Walking the Grand Canyon - Part 1

A very small part of the canyon

Driving up to the Grand Canyon was an interesting experience in itself. You are quite high ~2000m, and the land rises a little up to the Canyon. Basically though you are driving for about 2 hours through very flat desert with no trees or anything. Then just before the Canyon the land rises very gently and you drive through a scrubby forest. This means that you can't see the Canyon at all until you are right on top of it. You could be a kilometre away and have absolutely no idea that there is this wonderful natural phenomenon so close by. It must have been annoying for people trying to expand south (or north) as it's about 450kms wide and 1000m deep. And it's not like a gentle slope down to the Colorado River, it's cliffs and then the Colorado River is this raging torrent. I can't imagine you getting an expansionary force across this without some serious effort.

Great views around every corner

The canyon must be amazing for geologists to visit, I feel like I was missing a dimension because the timescales we were talking about as you descend into the canyon are crazy.  The 1.5km from rim to river extends back something like 2 billion years. Everything about this place is indescribable. The other great thing is that each layer seems so distinctive from the next, you can really feel that you are walking back through time as you descend.

The features were so deep and so massive

Our guide was so good, they really do make these trips, he was a real bushman this guy. I don't think he officially rented a house any place, he spent all his time in the back country, as they call it, so on the few nights where he wasn't out on a tour, he would sleep in the company's warehouse, or with friends. He also worked with this other company that would do month long hikes with teenagers. That must be something else, they would be out there so long they would need food drops. So anyway, guiding with 4 adults must be a total holiday for this guy. He was just so totally relaxed too, I think you would have to be, to deal with people all the time. And he was a really good cook too, no dehydrated meals for us! Real luxury camping.

I can never get sick of that view

Our first day was long, and hot, we started a bit late, after having to drive out there, and we really did drive to the end of the road. Then it was straight down from there. There was only one spot to get more water along the way, and that was really close to the start. And it was hoooooot. I can't imagine what this place is like in summer, since we were there in October, and even then the temperatures were high. It was nice not having to worry about where we would need to get water and how much to get, the guide knew exactly what to do, ah such a pleasure.

It's so hard to capture the scale

Our first campsite was Monument creek campsite, all the camp spots were great, they even had toilets too. I was thinking it was going to be more like Scotland, with the true wild experience. And they were all really quiet too, for one of them we were all by ourselves, right on the banks of the Colorado river.

The first night we were camping on the shores of Monument creek, which wasn't much of a creek. There was just a little trickle, really not even enough to submerge ourselves. And yet these creeks can be dangerous when it rains. Just a week prior to us visiting there had been heaps of rain, and lots of flash flooding. One of the guides from the same company had refused to take a group up one of the creeks, even though they were really pushing for it. A couple of hours later and the whole place was totally inundated, with massive boulders coming down. They would have been in real trouble if they had made the guide go up.

And yet another one

It is an odd relationship, that of guide and guidee, because you are relying on them to get you the places you want, safely. But then you have paid them money to take you there. You can start to understand how the whole Everest thing can be so fraught, since those people are paying a loooooot of money to get up there. I'm pretty cool with the guide telling me what is safe and not, that's why I get a guide, to outsource that worry about things. So why wouldn't you listen to them, if that's what you are paying for. If you are so sure you know what is safe, in a place you've never been before, then why bother getting a guide.

The monument off to the bottom right

Anyway, there were no problems like that on our trip. I think we were all pretty happy to go with what the guide was telling us to do, and nobody had to be a hero, though I doubt you could have out-heroed our guide. Seriously you feel like this guy could have gotten you out of any scrape. About the only thing of danger out there were scorpions, and the thing is they are really small. Not the big scorpions you see in movies. But some of them are pretty poisonous, they would require a helicopter lift if you did get stung. Another guide one trip got stung on the neck, I'm guessing not by the super dangerous one, because the next day, she hiked out by herself! Holy cow, now that is some hard-core human. So yeah, don't mess with guides.

The monument of monument creek.

We get to Monument creek pretty late, the sun is already setting just as we arrive. And we were all really buggered. We didn't really spend the time we should have admiring why it was called Monument creek. The next morning was a bit better. There are all these freaky columns around the place. And by now we are past the really red zone, and are into more of a sandstone layer. Quite a different colour.

The scale was unimaginable