On Tuesday we decided to leave a little earlier so we could beat the rush. Got to the main gates at 8:35 and there were only a few cars in front of us and even better the massive parking lots were only half full. We headed west from the visitors centre for another 5 mile round trip to the Village and back.
The village consists of a number of souvenir shops, lodges and hotels as well as a train depot and a fairly large stable of mules. The number of languages that we heard was quite impressive from French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Japanese. But by far the largest group were from Germany. In fact I'd say that english was definitely in the minority.
We soon discovered that our rubber legs and my bum knee had not fully recovered from the previous days hike. None the less we persevered as the views were equally impressive.
Our first glimpse of the Colorado river in the GC. The GC is so deep and the walls so sheer that the river is obscured for the most part. Here you can make out a trail on the left and a bridge crossing the river that is used by hikers and mule trains.
The GC is not just one canyon but in fact many canyons converging together. The largest being the one containing the Colorado River. Here is one such canyon merging with the GC. Many of these, at least as far as we could see, have dry river beds at the bottom.
We dragged ourselves back to the truck, although not before stopping for a well deserved Iced Chai Latte. Wednesday we are going to finish the South Rim and take in the east and western extremities. Yaki point to the east and Hermits Rest to the west. We are however going to avail ourselves of the excellent Shuttle Bus system.
Later
No comments:
Post a Comment