The length of the Grand Canyon

Sadly, we turned our backs on Utah- we loved it- and headed for Arizona across wide, wide plains, along straight, straight roads. Our first sight of the Grand Canyon was at Navajo Bridge where we gazed down 500 feet to the Colorado River which was dull green with murky clouds of sand swirling in the current. Despite continuing blue skies, the weather took an icy turn and by the time we reached the heart of the Grand Canyon it was utterly freezing with grey (or gray in the US) skies and a cutting wind. The Grand Canyon is undoubtedly impressive. It's immensely deep and wide. The depths make an immediate and dizzying impact but it's more difficult to realize that its really 11 miles and sometimes 16 miles across to the opposite rim of the canyon- and yet..... we were slightly disappointed! Maybe it was the cold grey weather: maybe we'd over indulged on spectacular desert and canyon scenery: maybe the hard slog of a 9 mile walk along an uneven and unnerving trail (Fiona felt sick with vertigo when she looked back and saw how near to a 3000 foot drop we'd been - with nothing to break the fall!) was too much? Whatever the reason, it wasn't one of the highlights of our trip. We think that being on top looking down probably wasn't the best way to experience it. Next time (!?) we want to ride down on mules, raft along the Colorado River and be lifted out by helicopter. We've got it all planned. It'll be great!

We did fully get a feel for the enormous length of the canyon when, several days later, we got to its end at the Hoover Dam - a man-made wonder which we were able to appreciate in gorgeous sunshine. It hadn't been on our list of places to go but it was a surprisingly enjoyable happenstance.