Newsletter 10 – Grand Canyon and Home

The other highlight was our day at The Grand Canyon, what a day, the day we chose was 108F in Vegas, hotter out at the Canyon, a long day but we wanted to include a number of different experiences.  There are so many variables available that you need to check and consider what you personally want to experience.  We were collected from the Hotel at 9:25am by a small bus and taken about half an hour out to Boulder City Airport, as we checked in our weight, required for the small plane and helicopter, was recorded on the computer by us standing at the counter on the 2 footprints painted on the floor, very clever, you didn’t see what it was, probably a good thing.  We boarded a fixed wing plane, 14 passengers for our 30 minute flight, firstly passing over Hoover Dam, what a magnificent engineering feat, the bridge over it also an amazing sight from the air.  The dam was originally named Boulder Dam, now Hoover and was finished 2 years ahead of schedule, then passed over Mead Dam, also man made.  Good flight a few bumps only which pilot warned us was the heat, headphones with commentary and music made for a very pleasant flight.  We landed at The Grand Canyon Airport, we were then in Arizona, dozens of buses lined up and lots of people, evidently it was an exceptionally busy day. 

We were briefed and grouped for the optional helicopter into the Canyon.  We happened to be paired with a young couple from WA so nice to chat to them, they are both working in the mining industry.  Our 15 min helicopter flight was fantastic taking us right down into the Canyon, it is so vast great views, landing about 100 feet above the Colorado River which was so brown (worse than the Yarra) and not very wide.  We really felt the heat here, luckily we had brought lots of water as we had to walk down a very rocky track and then steps where the wooden railing was so hot you couldn’t hold onto it to a little humpy type shelter to wait our ride on the river. 

We boarded the little boat, mostly Asians on with us, some with umbrellas and all wanting to take photos of each other, they don’t seem to want to take in the grandeur of the view, so long as they have their photo of themselves with a background view.  We travelled upstream for about 10 mins then the boat stopped for photos and for us to ‘soak in the atmosphere’ while it drifted back down with the strong current.  We chatted to Dennis the driver, he was of the Hualapai Tribe a nice young man whose brother had left a week ago to play basketball on the Gold Coast.  He told us they take about 200 passengers on a quiet day and up to 600 on a busy day, the boat cruise is an optional extra.  We went a bit further downstream, down here we really got a feel for the depth of the Canyon about 4,000 feet, lovely watching the changing colours of the Canyon as the sky changed, there was some dark cloud rolling in. 

Next we had to make our way back up the steps and stony track to the little shelter, the lady attendant said she would radio them to say ‘the young ones are on their way’!!  We certainly felt by far the oldest on this Grand Canyon trip.  When we were almost to the top a nice young lady worker came down to me with a cup of the best cold water I have ever tasted!  What a nice thing for her to do, I later went over and gave her some dollars.  People really are kind and thoughtful.  We had quite a wait here in the heat for our helicopter ride back to the top of the west rim of the Canyon, luckily there were big containers of fresh cold water for us.  We were fascinated watching all the helicopters flying in and out of the Canyon.  Finally on our way after a great amount of time taking in the grandeur of this magnificent ‘wonder of the world’.  You certainly rise up quickly in a helicopter and a great way to be able to view the magnificence of the place.  The Grand Canyon National Park covers about 1,218,000 acres, huge.

 Our next transport was a bus to Eagle Point where we queued for the Skywalk (opened in March, 2007), another option, but Pete really wanted to do this, certainly worth it, not nearly as scary as I had expected.  We had to put all our bags, wallets, phones, cameras etc into lockers before we went through security, shame you can’t take  photos from the Skywalk, only a certain number of people allowed on at one time, you see some people who are very nervous about the experience.   Luckily the queue was under shelter with fine mists of water keeping us cool, the wait was only about 20 mins, we then put on cloth covers over our shoes, I guess this is so the specially made thick glass floor does not get marked, whilst waiting we could watch the video showing the building of this wonderful transparent horseshoe shaped cantilever bridge with thick glass sides, which has about a 250m drop to the first outcrop, then on down and down until the Colorado River which was about 1500m down.  An amazing piece of engineering.

Onto another bus after taking photos of the area to Guano Point, this area is a little peninsula out into the Canyon and reportedly the best area for views of the Canyon.  We had lunch here, baked beef or chicken and vegetables, very welcome at about 2:30pm, sitting out under umbrellas overlooking the Canyon and Colorado River with lots of the blackest crows hanging around for any leftover food.  Yes a magnificent viewing area, interesting watching the changing colours as the cloud came in blocking sun from some parts of the rock formation.  Isn’t nature wonderful?  Back to the airport and finally onto our little plane and flight back to Boulder Airport and then the bus back to our Hotel about 6:00pm, a long hot day, we were very tired but what a wonderful day, we feel very lucky to have experienced all the things we wanted to.  We were worried when the sky started becoming dark as we had to sign a waiver before we left about the Skywalk being closed or plane not operating should there be adverse weather as this is the monsoon time, had the weather changed we would have been most disappointed.

On the Saturday we flew from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, then a 13 hour flight to Sydney, an hour in the transit lounge and the final leg to Melbourne, where we arrived on time at 9:45am, through customs so quickly, a glorious sunny day, Mark and the radiant pregnant Sarah (and Hugo, the very excited dog) there to pick us up.  The baby was officially due the next day, but a week later, we are still waiting. 

We are enjoying being home again, except for the cold weather, nice to see our family and friends again, we have lovely memories of a wonderful trip.  Great to have spent quality time with the family in the US and meeting Megan and many of Lee, Shayne’s friends.  The travels within the States were enhanced by all the planning, generosity and organisation, by Shayne & Lee.  Also Shaun’s great accomplishments of Eagle Scout and turning 18 added to it all.

I have added a map to our website showing the route we took, should you be interested, check out www.janandpete.com.au.

Sorry for the delay in publishing this final newsletter but we have been busy since our darling Grandson, ‘Oscar John McCulloch Algie’ arrived last week. Radiant mother Sarah, very proud father Mark and the dearest little baby, Oscar are all doing well and of course Nana and Poppy thrilled and enjoying lots of cuddles.