Grand Canyon South Rim

The mighty Grand Canyon. Holy big crack in the ground Batman. Wow – words are not enough. We spread ourselves over 2 days exploring the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. This place is just beyond words. I made a short slideshow at the bottom as the pictures say it better than words.

We arrived late afternoon to a very windy thunderstorm so our first view off the main lookout was about 2.5 seconds and freezing. The following morning we were up early to take a 45 minute helicopter flight with Maverick Helicopters. This was just spectacular and I totally recommend this. We’ve done 3 chopper rides now – Hawaii and Alaska and each place was gorgeous from the air. We had the helicopter to ourselves and the views were breathless. The canyon was just swallowing us. The colours, the erosion, the altitude and the long Colorado River…it was just overwhelming. The Grand Canyon sits around 6500 feet above sea level and the North Rim climbs up to around 9000 feet. We spent the afternoon exploring the South Rim which included a 4km walk along the canyon edge. There were some fantastic views and they run shuttle buses all over the park to ferry tourists around. It was super efficient and it was busy, but not overly given we are past the summer school holiday seasons.

We enjoyed a fabulous dinner that night at El Tovar which is inside the park and we were glad to hit the sack that night. Once again, Deb had me up early to go and see the sunrise. It was well worth it and there were many other keen and eager photographers there to capture this special time of day. Once again, Batman ventured out to the dawn to watch over the Grand Canyon.

On our day leaving, we stopped at the Desert View Watch Tower lookout to check out the view from this side of the canyon. There was an interesting landmark to mark the spot where two planes collided in 1956 above on the canyon mountains in front of us. They collided at 21000 feet as they were circling above to avoid storm clouds. 128 people died – very sad story. It was in such a desolated spot in the canyon so I have no idea how they got the wreckage. I’ll have to research that a bit further.

We headed North to Monument Valley where a crack of dawn tour awaits us tomorrow. For now, I leave you with a movie of our Grand Canyon views. The pictures speak volumes as words cannot say just how incredible this place is. Deb also reminded me of an episode from The Flintstones (under 30's will need to ask your parents). So funny really. 

Anyway, take a break and watch my short movie of the spectacular Grand Canyon. Enjoy !