Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon is an awe-inspiring natural wonder, a great chasm created by erosion by River Colorado of the volcanic Colorado plateau, along its flow in 2 million years. A view so breath taking,a gorge so steep, a creation so timeless humbles us by reminding us of the sheer size and majesty of nature.

After staying overnight at Las Vegas, we started early morning for Grand Canyon. We were asked the option on the previous day whether we would like to view the Canyon from West side(which had a $50 entrance fee) or South side. We chose the west where again we had the choice of skywalk, helicoptor ride, none or both. We chose the helicopter ride, $150 per head was quite expensive but having come so far we did not want to miss it.It included a boat tour in the Colorado river.

The journey from Las Vegas to Grand Canyon West was about 3-4 hrs. Also the road was dusty and pebbled. I wondered how government could leave such a popular tourist attraction so undeveloped. The answer came soon.Grand Canyon West (located on the south side of the Colorado River) is managed by the Hualapai Tribe. The Hualapai Indian Reservation is located on the south side of the Colorado River. This land lies outside the boundary and jurisdiction of the National Park Service and is administered by the Hualapai Indian Tribe.So once we enter the GC west boundary we go through custom check and are outside US.

The entire drive till the helipad, was like going through the desert. Barren dry land with cactus like plants. Grand Canyon National Park encompasses more than 1.2 million acres, the vast majority of the park is inaccessible due to the predominance of cliffs, and inhospitable to all but desert plants and animals.But none the less the view was quite good from inside an air conditioned luxury bus.Another interesting fact is that Arizona does not observe Daylight Saving Time. We are on Mountain Standard Time year-round.

On the way we saw the hoover dam,a boulder dam built on the border of Arizona and Nevada. This dam provides water to 5 states and Lake Mead is the reservoir built on the dam. Then stopped over for a buffet lunch near the Canyon. The restaurant was on a plateau surrounded by canyon on three sides.... had our lunch enjoying the majestic view. We then proceeded for the much awaited helicoptor ride after standing in along queue.

We boarded the helicoptor and the flight began. We flew over the desert and then over the canyon. The helicoptor circled the canyon....giving us a good view of the grandeur of the canyon. We then descended the gorge....going past the colourful layers of rocks seen on the steep sides of the canyon. We landed inside the canyon next to the River Colorado. The river which looked so small from above was indeed a huge one...after all it provides water to 5 almost desert like states.The water was brownish and we took the motor boar ride. The ride lasted 20 min and was even better than the coptor ride itself. Imagine this tiny looking river (comparatively) creating such a huge erosion over 2 million yrs in order to create these steep gorges.

We took the coptor again to go back to the land and then from there we went to the skywalk. After going inside the Canyon itself, we had no charm left for the skywalk. Skywalk a glass arch built protruding inside the canyon to get a good view of the canyon. But people say its hardly anything. The arch itself is not much into the canyon ... so we dropped it. The bus then took us back to Las Vegas where night lights and night life was waiting for us.