I've always heard about the "light" and how the canyon changes as the day progresses. It's just so true. How can a chasm of rock be so beautiful. All day the kids kept asking if its all just a picture. It'ssurprisingly quiet, despite the volumes of people around, everyone seems content to just look. Words are quite inadequate when faced with the scale of this place.
Everything here is incredibly well run and I guess when you have 5 million plus visitors a year, it's a well oiled machine. Shuttle buses get you around from point to point on the south rim and everything is very accessible. It's fun watching people arriving back after trekking for days and they all are so jubilant and exhilarated after their adventures. I admire them all as the tracks are impressively steep to say the least
From many of the vantage points you can see the Colorado River meandering through the bottom of the chasm, rapids just visible as ripples in the water. Amazing to think that that river is the cause of the canyon. 6 million years in the making, and its all visible in the rock layers.
As well as the awe inspiring views, we have seen plenty of squirrels, elk, deer, Californian Condors and a wide variety of plants. Everything is surprisingly green from lots of recent rain and is a very different landscape from the Mohave Desert we travelled yesterday. Also much much cooler.
As we are now staying in the GC RV village, we will be up early for sunrise over Mather Point. Tomorrow will see us exploring more vantage points and a short 3 mile return hike down part of the canyon. We are attending a couple of ranger talks during the day, as well as one in the evening. Will listen out for the coyotes tonight as well as the bobcats that live in the area. Hopefully no bears come knocking on our RV door!!!
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