Grand Canyon

Today (1 April) we explored the Grand Canyon.  The temperature up on the rim was no more than 10 degrees Celsius (it was warmer down in the canyon - up to about 22 degrees!  But that would have been a full day in and a full day out, just to get some warmth!).  We all had thermals on, and 2 or 3 more layers on top of that, and our woolly hats.  Funny thing was, there were people walking around with t-shirts and shorts on!!  Brrr!  There is a 30% chance of snow tomorrow, and they are expecting snow on Thursday, the day we leave.

We used the free shuttle buses to get from place to place today, and also walked along parts of the Rim Trail.  Our big walk of the day, going down a short way into the Grand Canyon, was walking from 7,200 feet at the top of the South Kaibab Trail down to Ooh Aah Point, 760 feet lower, then back up again.  This trail follows an exposed ridge line on a well maintained trail.  It goes down to Skeleton Point, which is a drop of 2,040 feet, but which takes about 6 hours.  Our walk took us about 1-2 hours.

We attended a Ranger talk at the Yavapai Geology Museum about the geology of the Canyon, how it was formed (layers of rock were created over time and at different time periods which included fossils and gave different layers differing colours; tectonic plates created a lifting of entire sections straight up (not like creating a mountain range); a river started to carve down into the layers of rock and it was widened by boulders tumbling down and gouging out the sides.  All this took hundreds of millions of years.  How's that in simple terms?!).

The boys have been working on their Junior Ranger activities, and have to do a Haiku poem about the Canyon.  Here are my attempts at them:

Grey clouds gather high
Casting shadows everywhere
Temperature drops low.

Crisp winds blow briskly
Whistling through trees and canyons
Dust swirls round us all.

Reds, browns, greens and whites
Layers of rocks lie exposed
Life's history revealed.

Enough already.  Now, for the photos, which do not do it justice, but which will remind us of the majesty and splendour we have been exposed to.