Grand Canyon

After leaving Monument Valley we were heading to the Grand Canyon. After a 5 hour drive we arrived to a very hot dry heat. We got out the van and did a blind walk to the edge of the Grand Canyon to see our first view of the Canyon. Basically  walked to the cliff edge with our eyes closed following someone with their eyes open obviously! When we opened out eyes I was speechless. It was beautiful you couldn't take it all in at once it was mind blowingly huge and so majestic. We spent a long while looking at the view and taking pictures and then it was time to find our camp for the night. We then found out that because we were camping in a national park a shower was $2 for 8 minutes of shower! Crazy. As everyone was so sandy it was a must as the red sand make it look like we had an odd fake tan on. 

After camp was set up and showers were done we headed into town in search of Wifi as we hadn't had any in a while and wanted to let everyone know we didn't get lost in that sandstorm. 

When we got back it was time for dinner we all jumped in the van eagerly as tonight we were getting pizza and watching the sun set on the rim of the canyon! Oh my, the pizza was good and the view of the sunset was beautiful. Lots more photos were taken and then we headed back for the van when it started to get dark. At this camp site we were sharing our site with 2 other G Adventures groups and one of the vans had parked next to us to watch the sunset as well. Myles took this chance and the cover of darkness and whipped off the magnetic G Adventures sign from their bus and put it on our bonnet! (This wasn't noticed till we got back to camp the next day and the other group was blamed! Result haha) 

After this chatting and then bed, no camp fires for the rest of the trip as the weather is at an all time high and everywhere in the West is on extreme fire alert as its so so so dry...

Day 2 in the Grand Canyon. 

This was our first night since we started that we didn't have to put a tent down at 6:30 so we had a lay in! Breakfast eaten, 5 of us headed out to start our hike down the Bright Angel path into the canyon. We started nice and early to avoid the days heat which turned out not to be that necessary as by 9 o'clock it was already 36degrees! We did a good hike into the canyon which was about 2 miles. We came across a cabin which was a bit of a rest stop, toilets and running water basically... So we made good use of them and filled up with water, Myles also had a good shower under the tap to cool off. As it was 9:15 we decided it was lunch time and cracked out the dinner from the night before. Pizza eaten we decided that it would be madness to carry on so we started the 2 mile accent back to the top after 30 seconds we realised that we had made the right decision! We had to stop every couple of mins to catch our breath and have a water top up. It took us around an hour to get down however over 2 hours to get back up! Eventually we got back to the top and found somewhere to refill our water bottles and to have a good drench in cold water. We sat at the edge of the canyon to watch a thunderstorm roll through the canyon, yes through, we were above it looking down onto it! After we had recovered from our 'walk' we headed back to the campsite on the free shuttle bus. Sitting at camp we decided to do some washing as we had run out if clothes. All done with that we were sitting in camp as people started to trickle back in. A few of us decided that we would take the shuttle bus to another part of the canyon to get a different view. This was a good idea. 

Sightseeing done and it was Myles' time to cook tonight we headed back to camp. Dinner tonight was sloppy joes! For those who don't know what it is it's basically a burger however the meat is very very saucy, this is where the sloppy comes from as its a mess to eat! It went down a treat and we sat around the campfire (a gas light) for a good few hours talking about noncence really.

The morning after the night before came and it was another early start as we are heading to Vegas! Which brings us to where we are now. Currently on Route 66 heading across the country again.

Will let you know how Vegas goes in good time! Love to all xxx