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| WHO THE ELK IS THIS? |
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| AN OCTO-SLOT |
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| GRAND CANYON SUNRISE |
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| PLATEAU POINT |
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| GRAND CANYON SOUTH RIM |
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| COLORADO RIVER |
On our way to Grand Canyon we ate lunch at the Navajo Indian Trading Post in Cameron. We arrived at Grand View Point on the South Rim of Grand Canyon at around 1.00pm. Some of the group had booked an afternoon helicopter flight over the Canyon so they were dropped at Grand Canyon Airport in Tusayan. I decided to give this a miss as I'd already experienced the thrill of a helicopter flight and the pilots were not permitted to fly below the level of the rim anyway. An alternative interpretation might be that I was simply too mean to part with the $264 cost.
Instead, I pitched my tent at the campground and took a walk along parts of the South Rim that I hadn't seen before, visiting Mather Point and the Geology Museum at Yavapai Point before returning to camp for supper. An elk wandering around the visitor areas, quite unbothered by people, attracted great interest.
Before retiring to my tent I took a shower. This required me to load no less than eight quarter dollars (quarters) into a slot machine so that I could obtain eight minutes of hot water. I did hear that the government had attempted to introduce a dollar coin, which would have simplified matters somewhat, but people had rejected it because they preferred the paper dollar for tips.
I set my alarm for 3.30am next morning to ensure that I would be ready for our 4.45am start. The plan was to descend the Bright Angel Trail from the South Rim down to Indian Garden, then follow the path to Plateau Point, a round-distance of 12.2 miles with an altitude change of 3,120 ft. The reason for leaving early was so that we could do as much walking as possible before the sun made the Canyon unbearably hot.
The walk down to Plateau Point, starting before sunrise, was fairly easy and took 2 hrs 40 mins. By comparison, the walk back to the rim was relentless and exhausting since we were now climbing rather than descending and temperatures had risen into the 80's. It took a full 4 hrs to climb out and I was glad of the 3 litres of water I brought with me.
We did get some good photos from the walk. From Plateau Point it seemed as if we were in the middle of the Canyon. The Colorado River seemed quite close below us and, looking back towards the South Rim, the rocks glowed in the reflected sunlight.
The rest of the day was spent doing some final exploring of the area before returning to the campsite to relax.
