This and That ...

I've been to several "must-see" places in the USA, but nothing comes anywhere close to the Grand Canyon. An endless area of colored rock formations, in some really amazing shapes and texture, all carved out by the forces of nature. As you stand at any of the several vista points, its hard to believe that the GC is a work of nature and not another man-made architectural marvel.


GC is mostly sandstone-limestone cliffs carved out by the Colorado river over 100s of millions of years. The oldest part of the canyon is its bedrock which is over 1.5billion years old. Quite surprisingly, the bottommost layer of the canyon is named after a Hindu God "Vishnu", and is called "Vishnu Schist". The erosion has taken place in layers and each layer exhibits a different color. Another noticeable thing is the texture of each rock. Looks as though each rock has been sculpted by man using some really sharp tools.



A closer look..


When I told some of my friends that I was going to visit the GC, the most common comment I got was: "First sight is breathtaking, after that you'll get bored. All rocks and nothing else". But to me, each and every overlook from the designated view points was breath-taking. I sort of went into a trance looking at the canyon. Got a divine feeling, something I only get in proper stone-carved temples of South India, not the cemented ones. Reason being, some of these rocks reminded me of temple gopurams. After a quick read through the park brochure, I realized I'm not the only one to experience some kind of "holiness" looking at the rocks. The canyon ancestors also found them holy and called them shrines/temples by naming them after Hindu, Egyptian and Gods of few other religions. The most notable ones being, "Shiva" temple and one "Brahma" temple.

Here's one:




I can go on writing words of praise about the GC. But in order to make up some space for the traveller's tips, I'm stopping here. Now, the best time to visit the canyon is a small window of time in March/April or in September. Rest of the days, its either blazing hot or biting cold. Make sure you carry lots of water , a cap and some really powerful anti-tan lotion with you. Sunscreens are good, but they won't protect you from getting tanned. Also have a backup camera battery and an extra memory card. GC is a photographer's paradise!

Unless you're hiking the canyon, the nat. park can be covered comfortably in one day. Basically, its this stretch of road with about 10-15 view points on the way. Starts with the desert view watch tower on the east all the way west until the hermit's rest with the visitor center in the middle. This road kind of borders the canyon's south rim. Only half the length of this road is open to private vehicles. A good "September" itinerary would be to do this half first, and then park your vehicle at the visitor center. For navigating the other half, you have these shuttle buses. There's one point called "Hopi Point" which offers the best Sunset views. So if you reach the visitor center by about 3pm, you can take the shuttle bus and visit all other view points and finally get down at the "Hopi" point at about Sunset. Large crowds gather there, so better be there atleast half hour before the scheduled sunset time.

There are a couple of hotels in the GC area, but they get booked pretty early. For the last-minute planners, it becomes an expensive affair to reserve a room in one of these places in Tusayan, AZ. The next best places to put up are Williams and Flagstaff, both located at about 1-1.5hours driving distance of the GC National Park. We stayed at Flagstaff, amd drove to the east entrance of the Park. En route is the Little Colorado canyon which is as pretty as the GCNP. If you travel to the visitor center directly, you would not come across this.





Another place worth a visit, if you have the time is Sedona. If you don't have the time to cover the length and breadth of Sedona, just plan a quick drive from Flagstaff to Slide Rock State Park in Sedona. Its a 20 mile scenic route that you can do in about 30min one way. Until I actually visited Arizona, I used to believe that its just an "Arid"-"zone"-ah! But after taking the drive, I realized that Arizona has it all - desert, lush green forests, and also a snow capped peak!

We drove to Flagstaff from Las Vegas. Took us about 5hours. On the way, if you take a diversion by following a huge board that says "Grand Canyon Skywalk", you would drive to the west rim of the canyon which flaunts a horse-shoe shaped glass bridge into the canyon. South rim is what we visited, and is the most visited rim of the canyon. If you are the adventurous kinds, there are these awesome waterfalls in the Havasupai Indian reservation near the south rim of GC. From what I read, its about a 10mile hike, and the reward you get at the end are sights like these

The first thing that the desis in US do when their parents visit them is to plan a trip to L.A./San Diego/New York/Las Vegas/D.C./blah-blah-blah. But IMO, its the National Parks here that our parents should visit and not those man-made cities and theme parks. Undoubtedly, National Parks are America's best idea. I sometimes wonder why many of the best natural formations in the world fall within the US mainland. Whatever the reason is, the Govt has done a remarkable job by coming up with the idea of National Parks and thereby preserving the best sights of nature for future generations.

From the Grand Canyon, we travelled up to Utah to see the Zion Canyon. More about that in my next post.

P.S:

A movie clip showcasing the GC below..

An Indian movie song from the Film "Jeans". My first view of the canyon was thru this song. It was then that the desire to visit the Canyon entered my "Bucket List" :) This movie was filmed in several locations, across NYC, L.A., Las Vegas, etc etc. But only the canyon caught my eye.

In the video below,
1:55 - 2:45: shot in the GC and "Valley of Fire" state park near Las Vegas. All the while, I thought everything was the Grand Canyon. Damn! Visited LV twice, but never knew there was something more to Vegas, besides the Strip.
3:45 - 4:40: picturized in the Grand Canyon national park.