Ah, the Grand Canyon National Park, one of the Seven Natural Wonders. It’s called a natural wonder because of the overall scale and size combined with the colored landscape. We stayed here for the 4th of July… but it could be any other day for all that matters. Nothing happened :-).
We stayed in the Yavapai Lodge in the Grand Canyon Village. It wasn’t the best stay that we had… but not the worst neither. We didn’t book a room with air-conditioning, but only with a fan. Mainly because we didn’t read the room criteria before booking. I don’t recommend a room with a fan.
Our first encounter with the Grand Canyon was via a helicopter ride. We pre-booked our tour with Papillon. Because we stayed at the South Rim we decided to book the North Canyon Tour with them. Papillon was very good. Our pilot was excellent and guided us through our flight as well. It was a very cool way to get to know the Grand Canyon. If we wouldn’t have done this helicopter flight, I would’ve be so disappointed in the Grand Canyon… Because, beside of its size, I wasn’t overwhelmed with joy when we did the Scenic Drive. Our helicopter tour flew us over the Kaiab National Forest before arriving at the Grand Canyon and seeing the immensity of it all. It’s a short tour, only 25-30 minutes. But it was fine by me. Even though you wear a headset, it’s rather noisy being inside the helicopter :-).
When we safely returned to the terminal, we went straight towards the Grand Canyon itself to do the Scenic Drive. We started with the Lipan Point (The Desert View Watchtower was too far away, and we were already late). From Lipan Point we went downwards to Moran Point, Grandview Point, Mather Point and Yavapai Point. Those last two points are good viewpoints to see the sunset and sunrise over the Grand Canyon. That’s what we did. We rushed from Moran Point to Mather Point to be on time (and have a good spot) for the sunset over the rim. None of the viewpoints could charm me but these two – and only because of the colors that came with the sunset. We weren’t planning on seeing the sunrise. But because of the heat/ the noise of the fan, I was awake at 4.15 A.M. I decided that the boyfriend slept enough as well and asked to go to Mather Point again to see the sunrise. Not everybody was happy to get out of bed at 4.30 in the morning… there were no smiles for the following three hours… but we did see the sunrise! Instead of the warm orange/ yellow in the evening, now we had the pink/ purple/ red colors of the morning sun. This is what I liked the most of the Grand Canyon and the scenic drive!
We were planning on doing a part of the Bright Angel Trail as well, but because of the heat wave we decided to skip that part. There was also a warning not to hike too far or too long – so we left the Grand Canyon behind us and went to Page, with a giant detour.
Around the world in a lifetime 