Grander than Grand! (Grand Canyon National Park)

Member Name: jayjolynn

Product:	Grand Canyon National Park
Date:	06/11/06 (545 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Awesome!

Disadvantages: Bit scary too!

As we thought we may never go back to Las Vegas, we decided to pay that bit more for our trip of the Grand Canyon, after all, this was a trip of a lifetime, and with much deliberation, we decided to do the more extensive and little more expensive trip…..and I am so glad we made that decision! We booked it on line before leaving for our holiday, and the price quoted was £199.00, but as they don’t take it from your credit card till the day you go on your trip, the exchange rate at that time put us in a favourable position and the trip actually only cost us about £160! Our tour operator was Papillion Tours www.papillon.com. They picked us up from our Hotel at 9am, then picked up other tourists from various Hotels on the Las Vegas Strip (so this gave us a chance to see the front door of other Hotels!) Then onto Henderson aerodrome in about 20 minutes.

Arriving at the aerodrome, we all booked in, showed our passports and paid for our trip, got weighed and then waited perhaps about half an hour for our Cessna to be ready! Off onto the tarmac, where a photographer is waiting to take your picture with one of the crew members and your plane in the background (which on your return, you have the opportunity of purchasing for around $10) ,

This small aeroplane was something that scared me a little (having been on a small sea plane before), as I knew the turbulence could be quite scary and the thought of going over rough terrain in this was quite overwhelming for me! Anyway, everyone gets a window seat as there is only one seat either side of this plane. You get your earphones on, and listen to a commentary, which is all quite interesting, and it certainly muffles the sound of the very noisy engines! This flight lasts about 45 minutes, and takes you over the Hoover Dam, which was exciting, seeing it for real, and of course, the famous Lake Mead, the reservoir created by Hoover and Davis Dam. The plane journey alone is a nice experience, so didn’t know what else would top that?

We landed at the small aerodrome for West Rim, but now it was time for the Helicopter ride to go down into the Canyon floor….. I had been worried about the small aeroplane, how on earth was I going to cope with this experience! I had been quite anxious beforehand about this side of it, seeing as I have a fear of heights, and just the whole thought of descending down 4000 feet into the mouth of the Canyon, absolutely terrified me, but I had paid the money to do it, so I had to go for it!

After getting some of the passengers checked in again for the Helicopter tour,(as some were only doing the coach tour) we were given what seat number and what helicopter we would have on our trip, plus a safety film to watch in the waiting area, we were back on another tarmac waiting for our helicopter to arrive. There was quite a cool wind up there, though the sun was shining, but within 5 minutes we saw our helicopter land, and that is when I nearly hyper ventilated! Well, I had to force myself to walk towards that helicopter, but once seated, the assistant re-assured me I would love it! Making sure our seat belts were fastened securely, we were are off the ground in seconds! Initially I closed my eyes, until my travelling companions pointed out to me that that was a silly thing to do, considering that’s why we booked this tour, was to actually see the Grand Canyon from a helicopter!?

When you first lift off, the helicopter skims over the Canyon and your first image is a huge gaping hole, then the helicopter, turns round again, and literally starts it's descent down into this big hole! It must have been the scariest and most exciting thing I have ever done in my life, and because you are so close to the steep rock formations, this makes it even more scarier! Now when you stop thinking about yourself being taken down 4000 feet into a Canyon over millions of years old, and try to enjoy the experience, it is the most exhilarating experience you can have! Looking down as we descended was just so surreal that you can be accused of not really taking it all in and the expanse of it all!

Bear in mind, we are only seeing a small part of the 277 mile stretch of it! The journey down seemed to take forever, and it probably wasn’t, perhaps we were in the helicopter about 10 minutes? When you first start the descent, the Colorado River looks smallish, until you get closer, and you realise it is much broader than what you first imagined (well, at that particular point we were at). We landed with a nice smooth touch down, and how satisfying it was to have your feet firmly on the ground again, even though you were 4000 feet below any other form of civilization!

Once you reach the bottom, and step off the helicopter, the heat hits you in the face! The temperature within the inner canyon can be as much as 30°F / 18°C higher than temperatures on the rim. (Summertime highs along the Colorado River can reach 120°F / 49°C) So if going, take something light to cover you up on the rim as there was cool breeze up there, but when down inside the Canyon, the heat is fierce! There were huge bottles full of water down there, with drinking cups for your use (free), and we accepted this gratefully, while looking around this awesome sight! It is very hard to imagine you are on the floor, inside this ‘7th Wonder of the World!’ and looking upward to this amazing rock formation! A friendly guide welcomed us and showed us the way down to the Colorado river for our boat ride, and this consisted of a very rough track down some 20 metres of rocky terrain, so take suitable footwear for this part! There we were met by our ‘Captain’ of a small boat that would take us down the river for a 20 minute trip.

