The Grand Experiences

The Grand Canyon. The place that we have dreamed to come to right from the beginning of the trip. The place we wanted to see and hike in. If kayaking was a capstone experience for us all, the hike at the Grand Canyon was a completely different experience.

We All Begin!!

We started at Williams at around seven thirty in the morning. Ken, who was driving us, who is Umesh's host, said "Are you ready to go to the big hole in the earth!!" We all shouted "Eeee.. haaw.." in the south-west cowboy style (which was taught to us by Ken himself). We reached the canyon amidst oohs and aahs of the views offered by the side at eight thirty and were surprised to meet the Australian team (we were told they were signed up for an eight hour hiking tour and expected that they would be off by that time.)

We began at 9:10 am. We were told by Dr. Upendra that we all have to come back by 12:30 pm and we have to plan accordingly. The weather was perfect. Not too windy, not too sunny, not too cold. It was as though God had already set us up for the tour.

And then we went to a point nearby to see what the Canyon is like. My God! What a view!! Its just amazing. To realize the grandeur of the Canyon, we all have to remember that we are 7000 ft above the lowest point. Height deceives us. It makes the depth look flat. We never can understand what the depth is, unless we get closer and closer. Take a look, and you will understand what I am saying.

Our First View of the Canyon!

After a few moments of awe and photos, we began our hike. As usual, Sushma (who is nimble and fast) and Umesh (who thinks he is nimble and fast) took to their heels and ran off the trail leaving us behind.

The fast and the furious!! Sushma and Umesh running off!!

The panorama began to unfold before our eyes. What a great thing to look at. I felt dwarfed before the grandeur of nature. Once again, I began to experience my own meekness and was humbled by the great depths that nature has carved slowly and carefully over time. In Sedona, Renata Barnwell, my host told me "Once you come to Arizone, if you dont believe in God! You will begin to believe in God!!" And she was true. You cant just be your same self again once you see the Grand Canyon.

7000 feet above the ground!! The narrow cracks are atleast half mile in width!!

Dont be deceived by the small sizes in the photo!! The cliffs you see raise upto eight thousand feet! Remember!?! We are already on a thousand feet altitude!!

We reached the Cedar Ridge and then took to about another 100 ft below. Then, we decided to hike up as it was going to take us longer to hike up the Canyon than the hike down. We realized here that we were amongst the 5% of the tourists who ever step into the Canyon, having come to see the Canyon. I will let the pictures talk.We turn back!! Sushma and Umesh could have gone forever, but we had to turn back!!

Yeah! Yeah! I know you want to go there!! Just get back on the trail madam!!

After climbing back which took us about two hours, Ken took us to some more places where we had breath taking views of the Canyon. Again, pictures speak!!

The first view of Colorado River - Yavapai Point!!

Watch the play of light and shadow!! Two eyes not enough to see the beauty!!

After spending a while at some of the majestic views and taking some tours inside the hopi house, we all went to Tusayan, where we were taken to the IMAX theater for a half hour movie about the people who unfolded the secrets of the Grand Canyon. If you ever want to die a happy man, watch this movie. My strongest recommendation. I will complete this blog post with a quote that touched my heart, from the movie.

"Some live, some die and some simply disappear. But some will live for ever and speak to us in muted silence from the dust and the soil."