When reality meets fiction

After a long day of driving and walking along the Grand Canyon rim, it was time for dinner and Wolfram had expressed a clear wish: “I want steak”.

So we found s steakhouse (luckily in the US these are pretty common) and ordered steak for the man. The steakhouse theme was “far west / cowboy”. With people dressed cowboy outfit, with all the decoration in the place related to cowboys one way or the other, I felt like I was in one of Disneyland restaurants. It wasn’t clear whether this was reality or the restaurant of an amusement park.
Maybe I'm just too tired.

Grand Canyon – Hermits Rest Route

Hermits Rest Route takes you to the West side of the rim from the Village. You can either take the shuttle from one viewpoint to another one or walk. We chose to walk along the edge of the rim to enjoy the view. Unfortunately there were clouds and the sun played hide and seek with them as we walked along the rim. As a consequence the shadows of the clouds are appearing as special guests on most of the pictures.
1 – Trailview Overlook
Breathtaking view on the Bright Angel Fault (by the way that’s one of the 2 trails we could have taken to go down the Canyon, had we manage to get a room at the Phantom Ranch, sighing…)

The sides of the Grand Canyon are of multiple colors representing the different geological layers. Did you know that the oldest rocks within the Inner Gorge at the bottom of the Grand Canyon date to 1,840 million years ago… Least we can say is that they’ve been around since quite some time. The youngest ones date only 270 million years (yesterday in geological time I guess). Canyon itself was formed 5-6 million years ago.

2 – Maricopa Point
What you’re supposed to see:

And what you actually see:

3- Powell Point

4- Hopi Point

5- Mohave Point
Each new viewpoint is revealing further away the Canyon. Each time I was surprised to see even more of the Canyon and even more incredibly beautiful rock structures (which lead to even more photos).

And first glimpse on the Colorado River, somewhere at the bottom of the Canyon. Needless to say it’s a very big canyon for such a small river relatively speaking of course.

6- Monument Creek Vista

After walking all the way from the Village Route Transfer to Monument Creek Vista we decided to take the shuttle back to Mohave point to enjoy the sunset (we walked 7km that afternoon so we deserved the shuttle back). It was a bit chilly but no way not to stay for the sunset over the Grand Canyon. While the sun was coming down, the light on the canyon was giving it another look.

Arrival at Grand Canyon

We left the Death Valley yesterday for the Grand Canyon. We stopped on the way into a motel in the far suburbs of Las Vegas, more or less half way through between the 2 national parks. Railroad pass hotel &Casino was founded in the 1930s, must have been refurbished in the 1970s and is still the same since then. It was like taking a trip in the past. This said the staff was surprisingly friendly. Maybe that’s a way to compensate for the worn out rooms.

Once we arrived at Grand Canyon National park (and paid the park entry fee, another 25$) and figured out that the room would not be ready before 4pm, we left for a first round of exploration. Grand Canyon Village is located on the South rim of the Canyon and Maswik Lodge is conveniently less than 5min walked from the Village Route Transfer, where one can take the free shuttles. Grand Canyon national park is extremely well organized. The idea is that you drop your car at the motel/hotel/camping site and use the free shuttles to move around. Shuttles run every 15min during the day and take you literally to every point of interest.

At Village Route Transfer I got my first glimpse over the Grand Canyon. Man, this is huge, unbelievably huge. There is no word to describe what I was standing in front of.

Now after millions of pictures of trees in Malaysia, get ready for millions of pictures of rocks, because wherever I looked in the Grand Canyon, I saw such beauty and breathtaking structures that I had to take pictures of them.
And you all know by now that I tend to take lots of pictures. So bare with me :)

Driving highways in the US

Driving hours on a highway has never been very entertaining. In the US it is extremely boring. Many reasons for that:
- Speed limit is lower than in Europe and 55-65mph (i.e. 90-105km/h) is not the most exciting speed to drive
- Cruise control is set to help you ensure you would stick to the speed limit (a few days in jail is not part of our vacation plan). This means your feet are simply doing nothing.
- The highways are straight lines. All you see ahead of you is a straight line. Every now and then there is a curve. That’s the most exciting part of the trip!

The good thing though is that with satellite radio you keep the signal wherever you go. Even in the Death Valley, when there is no network for your phone, there is radio in the car.

Death Valley - Stop #6: Dante’s view

Dante’s view is located on top of one of the mountains at 1669m elevation. From there, there is an amazing view on the Death Valley, especially Badwater. One can really realize the dimensions of the sea of salt from above and the extreme conditions in the Death Valley as well as the diversity of landscape.

While sitting at Dante’s view, on some rock on top of the mountain, looking down at the Valley and the amazing scenery I realized (once again) how lucky I was in my life that I could do such a trip and see such beautiful places.

Death Valley - Stop #5: Zabriskie Point

Zabriskie Point is located on top of a hill from which one can enjoy the view on the eroded hills of the Death Valley. The way the mountains have been eroded is crazy: they look like a a creased handkerchief.

Completely different from what we just saw in Badwater or the Artists Palette, the view from Zabriskie Point is a great surprise. I’ve never seen something like this (I know I feel like I keep repeating this but this trip is really making me discovering new horizons). Once again Nature has its ways to create beauty.

Oh, Ranger!

National Parks are extremely well organized in the US, at least from what I’ve seen. When you arrive you can pick up an “Oh, Ranger!” brochure that will provide you with all of the information that you may need: what to see, what to do, where to sleep, where to eat, a map, any watch tip or watch out... anything you need for a successful trip.
And I have to say that they are pretty well done and turned out very useful.