Cañón de grandioso - Grand canyon

We drove all day long and reached the South Rim of the Grand Canyon late. I mean it... Like 10PM late. It was pitch dark in the parking lot and we could see nothing... Absolutely nothing... But we couldn't not walk to the edge and look down... Still nothing to see though... but... we all can swear we could feel something... something unspeakable and unclear... like some huge beast was quietly sleeping down below and breathing slowly... It was a silent night and a windless one... but still we all can feel the presence of something we have no words for...

We slept in the car and in the morning we walked there again and now we can see... not much in the beginning but with the Sun slowly rising we finally can see it - the Grand Canyon...

 

The canyon is not really big... It is huge. The regular words cannot describe it, you have to see it yourself... And we learned the impressions slowly growing and first you think you see it but second later you can see more... and more... and more... I guess all of you who used to shoot black-and-white films decades ago and printed the images can easily understand me. It is the same as the picture slowly appears on the paper while you are gently wiggling the cuvette. So this morning we met the Grand Canyon and it happened slowly and gradually...

Once the Sun was up, we left the viewpoint and had some breakfast. Lately we drove to the next viewpoint and the Grand Canyon looked not as mystical and unreal. But still huge and magic. Your eyes move slowly along the lines, follow the ridges and canyons and it seems to be an endless process - you can start from any point but you cannot find the end. And the colors, the texture, the shapes... One definitely can spend days just sitting there and tracing all the lines down there...

When you try to have a closer look you find out everything is even more different than you thought when you tried to get a general picture...

The walls of the cliffs on the South Rim are mostly vertical. Just like a building wall, just 100 times higher ;) Don't believe me? You are right... It is hard to judge the size without a scale. But probably later I can give you a ruler to see how big everything is there...

Just look at this panoramic view of the canyon, isn't it great?

Wide vistas in the bottom and bottomless sky with only birds of prey soaring above people's head and looking for some breakfast...

Another unusual thing there is trees. Growing in the cracks and on canyon walls, often they are not vertical but horizontal. Looks like that are growing on the rocks and clinging to them in impossible angles...

And... again... the colors... the shapes...

The Colorado river is running on the canyon bed some 5000 feet below...

When I tried to zoom closer I found the images that look more like art than the soil and rocks. What a place!

The canyon walls are tough and tall. And there are viewpoints and the people on each lip... Can you see the people on the top of the wall? Cannot???

If so, let's just zoom in, can you see them now? Huh! I guess now you have a scale. Scroll back to the previous page... Now the cliff looks twice higher, right?

We met a lot of crows. Black and smart... Old and wise... But... they are like people - they like candy too ;)

There is a trail you can take and hike down to the canyon bed. It is long and steep - the canyon is about 1 mile deep and you need to walk this winding trail all the way down... And it is quite straight in the beginning...

Let's zoom in to see the beginning of the trail closer...

And zoom in more...

Now let's look down below and far away. Switchback after switchback the trail moving closer to the river...

I know it doesn't look very impressive in the beginning and zoomed closer it doesn't look really cool either. But what do you think when you can see it all? (Not really all, just a middle stretch, but still...). Requires a lot of strength to hike down the trail (and don't forget, you need to return back too ;) ).

The vistas are just astonishing. Unimaginable and attractive. As I mentioned before, you can stay there forever and never get tired of looking at them.

Later in the day the Sun was moving further to the West and despite the bright day the views became hazy... It felt like a fog is hiding far end of the canyon...

- Hey, do you mind sharing? Can I have one of these? You have one...

- NO. Those are mine! Find something else for yourself and don't bother me!

It was a long day... Amazing day filled with impressions, unbelievable views and magic feeling that we met some old and unearthly creature. Mysterious and unknowable...

Pictures were taken on July 04, 2009.