Day 3 Grand Canyon Yo!

Day 3 Grand Canyon 03/05/10
Katy, Adam & Katy

Hey Fans!
Today we visited the Grand Canyon!! It is situated in north west Arizona, south west USA spanning 277 miles long, 16 miles wide and 1 mile deep.

Jim, the park ranger, took over enthusiastic (and quite creepy) joy in lecturing us on the formation and geology of the Grand Canyon. So we better inform you guys, because it’s AMAZING!

Firstly, let’s get one thing right, it may not be the only Grand Canyon in the world, but it is THE Grand Canyon – From the man himself, Jim.

Here we are listening to the ranger talk for 30 minutes about Spongebob Squarepants and his nose picking baseball days in 1955:

Although not the deepest canyon, or the widest canyon or the longest canyon in the world, it is the deepest longest widest prettiest canyon. Jim taught us four words to remember the Grand Canyon:

Enormous Proportions, Colouful Scenery.

For those of you who can’t remember that, try remembering the words 'large' and 'pretty'. Jim talked us through the geological time frame of the Grand Canyon and how it is 1.7 billion years old, which is ‘the blink of an eye’ in earth history. The Grand Canyon contains clear distinctive layers in the rock highlighting these different geological time periods, starting with Kaibab Limestone at the top, all the way through different strata to Vishnu Schist at the bottom. Most rock forms were created in shallow tropical oceanic marine environments that were originally a desert. Jim said ‘water can cause a lot of damage in deserts, proved by the Grand Canyon.’

The Colorado River deepened the Grand Canyon, exposing strong and weaker rock, causing walls to collapse and the canyon to form. These minerals created different colours in the rock exposures indicating the different time periods.

Another Park Ranger (from YouTube) once taught us about D.U.D.E

Deposition Uplift Displacement Erosion

Another way of learning about the processes involved in making the one and only Grand Canyon.

For you 'humans' (geographers joke), resource management and tourism are important in the National Park. The Grand Canyon National Park, from our experience today is well managed. The park draws a whole range of international and national tourists, contains facilities that cater for everyone (there is even a trail suitable for wheelchair users) and the park also encourages eco tourism through recycling and solar panels.

Resource management at the park is signified by its many signs telling visitors not to feed the animals, step to one side for mules, keep to the tracks etc. The recycling bins, although not on trails were available at the visitor centre and rim areas. Solar panels were used to create electricity for the buildings, and water used was pumped up from the Colorado River.

The Junior Park ranger scheme improves tourist experience and knowledge of the park, with activities to complete and a ranger badge to gain. (Which all 29 of us achieved- including the ‘legend’ that is Dr. Greg Spellman) -> Do we get an A now Greg?

This was our first view of the Grand Canyon, it’s big.

Here we all are at the Northern rim, just before heading out to Navajo Nation:

OMG! You are not gonna believe what just happened, here we are blogging away when the laptop froze. It’s all your fault, we tried to get a map from Google for you when it froze, so forget it, there will be no map. We even had to wake up Greg (pink pyjamas on Greg is not pretty!)

Anyway...
Although we have provided photos, no picture you will ever see will compare to the real thing. You can’t capture its, beauty, scale and geological formations. You have to come and see it for yourself!

To finish our blog we wanted to share our most prized experience at the Grand Canyon, the Kaibab Trail. We chose the steepest, hardest, life threatening trail down into the Grand Canyon. Despite Faiths warnings about needing 4 litres of water, high energy foods (trail nut mix) and factor 60, we survived the hike! The walk down was amazing, the scenery was spectacular and every turn was photo worthy.

The CLIMB back up was strenuous to say the least, but extremely rewarding. Practically on our hands and knees we sweated, bled, and burned our way back to the top in the thin air that was provided. Bed by 10.30. LOL

Peace out. (Stink one).

Bare Loves. Katy, Katy and Adam. J