I can’t say, this was the most exciting part of the whole trip, but just the fact you are actually cruising along the Colorado River with the rock formations of the Grand Canyon on either side of you is exciting enough! Our ‘Captain’ did try to make it sound interesting though, and his humour was second to none! The first thing I noticed about the Colorado River is it's very dirty, but our ‘Captain’ informed us that this is due to the falling water level of the Colorado, hence dirt & rocks falling into the River through erosion, and indeed you can see where the original water line was as you drift along here. We just went down a small part of the river, then our ‘Captain’ offered to take our photos with our own cameras, with a beautiful backdrop of the rocky surfaces of the Canyon walls. I will treasure this photo as it is my proof I was there!

Much of the vegetation in the inner canyon is typical of that found in Southern deserts: cacti and drought resistant shrubs. Plants include thickets of willow and tamarisk, and our ‘Captain’ talked to us of the wildlife living there, including bats, bighorn sheep, coyotes, desert cottontails, elk, mountain lions, mule deer, raccoons and squirrels. There is a variety of birds too in the Canyon that includes bald eagles, ravens, golden eagles, great horned owls, peregrine falcons, red-tailed hawks, white-throated swifts, violet-green swallows, turkey vultures, and wild turkeys. But alas, we never saw anything while down there! He also informed us that at this particular part of the Canyon, one side belonged to the Government and the other side to the Indians.

Now, back to our ‘pier’ and disembark, to climb back up this rocky path, and would you believe it, when going up this path, there is a Porta loo stuck right in the middle of nowhere! Very handy though, as there is nothing else down there, should you need to ‘spend a penny’!

We waited about 5 minutes, happily chatting to the guide who spends his days down there, guiding the helicopters in, and generally looking after the tourists who are brave enough to do this tour, and he gave us a little more history of the Canyon.

We saw our helicopter approaching down into the Canyon (even that is awesome to see), and we were soon climbing aboard again, and ascending the Canyon walls! I don’t know if it was just me who felt this, but ascending was a bit more frightening than descending! The helicopter literally hovers very close to the walls, and you feel that if our lady pilot just steered a few yards more to the right, the blades would whack this rocky surface ( but think this is part of the tour, to let you see as closely to the walls as possible! ) I just prayed she was the most experienced helicopter pilot in the World and we would get back up there, without me having a severe panic attack! Again, such an experience, but you are unable to take in the beauty and excitement of it all, for thinking of how scary it is! One good thing, we seemed to reach the top quicker than going down it!

We land back at the aerodrome, in one piece, and then onto our Motor coach (which does 15 minute interval trips), for a short ride to Eagles Point where you can see the shape of a massive eagle in the the rocks. I believe the Indians believe that while this Eagle stands there with it’s outspread wings, then their nation will always be safe! It takes a little while for your eyes to pick out this bird and once they do, it is quite eerie to see! Because there are no railings, I am afraid I was the one left taking the photos from a safe distance of 10 yards away from the edge, and left the braver ones to get closer! One of our group cleverly crawled up to the edge , then laid on his stomach to be able to look straight down over the edge of this part of the Canyon, something I could never do, as there are even thin cracks (about 6 inches wide) in the ground , where you can look through straight down into the Canyon 4000 feet below, and that was scary enough for me!

The Hualapai Reservation tribe own the tourist centre at Grand Canyon West, a small settlement on the rim 3,600 feet above the river. While there we had our first experience of the new (still being constructed) Grand Canyon Skywalk. Opening, at the end of 2006, but originally scheduled to open in January 2006 but has been set back due to specification changes and design delays. I was pleased by this, as I would have hated being talked into going on that! Visitors will pay $25 to walk along a curved bridge with a glass-bottom walkway projecting 70 feet out over a section of the canyon with near vertical walls, and so look straight down to the Colorado River, 4,000 feet below! Oh the thought makes me break out in a sweat! Even seeing the large placards advertising it, is very scary! If I ever return, I think I will be giving that a miss! Can you imagine being 70 feet out, looking down 4000 feet and nothing to save you should this platform collapse? Who says I don’t trust the architects & builders of this monumental attraction when it finally opens!? I will wait till a billion people have tried it first to convince me its safe!

After a quick look round the small Indian reservation, and at some of the Indian ladies goods they were selling, it was time for lunch. The Guano point serves up some nice food, nothing elaborate…. salad, potato, coleslaw and spiced beans and a couple of things I could not think what they were, but more than enough to fill our grumbling stomachs, along with drinks (non alcoholic). We ate our lunch al fresco on one of the many bench tables, overlooking the Grand Canyon! What more could you ask for?

Then back on the coach to take us back to the aerodrome to catch our flight back to Las Vegas, and would you believe it? No turbulence coming, but we had a few going back again! Never mind, after what I had dared to do, a little turbulence wasn’t going to scare me!

All in all, we were back in our Hotel for about 2pm…..5 hours later! My only regret would be that I wished I had taken more in, but too immense to absorb this ‘Wonder’ in the short time we had there!

Summary: It's a 'must' do!