Grand Canyon

Day 14: We had a lovely morning exploring some of the sights around Page. First up we visited Horseshoe Bend, which was stunning and a foretaste of what must be to come in the Grand Canyon. We then moved on to have a look at the Glen Canyon Dam, apparently the 2nd biggest dam in the USA (?). This was quite an impressive sight, as is the Glen Canyon gorge. It was hot this morning so we arranged a late check out from the hotel - it would have been unpleasant clambering around in leathers today! After checking out, we took a short drive up to a viewing point called Wahweap to get a glimpse of Lake Powell and the surrounding area - again, stunning views. We're starting to run out of superlatives to describe some of these natural wonders (although strictly speaking Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Dam are not natural wonders!). It's hard to believe that until 1956 there was nothing in the area - Page was only created to house the workers on the Dam. After a bowl of delicious frozen yoghurt we headed off for the Grand Canyon. It was over 100 degrees this afternoon but not too unpleasant riding in Jeans and t-shirts (with plenty of sun cream of course). We caught our first few glimpses of the Grand Canyon as we approached along the South Rim - again, simply awesome! We also (nearly) bumped in to some Elk. We saw 5 of the beasts in total, sadly no males, they are huge!  We have taken loads of photos but the biggest problem is sorting out those worth showing! Also, the internet in Tusayan, where we're staying for the next 2 nights is very slow, so I don't know if I'll be able to put many on to Facebook (sighs of relief all round, I hear!).

Day 15: As we saw some of the Grand Canyon yesterday afternoon, we decided to have a well-earned lazy morning catching up on some admin, laundry, etc. We also treated ourselves to a soak in the hot tub, which was very pleasant! We toddled up to the Canyon at lunchtime and spent the afternoon/evening soaking up the magnificence of the place. We walked quite a bit of the rim, took hundreds of photos and saw a bit of wildlife. We have seen 6 elk so far (big buggers!), 1 mule deer (according to a bus driver: "in Texas we have bigger jackrabbits than these mule deer!"), a number of Californian Condors (I still need to confirm they were Condors but pretty sure they were as I've seen other pictures that look the same), a chipmunk and a Pinyon Jay, along with numerous ravens. We hung around until sunset to see the changing colours, which was amazing, and finally got back to the hotel about 8pm. A spectacular day!