All in all I'd say that Canyon is Grand

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We four physicists from the UK gathered for breakfast as soon as the hotel restaurant opened at 7am. I was wearing my Spider-man t-shirt quite proudly and was quite buzzing with excitement. Our tour-guide, Jim, arrived promptly at 7:20 and dragged us away from our omelettes, French toast, muffins, melon... Clinging onto our Styrofoam cups of tea, we went out into the Phoenix dawn.

Our transportation was a minibus with Jim piloting and giving us a running commentary for at least an hour. He described the types of plant (the ancient cartoon cacti which so should be wearing cowboy hats the way they do in the cartoons... also, apparently, plants he claimed were older than the giant redwoods). He described the geology of the area (dessert turning to prairie, a "moon" landscape due to the lack of glacial erosion this far south). He passed around fossils of bone and petrified wood. Ah, Jim. Good man.

We stopped off briefly at Sodona which, he said, the founder named after his wife but only after advice from the local postmaster. He described it as a town with 99% of its industry geared towards tourism. And rich tourists at that. There were shops that sold everything... small speciality stores. And sculptures adorned the area, even the gas stations. However, I wasn't that impressed. Red rocks in Arizona don't compare to the alien landscape of Utah. Well, not to me.

Next we stopped for lunch at Wendys. Apparently it was the only thing open. I suffered half a cheeseburger and a few fries. Ugh.

But then was the highlight. We were taken to a helicopter port. After being weighed and shown the safety video (if you should open the door by accident, please inform the pilot...) we were let out onto the field. The noise and wind from the moving blades was awesome. I had brief flashes of the severed arm moment on ER* but got into the helicopter without hesitation.

I had the seat next to the pilot.

It was fantastic. I had a large window to the side of me, the large windscreen in the front, and even a window by my feet so I could see straight down.

I barely noticed the pilot take off. She twitched the controls and slowly the ground fell below me. There was no sense of acceleration as you may feel in a lift. I was just slowly rising upwards. She maintained a steady height as we traversed a forest by the side of the south rim. I could hardly believe we were anything more than a few metres above the ground and that they weren't just small shrubs beneath us. But we were high and they weren't shrubs, they were trees. As we flew over the snowy woodland, she played "soundtrack" music. Great atmospheric stuff that put me in mind of Narnia and made this journey all the more magical.

After about five minutes we came to the Grand Canyon. I knew what to expect as I had been to the North Rim before. But in a helicopter it was obviously different and I gasped and grinned and had to pinch myself to check I wasn't dreaming. Ha, she played the 2001 music as we went over the edge and into the full majesty of the canyon.

Before learning better last August, I expected the canyon to be straight sides plummeting to a wide, flat base, worn by a meandering river. It certainly isn't. It is an overwhelming expanse of rock formations. There is no sense of scale to judge it. Everywhere you look there are new (huge) rock shapes and colours. When viewed from the North Rim it seemed to be a series of walls of rock before me which was rather disappointing. However looking from above you can see the valleys and the river carving through it and it makes a lot more sense.

If it wasn't for the fact I was getting queasy, I would have been upset to leave. The flight lasted about half an hour but I could not tell you where the time went. It felt so brief.

The rest of the day was quite understandably dull in comparison. We went to viewpoints to get shots of the canyon that paled in comparison to the ones we got from above. It was below freezing and there was snow on the ground so we mainly huddled in the gift shops admiring the prickly pear cactus jelly or the jalapeno pepper jam.

Our last stop was at a trading post in the Navajo reservation. I don't know what to think of this state of affairs. It seems awful to me how bleak and lifeless this reservation is. I see trailers tapping into the power lines and stalls lining the highway selling trinkets to tourists. It seems... devoid of life. Devoid of respect. It seems awful to me that all I see are examples of people living off the leavings of the rich non-Indian Americans and overseas tourists. I hope that there is more to this than I am seeing.

So, happy thoughts about the helicopter ride swam through my mind on the long trip back (via KFC for some semi-edible dinner). I am glad I went back to do the wonder properly. And ooh I want a helicopter. Ooh I want I want.




* Quite simply, a doctor is on the roof where the helipad is for the emergency cases. He drops his clipboard and bends down to pick it up. He stands. Minus an arm. This started the most twisted arc I have ever seen on that show... in the end the same doctor is standing outside the hospital and high winds make a helicopter landing on the roof get out of control. It falls. Splat. On the doctor.