Grand Canyon

This year we had a substantial credit from Cunard and had decided on a cruise through the Panama. As soon as this was mentioned to Pam & Robin they signed on and shortly after suggested a road trip through a couple of the West Coast National Parks. First stop the Grand Canyon. As this was a popular time of year Pam organised a train trip from Williams to the Canyon. The rear and adjoining dome were our designated cars.

The train comprised a dozen heritage cars and two diesel locos. 

The steam loco is only used on the first Saturday of each month.

As soon as we were off the train it was only a small walk to the Southern rim. It is really an impossible challenge to gain an appreciation of the size of the canyon with a photograph.

The canyon is 10 miles wide with the Southern rim at 7500 feet and a drop to the Colorado river of 5000 ft. The path to the river starts at Bright Angel Trail Head. Although I did this as a 20 something year old I decided a repeat performance was probably not on the bucket list. Fortunately the others in the team agreed – but we did make the start!

This is a view of the trail 4000 feet below the rim where there is a “flat” kilometre or so before the final descent down to the river.

We opted for the rim trail. This is a wonderful 2 km walk which takes you through the canyons geology. Every large step is marked and represents 1M years. At appropriate points there are samples of the relevant rocks with scopes arranged so you could easily view the relevant element in the canyon. At the end of the walk there was a helpful summary gate which shows the igneous rock at the bottom and numerous sedimentary levels. What I found fascinating is that although the river has eroded the canyon the whole area has also risen due to plate activity. Unusually the raising has been uniform so there are no fault lines. The Northern rim is at 9000 feet so a gentle tilt to the Southern rim.

The erosion over the years has been substantial. The current “top” had some 1000 feet above it and is where there would (had it survived) been skeletons of dinosaurs. Occasionally softer layers below the harder cap have eroded which eventually results in quite large boulders being undermined.

We were repeatedly advised to stay clear of and not feed any of the wild life. The most dangerous is the squirrel. They know that they are protected but are quite happy to give those dumb enough to feed them a nip for their trouble.

By comparison the elk really could not care what you do with only the occasional interest in having their photograph taken,

We stayed two nights in the canyon but during the train ride up and down were entertained by a few cowboys. During the ride back the train was held up and had to stop which enabled boarding and being robbed. Good fun.

Although the area is very arid there were some quite colourful flowers.

However, the challenge continued to be to get a photograph with depth. Here the gang is about 50 metres below and behind them is the trail – I hope that helps!

We spent some time looking for Condors with their 2 metre wingspans which are slowly being brought back from near extinction. However, we only managed a few vultures – mind you they were quite graceful especially against a setting sun.

There were occasional spots where you could see the river which in this case was beautifully framed by a couple of old gnarled trees.