No tourist’s visit to the west of the U.S. is complete without a stop at the Grand Canyon, and we were no exception. We stayed in a little village (consisting mostly of the motel and gift shop) called Cameron for a couple of nights. From there it was only about an hour’s drive west to the Grand Canyon.
On our second night there, there was a spectacular sunset, with a storm brewing on the horizon. Ben had been wishing for a great big thunder/lightning storm during our trip, and this was the night it happened! We were able to sit on our balcony outside and witness the most amazing natural lights show either of us had ever seen on the plains behind the motel. The lightning just went on and on for about 2 hours, with lots of spectacular fork lightning too!
As we visited the Grand Canyon on a Sunday, we drove in early and attended a little Baptist church there in the Grand Canyon Village before heading off and doing a bit of sight-seeing. We were there with two little ones, so the possibility of any hikes down into the Canyon were (thankfully) non-possibilities, so we did some of the Rim Trail and took photos.
The Grand Canyon is named that because it is really grand. Huge. Amazing. Awe-inspiring. And simply too big for me to really be able to take in and comprehend. So big and amazing that after about an hour of looking at it, you’ve got brain frizz and just have to leave. I expect you get a better idea of it if you hike down into it, or do some rafting on the river, or even take a plane or helicopter ride over it, but as it was, it was “too lofty for me to attain.”
Of course, there had to be a few close-calls, didn’t there? What really struck me was that there were only a couple of viewing points that had any kind of safety barrier. For the rest of the trail, you could just walk off the trail, and jump off the cliff if you wanted to! That’s so different from New Zealand — there would be safety barriers everywhere and if not, oodles of warnings to stay away from the edge!
