Grand Canyon, AZ Sept. 21st

We stayed at the Grand Canyon an abnormally long 3 days because our car broke down (not a bad place to be stuck!). Every time my dad has driven across the country, there has always been a break down (hence the rental car suggestion in travel tips). If you think about it, you are really supposed to do an oil change if you drive your own car on the trip since you're traveling well over 3000 miles. Luckily, we knew this would happen and they upgraded our dinky little blue Toyota Yaris for no extra cost.

Grand Canyon is not only an amazing great national park but also a busy town complete with a grocery store, library and a train!

OK, now for the cool scenic shots that I'm sure you were expecting. I tried to keep it as un-repetitive as possible (I have loads more) but the landscape is just so amazing I just couldn't reduce the pictures I uploaded any further. After all, there has to be a reason this spot is memorialized on the back of two separate US quarter designs (one for the state series and the other for national parks series). The string of pictures below were taken along a bike ride I took along the rim near the grand canyon visitor center. This particular visitor center is up route 64 and close to Tusayan, AZ. There are many centers, the park is huge and the grand canyon itself stretches further than the boarders of the park-277 mi in total!

See the bus? This is not the other side of the canyon mind you, but just a small alcove on the same side of the canyon.

A video which tries to capture the enormity of the canyon. 10 miles across, 277 mi long, 1 mi deep.

Another...

My little spot where I watched the sunset. Isn't biking cool? You can also bike to places like this =).

I heard that the sunset is the best time to take pictures...

There was lots of wild life too of course. Here is what we think is a California Condor which would have gone extinct had it not been for captive breeding programs!

Rocky Mountain elk are also prevalent along the south rim of the canyon. They are not native to the area and were moved to the park from 1913-1928. They like artificially maintained grass near the lodges around the canyon. They shed their horns in the spring and they are huge!

Elk can be dangerous and unpredictable. According to the rangers, if you can hold up your thumb an arm's length and still cover the entire elk's body, you are at a safe viewing distance.

Yup. That's real. I don't even own photoshop. This fine young gentleman was roaming all over the park, I followed him for a bit.

Here is a guy that is too close. I was filming hoping to get the next big youtube video entitled 'dumb guy attacked by an elk' but it didn't happen.

Same elk.

This video is probally the most impressive.

Here is another video my dad shot of one eating.

When I had visited this place as a kid I was severely disappointed by the fact that no matter how hard I begged, I was not allowed to 'do a quick run' down below the rim to the Colorado river below. And since I am spoiled and always get to do what I want as an only child, I did it this time =p. The Bright Angel trail is the one that most people take because it is the best maintained and has the best facilities (aka you don't have to bring down all your own water).

Here we go.

K. Before we get too far down in the canyon we should do a little geology lesson. Apart from its natural beauty, the grand canyon is amazing because the rock layers are well preserved and show little signs of faulting and folding. The canyon would not have been possible without the great uplift that made the Colorado Plateau 50-60 million yrs ago. The bed rock was deposited 2 billion years ago then the thick red band you see was deposited by sea water. The next prominent region is the Conconino sandstone which was deposited when the region was dessert. Finally the top layer, Kaibab limestone was deposited about 270 million yrs ago by another ocean. The previously mentioned uplift occurred and then just a mere 6 million yrs ago the Colorado river started to carve out the rock!

One of two tunnels you come to while hiking. To the right is the location where the California Condor was spotted in a picture above.

The other side of it.

The other tunnel looking up.

Here is the 3 mile rest house which was the lowest place I went to. As its name implies, its 3 miles down the Bright Angel trail. It is advised to allow double the amount of time to travel back up but it took me about the same amount of time. The park gets about 1 request per day on average for rescues on the trails. To stay the night down at the river, you need a permit.

Here's what that same house looks like looking down on it from the rim...

...and in case you can't see it in the photo above here's a zoomed in view.

Cool! Solar panels power the rest house.

Here is a shot almost down to the 3 mile rest house (you can see it to the right)

Looking back up. The formation blocking the sun is not the top.

A view looking down at the trail I did not travel...yet. There is a trial that peels off to the right that takes you down to the river. The most visible one is just an over look. The Colorado drops 10 ft every mile and is on average 300 ft wide and 40 ft deep.

Some panoramas I took near the 3 mile rest house.

The 1.5 mile rest house on the way back up.

A self shot of me at the lowest point I went.