Canyon: a deep valley with steep sides, often with a stream flowing through it.
..it was indeed a Grand Canyon. Problem is, once you've pulled up and gone 'wow' what do you do then?! lol! Apparently, the average trip to the Grand Canyon lasts 4 hours, with just 45minutes spent looking at the Canyon itself, compared to almost 2 weeks in the 1980's.
You can't walk down it, well, you can, but you'll probably die and it will take you 2 days at least. From the moment we got there we were inundated with stories about people that were foolish enough to think they could walk down and back up again - including a story about a woman who ran the Boston Marathon in just over 3 hours, yet died trying to hike back out the Grand Canyon. That was more than enough to put us off! You can take a mule ride down, for over $600 each, or a helicopter over te top for just over $200 each... Mm. Rafting! Ah! that sounds fun... only smooth water at this time of year though :(
Not to be disuaded we were determined to find something to do and beat the average 4hours stay so we wandered into the visitors centre and read some more stories about people dieing of exhaustion or falling over the edge (cheerful place this). However, we chatted to a friendly ranger and although in true National Park style you can't ride your bike on *any* trails, you can ride your bike along one of the rim roads. We thought this sounded like a plan as there were over 10 viewpoints scattered along the road and the only other way of getting there is shuttle bus. Now, shuttle buses maybe a good idea, but they are a Universe in which all the stereo-types in existance seem to manifest themselves to reality... from the brash rude Old Texan Couple to the loud German to the Japannese tourist with 14 video cameras and, in our case, the tired English couple wishing they were anywhere else but here. So, since Denali, we've avoided shuttle buses! lol!
We spent the night at the campsite in the South Rim Villiage with plans to get up early and get cycling after we'd watched the sun go down over the Cayon - this is a must if you're ever in the area.
Monday morning and we awoke bright and early, I made Dan boiled eggs and soliders in bed with a hot cup of English Tea and a present of a Grand Canyon Fridge Magnet as it was our Anniversary ... he responded with 'is it?!'. It's good to follow tradition :-) We packed up and drove into the village to park Charlie up near the beginning of the road, we unloaded the bikes and made some sandwiches for lunch before starting the ride. 5 minutes in, my legs were aching and I couldn't breathe... Mm. I know I havn't been to the gym for 3 months but it shouldn't be this bad!! Admittely the first 3 miles was one of those killer gradual hills, but the answer was found at the first view point, I hadn't realised - we were cycling at between 6,500ft and 7,500ft all day. Phew! Thing is, with Moab at 4,000ft I hope it's a bit easier, or I might need my health insurance! lol!
By the end of the day and nearing the end of our 16mile ride I was starting to get the hang of it so much so that when Dan made a joke about liking riding behind me as he could go at my easy pace he soon found himself a speck in the distance as I accelerated up the 4mile hill - Hehehe. I love my bike.
Still, it was definatly worth the effort. We traversed all the view points getting our timing almost perfect so we arrived just after the shuttle buses picked up and the easy pace of the ride meant we could enjoy the views as we cycled along.
That evening we booked into the campsite on the furthest east point of the Grand Canyon. We saw a ranger who's comment: 'Nice Defender!' should certainly not go unnoted. It was amazing that for once, Charlie wasn't being called a 'Jeep thing', 'rig' or 'hippie mobile!'. We had a quick chat with him and it turns out he likes his off-roading and it was benifical to us as he recommended a place to go and watch the sunset a couple of 100yrds down from the campsites ampitheatre. Fantastic as no-one ever goes there, true to form, I grabbed a coke and Dan grabbed a beer and we headed on down there to find a truely desserted spot from which you could see the plains, the north rim and the river winding it's way through.
We watched the sun go down and headed back to the campsite to cook and anniversary dinner of beef in red wine/garlic and baked banana's with Cadbury's Chocolate (that Mum had brought over - thanks Mum!), mini-marshmallows and Baileys. Mm. Yum. When the stars came out it was amazing. With a distinct lack of light pollution it was hard to make out the constilations there were so many, pretty amazing. However, it did make me a bit sad, after the excellent evening we'd had with the fire, reading books and looking at the stars I walked to the toilets amid a sea of air conditioned RV's.... every one housed people sat inside watching television. I doubt they'd lit a fire or looked at the stars or stopped to talk to a Ranger long enough to find the best spots. Sad really.
That night I awoke to hear a group of Coyotes howling, it would have been amazing but I really needed the loo and was too scared to get up! lol!
Today we headed on over to check out Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. Zion looked amazing, but again, it was shuttle buses or a 3 day hike... We had a wander around, visited the visitors centre and then realised the clocks had gone forward an hour and we raelly should find a campsite! Desparate for a shower we headed to the nearest KOA, 12 miles from Bryce Canyon so we're planning on spending the day there tomorrow. Hopefully we can do it more justice than Zion.
2 comments:
Surprised the CDM lasted that long! ..mind you, we did bring 20 bars of varying sizes!! Happy Anniversary Guys!
one comment nearly had this Mum in tears... "I doubt they've lit a fire, or looked at the stars..."
Boy, oh boy, all those camps and burnt sausages and twists were worth it! Glad you're both having so much REAL fun! ok, it did have me in tears - had to retype this three times, cos I couldn't read it!
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