The alarm went off at 630am.
Last night the temperature went as low as -4
°C so there was ice on all of
the RV windows and I had to wrestle the electric flex back into its panel as it
was frozen rigid!
We went with multiple
layers for this morning and drove very carefully on the icy roads.
But we still made it through to the car park
in the Visitors’ centre for 7am and got the kettle on so that we could carry
some coffee with us to see the sunrise.
There
was a fair crowd that had wrapped up to brave the cold.
(right).
We timed it to perfection, the
sun crept over the top of the canyon only a couple of minutes after we arrived
(below) but the best view was of the canyon walls opposite the sun, as the rays
gradually hit the canyon rock and awoke the red and orange colours from their sleep.
The day was young so we returned to the RV to refuel on
bacon sandwiches and more caffeine.
A
swift change into walking boots and a couple of lighter layers and we almost
looked like seasoned hikers.
We caught
the shuttle bus over to the ‘Bright Angel’ trailhead.
From here you can choose several levels of
hike:
From the diagram, and I
guess common sense (?!) the top sections are the steepest.
We selected the walk to the 1.5 mile
resthouse, so a 3-mile round-trip that they describe as ‘difficult’ and
estimate to take between 2 and 4 hours as we wanted to move on from the GC this
afternoon.
I made the cunning suggestion
not to stop for any photo opportunities on the way down. Why waste time on the
easy bit?! We would be coming back up the same trail so could then pretend to
be taking our time over carefully framing and lighting our photographs,
sneakily covering up the fact we were, in fact, struggling to breathe! There
was snow and ice on the upper sections and the majority of the hike was in the
shade so we were glad we’d worn layers.
On the way down we passed numerous people heading up the steep trail –
one of the groups had been in the canyon for 6 days doing the rim to rim to rim
trail apparently (I’m guessing South to north and back to south?) - so fair play
to them.
We were merely dipping our toes
in the hiking water!
We reached the
resthouse within 45 minutes (above right)
....so guessed that it would take us twice as
long against gravity on the way back up.
It was tough, but we surprised ourselves by getting back to the top in
just over two hours despite taking numerous photos along the way, so not too
shabby!
 |
| View of the trail winding up the canyon |
 |
| We were just down there..... |
 |
| A little rosy cheeked! |
 |
| Simon posing in one of the tunnels |
 |
| It might not look like it.... but we enjoyed our hike! |
We felt that we had ‘done’ the
canyon in as many different ways as we could manage to cram in within 24 hours
– helicopter, driving and hiking – and we’d certainly filled up some memory
with tons of photographs! Our muscles started seizing up just from the bus ride back to
the RV so I jumped in a lovely hot shower and Simon had a well-deserved lie
down.
But we didn’t end the canyon views there!
We headed east so that we would leave the GC
National park via a different entrance and head towards Flagstaff.
We stopped off by a lovely vista for lunch
and then re-visited some of our helicopter tour from the ground. It is
surprising how different the view can be along different sections of this
amazing landmark.
I also enjoyed
watching the ravens. They appear to be the most successful bird around the
canyon.
They constantly circle overhead
and float out onto thermals above the extreme gradients and today they were
play-fighting and doing acrobatics in the air (below).
We completed our canyon tour at the
Watchtower (below) and eventually left the park around 3pm.
I had noticed a national monument called Sunset Crater
volcano on our route this afternoon but we didn’t reach it until after 5pm when
the visitor centre had closed.
Neither
of us were feeling capable of a further hike today, so we just drove along the
route and noted some fields covered in bizarre, black lava flow and also
mountains of ash.
The scenery
was still very wintery as we passed the San Francisco mountains (left)
containing the highest peak in Arizona at 12633 ft.
There are murmurings of more snow in the area
tomorrow morning so our plans for the next few days hang in the balance
depending on how we find conditions in the morning.
We found a Good Sam park, Greer’s Pine Shadows, for the
night (so above budget at $33). The
owner was so helpful and gave us a mountain of paperwork about how much there
is to do around Flagstaff but all we wanted to do was hook up for the night and
collapse!
The alarm went off at 630am.
Last night the temperature went as low as -4°C so there was ice on all of
the RV windows and I had to wrestle the electric flex back into its panel as it
was frozen rigid! We went with multiple
layers for this morning and drove very carefully on the icy roads. But we still made it through to the car park
in the Visitors’ centre for 7am and got the kettle on so that we could carry
some coffee with us to see the sunrise. There
was a fair crowd that had wrapped up to brave the cold.
(right). We timed it to perfection, the
sun crept over the top of the canyon only a couple of minutes after we arrived
(below) but the best view was of the canyon walls opposite the sun, as the rays
gradually hit the canyon rock and awoke the red and orange colours from their sleep. 
From the diagram, and I
guess common sense (?!) the top sections are the steepest. We selected the walk to the 1.5 mile
resthouse, so a 3-mile round-trip that they describe as ‘difficult’ and
estimate to take between 2 and 4 hours as we wanted to move on from the GC this
afternoon. I made the cunning suggestion
not to stop for any photo opportunities on the way down. Why waste time on the
easy bit?! We would be coming back up the same trail so could then pretend to
be taking our time over carefully framing and lighting our photographs,
sneakily covering up the fact we were, in fact, struggling to breathe! There
was snow and ice on the upper sections and the majority of the hike was in the
shade so we were glad we’d worn layers.
On the way down we passed numerous people heading up the steep trail –
one of the groups had been in the canyon for 6 days doing the rim to rim to rim
trail apparently (I’m guessing South to north and back to south?) - so fair play
to them. We were merely dipping our toes
in the hiking water! We reached the
resthouse within 45 minutes (above right) 
But we didn’t end the canyon views there! We headed east so that we would leave the GC
National park via a different entrance and head towards Flagstaff. We stopped off by a lovely vista for lunch
and then re-visited some of our helicopter tour from the ground. It is
surprising how different the view can be along different sections of this
amazing landmark. I also enjoyed
watching the ravens. They appear to be the most successful bird around the
canyon. They constantly circle overhead
and float out onto thermals above the extreme gradients and today they were
play-fighting and doing acrobatics in the air (below). 
I had noticed a national monument called Sunset Crater
volcano on our route this afternoon but we didn’t reach it until after 5pm when
the visitor centre had closed. Neither
of us were feeling capable of a further hike today, so we just drove along the
route and noted some fields covered in bizarre, black lava flow and also
mountains of ash. 
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