Grand Canyon

We advanced further into the flight and came upon the Grand Canyon. We had prevaricated on whether to book a plane or helicopter flight before we left the UK, and read reviews of both...I think the reviews were accurate in their view - that it doesn't matter - but wrong in their argument - that either way, the canyon is amazing. What is more true is that no matter which we would have picked, neither does justice to the scale of the canyon...it is simply incomprehensible. The top of the canyon is almost entirely flat and then, seemingly out of nowhere, the land just falls away. The small, winding Colorado river in the canyon base looks so benign from the air and is dwarfed by the canyon it has created. The rock formations and colours were fabulously picked out in beiges, reds, greens and greys and well-lit in the early morning sunshine...albeit causing horrible shadows that made photographing the canyon annoyingly difficult. We followed the path of the Colorado river for much of our flight and get barely made any inroads at all into the vastness of the GCNP. The odd car or helicopter in the landscape helped to add a sense of scale but only fleetingly. We headed back to base with our pilot, Steve, before getting a transfer back to Vegas, achieving all of this before 10am! Time for a nap.Read more