RV Travel Log

The Grand Canyon - 12/02/2003

The Grand Canyon. I bet you think it's pretty big, huh. And picturesque, and awe-inspiring, and once-in-a-lifetime-WOW-amazing, and blah blah blah.

Yes. It is. It's big. I mean, really big. And sure, it's pretty. But because it's so freaking big, you really only get to see the same thing a dozen times from each of the dozen viewpoints. There's not much to do except look at the canyon, and if you have really good eyesight and perhaps squint a little, you can make out the Colorado River at the bottom. Erin and I were slightly under the wrong impression that the canyon walls were more vertical, creating a canyon profile more like:

North Rim       South Rim
(closed)        (us)
-----------     ---------
           |   |
           |   |
           |   |
           |   |
           |   |
           |   |
           |   |
           |   |
           -----
           river 
           (sploosh)

This is wrong. The walls are made of all kinds of rocks, including some over 2 billion years old, and many of the layers are quite soft (hence the largeness, I suppose). This creates a profile more like:

North Rim              South Rim
------                 ----------
      \               /
       \             /
        --          /
          \         |
           |      ---
            \     |
             |   /
             |   |
             -----
             river

This is still an impressively huge canyon... just not quite as impressively huge-feeling as we expected. I'm sure hiking to the bottom and back up is quite an experience, but we elected not to do this for a number of reasons, the main one being the 5,000' vertical elevation change and chilly weather.

The tent campground, where we stayed for $10, is beautiful. The trailer campground is not. Tomorrow is Vegas, baby.

Zion National Park | The Grand Troubles
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