyon.



Here's a shot of Jeffrey and family.



I guess I was a little surprised at the fact that you can just stand right on the edge of the Canyon in most places. It makes sense that you wouldn't want to mar the view with railings everywhere, but I'm accustomed to the east, where most things are over protected. Out here, personal responsibility is the thing.



There's lots more, but I'll try to post the Grand Canyon pictures in smaller segments. More later!