So, after the quick usual oatmeal breakfast, packing back the sleeping bag, mattress, tent and other camping gear and setting up everything on the bike, I took the direction of the anxiously expected Grand Canyon.
It’s so funny you cross what seems to a vast plain of diverse vegetation, finally becoming pine forests, and of a sudden, it’s there, you’re on the edge of a huge, I mean, gigantic, cut into the Earth by the Colorado river. Obviously it took millions of years to get there, but still, it is really unbelievable. I think it’s the most impressive natural formation I’ve ever seen. We’ve all seen pictures – and I’ll show more here – but really seeing it is through your own eyes is really an experience one has to live at least once.
Anyway, right before reaching the view, I stopped at the Visitor Center to get information about what I should really see if I wanted to make the best use of my time, and I was informed very efficiently by a man there, so I could really optimize my time.
I started at the Mather Point, like everyone else probably and just got this in front of me:
Steven, a friendly guy from Indiana asked me if I wanted him to take a picture of me in front of the canyon, and I was too lazy to get my tripod out of the bag so I accepted, and we then started talking about the trip, work, health and several other interesting topics.
A little further, I was looking at some trails down the canyon when I wondered if some people were there, so I switched lenses, and found a group of people close to a little shelter that you wouldn’t see otherwise.. From close to far in the next 3 pictures… I hope it will give you a notion of the size of the canyon. We’re little things…
After that, I jumped to several other viewpoints, some allowing to see the Colorado River at the bottom, others seeing the canyon from a different angle.
I wish I could have gone to the other side of the canyon, the North Rim, which even has a skywalk, but it was already closed at this time of the year – and that would have required a few couple hundred miles more travel too…
So, after that I decided to head to Page, AZ based on the advice from the guy at the Grand Canyon Visitor Center. Unfortunately, the ride there took me some time and I only reached the small city after sunset, then headed to my first night at a Motel 6, which would prove in the future to be a safe, cheap and clean accommodation each time – only missing a morning breakfast…
