Travelogue part 3

After covering a long stretch on Route 66, we finally arrived at the Grand Canyon. The entry fee is a mere 25$ per car (or 7$ per person if you go otherwise) good for 7 days. When we entered the area we could not see the canyon till we reached the visitor center. All we saw around us was greenery and just another jungle. I was a little scared that this too will turn out to be another Niagara falls like experience- over hyped without much substance. We got off our cars to go to the first observation point. It's called Mather point and is just 2 minutes from the visitor center.

There hubby did the sweetest thing ever. He had seen the Canyon last year and wanted me to witness its grandeur as well. He covered my eyes and started leading me towards the observation point. There were many other people walking towards the same place with us. And just to tease him I started saying things like...Are you going to propose to me? Say you'll give me the ring etc. etc. Knowing him I'm sure he must have been a lil embarrassed but only kept laughing and leading me forward :)

As we reached the point he removed his hands and I got the first look of the Canyon! They say its grandeur can really be experienced at sunset...and lucky for us, it was precisely the time for sunset. What I saw was a beautiful shadow play of the setting sun's rays falling over the walls of the Canyon. It was deep shade of orange was breathtaking to say the least. I swear to God, standing there, I fell in love all over again...with that place and my hubby for making it so so special. I hugged him right there and almost wanted to marry him again :D

My first look of the Canyon

We then saw a lot of people walking towards the edges of the canyon walls and wanted to do the same too. We started walking towards Yavapai point which is about a mile from Mather point and seemed to have better views of the sunset and the Canyon. I tried walking towards the edge there but just couldn't. It was scary and dark for me to be able to attempt anything like that. So we just sat there and tried to make the most of that beautiful moment. 

Junta on the edge of the Canyon walls

We planned to trek the next day. But we had to keep it short because of time constraints. The visitor center had enough information on which treks we can do in how much and their difficulty levels. We decided on doing the one with views of the Colorado river. The Canyon has buses running inside which take you to various points. We stopped at the bright angel lodge to take another bus which would take us to our desired point. But it was taking too long and we decided to do the rim trail instead to save time. 5 minutes into the rim trail and we realized it would mean just walking along the Canyon's rim. And would take us forever to reach our desired point. We also saw some people trekking all the way down to go to the river on the Bright Angel trail. The entire trail cannot be completed in one day as it is not safe. The temperature at the bottom is 20 degrees more than what it is at the top and it requires more than extreme physical strength to do it. So we decided to do just the first 2 miles of that trek - which is what a lot of other people were doing as well. It would give us a chance to experience the Canyon without being a lame walk. 

Initially it looked difficult as it was a steep and narrow path, but we realized that it wasn't that difficult after all. The trail also gave us some stunning views of the Canyon. It is beyond brilliant to see what that river has done in 17 million years. My own life felt like nothing at all in comparison to what I saw there. Before that I had only heard of the effects nature has on people. And I had failed to understand why. I always called myself a city girl...amazed only by what man can accomplish and not nature...but I have to say, something moved inside me when I saw the Canyon. I knew I was gonna go back a different person. 

Pictures of our trek

It was already 12.30 pm when we got back. We decided to head towards our next destination - Page. On our way back we again saw some stunning views of the Canyon, but the best were when we just got out of the canyon and started driving uphill to go to Page. From those heights we saw the Canyon look like a huge crack on the earth's surface. The hill we were driving on was very beautiful itself with bright red rocks everywhere. We decide to make a quick stop to get one last look of the Canyon. It truly was a great opportunity to be there and be able to see that place. No pictures/descriptions can ever do justice to what it really is.

A quick stop for one last look of the Canyon

On our way to Page, we again saw some beautiful landscapes. Red, pink and grey rocks had surrounded us and formed an almost Mars-like land. We also ended up taking a wrong road which led us quite a few miles towards Tuba city, where these rocks had a much deeper red color and we felt like we were really not on earth. I felt lucky about losing our way that time even though it cost us a lot of time and ended up hurting our plan later.

When we luckily lost our way :)

The plan in Page was to visit the famous Antelope canyon. It has been on my wishlist forever now! Actually ever since I saw it on the Nat Geo website earlier this year. When I got to know that we were headed to Arizona, I knew I had to see this place! While researching for it I also found out that we can also see Glen Canyon and it's famous Horseshoe bend. We entered the city of Page around 3:30 pm. Once again a beautiful lake in the middle of a desert - lake Powell - captured our imaginations. We decided to head towards the Canyons. But by the time we reached the place, the tours for the day had already ended.

So the thing with the Antelope Canyons is that they have two canyons 5 minutes from each other - upper and lower. Because of the risk of flash flooding, they do not allow people to go inside without a tour guide. Also these canyons cannot be seen after 5pm as it gets dark inside, thus the last tour leaves at 4pm. Each Canyon charges a fee of 26$ per person. We had planned on seeing just the upper Antelope. But because we missed the last tour, we ended up talking to the locals and their recommendation said that we go see the Lower one instead. So we decided to take the first tour at 8 am for the Lower canyon the next day.

Glen canyon

We had the entire evening ahead of us. We first went to an observation point from where one can see the dam on lake Powell and also the Glen Canyon. It was an interesting place with beautiful rock formations. Then without wasting much time, we went to the Horseshoe bend so that we could catch it before sunset. The whole walk to the point is just 3/4th of a mile but we were tired, it was hot and the whole place was full of sand. So the short trek seemed like forever. But once there, we loved the bend. The beautiful blue water of the lake and the bright green moss made a colorful ring around the round end of the canyon. Even though there wasn't much to do there except for taking fun photos, we ended up spending quite a lot of time climbing some small rocks around the area! All in all a fun place and a lovely short trek.

Horseshoe bend

We also loved the vibe in the the city of Page. It's a small laid back town with a very friendly air around. You could tell that people were there to relax and were all having a good time at the various restaurants. We ended the evening with a yummy Italian meal. The place was called Stromboli...so I decided to order just that for myself. What I got was a Stromboli as big as my head!! Like literally! I couldn't even eat half of that huge pie. The other half we kept in the car the next morning...and the car got really hot outside while we did our Lower Antelope canyon tour...and so did that Stromboli :D It totally made for a yummy breakfast after one of the most awesome experiences of my life...

The awesome experience was of course the tour of the Antelope canyon. Details in my next post...