22: The Grand Canyon

6 December 2017

On Monday we left Mexican Hat (the town) and headed to the Grand Canyon, safe in the knowledge that Katelyn’s phone was not sitting deep down in a composting toilet.

When we arrived, our CEO asked us to trust him with an interesting approach he has for first time visitors. As we started getting near the Grand Canyon, he asked us to close our eyes as he finished parking. As we got out of the bus he then asked us to put bags over our heads, carefully marched us in conga line form to near the edge of the Grand Canyon, then took a mobile phone and photographed us as we all took off our bags together to see the Grand Canyon for the very first time. Absolutely breathtaking!

After a quick lunch we then had around four hours to explore the area. Most of us headed to Bright Angel Trail, where you could walk down into the Grand Canyon itself. As we started our descent some mules were carrying a group back up, and so we had to give way on the narrow track. As they passed, the leader thanked me and I replied with, “No worries!” He got a real kick out of that.

Many of the group descended quite a bit, however I only went a relatively short distance down. Even so, it was still a long, steep climb back up. A fellow from Boulder (Colorado) hiking with his son said they didn’t think it was that far down, but were deceived by the massive scale of the Canyon.

I then met Nicole and Katelyn at the top, neither of whom went very far down the trail given Nicole’s apprehension around heights. We then walked the 3.5 km or so back to the Yavapai Geology Museum. All along the walk we were reminded of just how massive and special the Grand Canyon really is.

Before we headed back to our hotel, our CEO gave us the chance to photograph the light of the setting sun hitting the North Rim — an opportunity that we couldn’t possibly turn down.

Sunrise over the South Rim

However we weren’t yet finished with the Grand Canyon. On Tuesday morning we awoke early and headed back to watch the sun rise over the South Rim. The night before, as we were dropped at the hotel, the air temperature had been zero, so we knew it would be cold … however nothing prepared us for how cold it would be.

The air temperature was only just above freezing when we arrived, however it was blowing an absolute gale on the point we had to stand on. Someone said the effective temperature was around -10 and I would certainly agree. It was easily the coldest I have ever been and became more painful by the minute. To operate the camera I had to have one hand with no glove on — Nicole and Katelyn couldn’t last and headed for the warm van early. Kerrin’s camera literally stopped working given how cold it was.

Helicopter flight

Then it was back to the hotel for breakfast before heading to the airport for our helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon with Maverick Helicopter Tours. The whole experience was absolutely unbelievable. We were allocated seats based on our weight, and so I was lucky enough to score a window seat. Nicole was on the opposite window in the second row, while Katelyn was up front with our pilot “BJ”. BJ was awesome and appointed Katelyn as his trainee pilot for the morning.

Previous helicopter flights I have done have initially made a quick vertical climb to get some altitude before heading away. However on this flight we only lifted slightly before the helicopter tipped forward as we headed out above the trees only 100 feet (around 30 metres) above the ground. Then we reached the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and the world just dropped away in spectacular fashion. Absolutely magnificent!!

We then spent around 25 minutes flying over the Grand Canyon proper, which was literally an experience of a lifetime. BJ said that the hardest thing for him during the flight would be trying to convey the sheer scale of the Grand Canyon to us. He tried, by showing us what the Empire State Building would look like against just part of a part of the Grand Canyon, however you just can’t get your head around it no matter how hard you try.

Heading out, my window was in the shade, so I was able to get some amazing photos.