Majestic beauty like no other in the world and one of the 7 Natural Wonders of The World, The Grand Canyon was by no question on the list of my "must see" places. So on this first 3-day weekend of the year, my friends Jeof and Beth and I packed our bags, boarded an America West airbus to Phoenix, Arizona, got on our connecting flight to Flagstaff, and drove away our rental car to the Grand Canyon.
The 81-mile drive from the Flagstaff airport to the Grand Canyon National Park was a scenic 1 hour tour of the cities of Flagstaff and Williams. We weren't supposed to get to Williams but since we took the wrong turn from I-40, we ended up taking a very brief round tour of the wonderful old west city where people were partying on the streets in old west cowboy and cowgirl costumes (not sure if those were costumes or if people there really dressed that way everyday). We finally found our way to highway 64 which took us to Tusayan to our hotel (the Roadway Inn Red Feather) right at the entrance of the Grand Canyon National Park. There are two ways to tour the Grand Canyon National Park - through the North Rim and the South Rim. Tusayan was in the South Rim so we began our tour from there.
South Rim - West SideThe South Rim is the most visited part of the Grand Canyon National Park with over 5 million people visiting each year. The main entrance from Tusayan was the middle of the South Rim. We headed west first to Mather Point, the Yavapai view point, Kolb Studio, Powell Point, Hopi Point, and Hermits Rest viewpoints.
There are no words big enough to describe what we saw and experienced in the midst of these great rock formations that took millions and million of years to become the majestic beauty that they are today. So instead of describing our adventure in words, I'll let the pictures that we took tell the story:
The picturers above show the Majestic Canyon Cliffs. I purposely did not "digitally erase" the people standing by the cliff on the second picture above to show just how huge those canyon cliffs are. This view is absolutely breathtaking. I must have taken a dozen shots of just this view to make sure I get the right lighting, the right shadows, the right levels, and depths of field.
The breathtaking canyon walls on either side of the Colorado River. This picture was taken from the Kolb Studio viewpoint.
Most of the rock formations are named as temples of Hindu gods (Vishnu, Brahma, Sheba) probably because they are really shaped like temples. These formations are believed to have taken millions and millions of years to form through erosions and constant and small earth movements.
I especially like these pictures because of the gorgeous spotlight effects of the sun against the canyon temple walls as if God is telling us to look closer at his magnificent work.
The Yavapai museum and bookstore. Most of the structures and buildings around the Grand Canyon National park are designed and constructed with bricks like this one to blend in with the natural features of the entire sight.
South Rim - East Side
The three pictures above are wide-views of the Grand Canyon. The first one is a gorgeous view of the Vishnu temple. The second picture is our favorite spot with a wide view of great rock formations, the canyon wall, and further is a view of the Colorado River. The third view is my favorite "artistic" shot where the grand canyon is framed over tree branches.
This picture provides a majestic view of the canyon walls as well as the flat surface above the Grand Canyon which explains how the grand canyon was formed. The entire surface is completely flat. That's also why the all the tallest canyons were of same height.
The first picture above is a wide-angle view of the Colorado River in the middle of the Grand Canyons. The second picture above is a macro shot of the Colorado River walls. And the third view is a wide-angle view of both the river walls and the Colorado River.
These pictures above are macro shots of those amazing rock formations around the canyon walls.
The ever-friendly California Condors strutted all over the Grand Canyon and walked the pavements around the viewpoints without a care in the world for all the people around. It's as if they're so used to people, they didn't mind sharing the place with them.
Sunset view. In this picture, I also purposely didn't digitally delete the man sitting by the cliff to show just how huge the Grand Canyon is.
Gorgeous plateau on the surface of the grand canyon. I was able to get this shot from the top of the Watchtower on Desert view; otherwise I wouldn't have seen this view at all.
The watchtower on Desert View was not an original part of the entire Grand Canyon National Park but was built in the 1930's (somewhere there) to provide the widest view of the entire South Rim.
Other highlights of the trip: 1. Washington is called the Evergreen State because it really is a very green all-year round. Pine trees abound and cover most areas of the state, even downtown Seattle. Even though I've seen an aerial view of Seattle millions of times from the Space Needle, there's nothing like a window-seat view from an airplane. It was a magestic sight!
2. While Seattle is very green, Phoenix, Arizona was very brown with little specs of green in between city blocks, that were not trees when we got a closer look when our plane landed. Some of those green specs were actually tree-sized cactus plants. The aerial view of desert canyons and desert mountains found within a few miles of the city was abosultely breathtaking.
3. Fried RATTLESNAKE, anyone? There were no Asian restaurants anywhere near or around the Grand Canyon. Tusayan and Williams are all-American cities where most restaurants are steakhouses, grills, and the like. On our first night (Friday night), we had dinner at the Yippee-ya-yo steakhouse where we had our very first taste of Rattlesnake meat for appetizers. It wasn't bad at all. In fact, rattlesnake meat tasted like chicken but a little tough (makunat).
Four days at the sight and we only trecked the South Rim viewpoints. We didn't even have time to go flightseeing or hike down the Canyon Floor to the Colorado River or treck the great North Rim. This means we have got to go back! And yes, we already know just when we'll be back and I can't wait!!!
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Except for the map, I took all the pictures attached to this blog using my Canon Powershot Pro1 using a Tiffen circular polarizer filter and nothing else.
For pictures that have people in them (of myself, beth, and jeof) check out the slideshow I shared over Kodakgallery.com. Only my friends can see those pics so sorry to others. Some of those pictures are also in my friendster picture gallery.
Enjoy!!!
It has been more than a year since I last saw and hung out with my cousins Ogie and Gail and their kids. They drove to Washington on the weekend that I was at the Grand Canyon for Lola Paping's birthday celebration along with other relatives from California. I didn't get to join them at the party but since they stayed on for another week and their supposed trip back to California last Friday got cancelled, I was able to hang out with them this weekend. 
