Grand Canyon!

What visit to Arizona would be complete without visiting the Grand Canyon? So that's what we set off to do on the 1st. Woke up, made a quick phone call (no problems this time luckily for the pay phone) and headed off on the Interstates for the Grand Canyon. Fairly uneventful hour and a half drive (Flagstaff and Grand Canyon are right next to each other on the map). Paid the $25 entry fee and in we went. Parked, walked through the forest and emerged on the rim walkway, and here was the view:

Of course it's nearly impossible to capture the scale of the place; heck it's nearly impossible to comprehend it in person! Here are some more shots…

 

So while you can stand at the edge and peer in, it's pretty hard to comprehend the 4000 ft drop or the 13 mile width. So we drove back down the road a bit and hopped into one of these:

There was a bit of a wait, and had to watch a flight safety video, but we were soon inside and strapped in. Liftoff was fun; we lifted off and hovered a few feet off the ground, backed up and turned to face down the landing field, then the pilot lifted up the back of the chopper and we roared down the paddock before quickly swinging up and climbing to cruising altitude. Meanwhile some MASH / A Team style theme music played; very fitting :-)

We flew for about 8 minutes over the Kiabab National Forest. Even in the middle of the massive forest I was surprised to find lots of little tracks and the occasional clearing. The forest is also very sparse, at least compared to the forests of the West Coast.

After 8 minutes we suddenly, with no warning at all, flew over the edge of the forest into the canyon itself. The cliff face dropped down and down and down and down some more. Pretty incredible.

The mighty Colorado River that carved the canyon.

Note the tiny trees around the edge?

All too quickly the canyon ended and we were back over the forest. I was a bit sad, thinking this is all over way too quick! We flew over more expanses of forest that seemed to stretch on for impossible distances.

But then we rounded a corner and the canyon walls appeared all over again!

It felt like we were crawling across the canyon, but I sneaked a peak at the control panel and we were cruising along at 110mph/180kmh! Even at this speed it took quite some time to cross the canyon. I saw a few other choppers and they were scooting across the sky. What amazed me about the Grand Canyon is how amazingly quiet it is. Even with presumably dozens of choppers whizzing across the sky, we couldn't hear a noise when standing at the rim. The serenity was amazing.

After we'd crossed the canyon the second time we continued back over the forest, crossing a few roads. We were low enough to see the occasional car cruising the back roads; compared to us they seemed to be crawling along.

We started circling the airport and all too soon we were back on the ground. We climbed out and ran back to the terminal. I gave the pilot the thumbs up on the way. We were both grinning ear-to-ear; Ange had been a bit worried beforehand having never been in a chopper before, but now loves them! We went via the gift shop and bought a couple of tee shirts; mine has a very American chopper-and-eagle-wings shield on it. We hopped back in the car and I made chopper noises as we drove off. Not quite the same though.

Arrived back at the Grand Canyon and had some lunch overlooking the canyon. Saw the Grand Canyon Express…

A raven (I think)…

A squirrel…

A bighorn sheep…

(Quite uncommon I gather). Some kind of soaring bird, a chipmunk (no photo), and while standing on a rocky pinnacle, a coyote !

 

By now the sun was setting and the shadows were lengthening.

… and the moon was rising…

Watched the sun set and the shadows lengthen. Then we headed out to the car. Right by the car park there were three deer out feeding, quite oblivious to us humans. I saw quite a bit of wild life around the canyon, and closer than in many zoos.

Drove back to Flagstaff, arrived in the dark. Went looking for a Mexican restaurant but gave up after it routed us into the middle of a residential neighbourhood, and to one that had closed for the night. So had some pizza instead, which was pretty good. Back to the campground and did the washing; pretty exciting! Had a problem with a malfunctioning toilet that flushed up instead of down, ewww! Then it was off to sleep; had had quite a day!!