Grand Canyon

This is Alan & Jenny, two Caltech students, starting their summer trip through the amazing landscapes of the Wild West. An old VW camper bus (built in 1997) serves as our mobile hotel. We are traveling with our little fluffy friend Supar who supports our great explorations.

After having spent the night at a rest area, the next day we were disappointed by the weather: forecast: 32˚C, mostly sunny, – reality: little more than 20˚C, cloudy. That was pretty unfortunate for a great experience of the differently coloured layers of the Grand Canyon.

Despite the crappy weather, there were way too many tourists for my taste. On top of that Alan was suffering from a cold. He looked awful! :-/

We first walked along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Then we left Supar in the not too hot car to take a bus shuttle to South Kaibab trail head. We hiked a bit down into the canyon.

Being amazed by the view at the ‘Ooh-Aah-Point’, Alan coincidentally called out “Ooh!”, without having read the sign. Me: “Aah!” Other visitors and finally Alan (after having seen the name of this lookout) started laughing *lol*

At another lookout somebody volunteered (even without being asked!) to do some photo shooting with us *nice*

Luckily, Alan was feeling better. He ran up and down hills, no matter how steep they were =oD Man, we were so sweaty when we were back at the rim *nasty*

We munched some bagels on the walk to another bus stop. On this hike, the sun finally did come out. Especially across a vast plain, we enjoyed the impressive interplay between sun and clouds.

The drive to ‘Desert View’ was not too long but I was more than once about to fall asleep *dangerous* Alan did take a nap.

At one of the vista points I couldn’t help but browse through the jewelry stalls of the Native Americans. We decided on two bracelets made of gemstone, metal, and wood.

On the way out of the Grand Canyon, we were able to observe all kinds of different weather conditions simultaneously by looking in different directions: blue sky and sunshine, rain, a rainbow, and even lightning *wow*

It was almost dark when we stopped at the Navajo Bridge of Marble Canyon. Too dark to see any marble, but perfect for watching some bats *cool*

A couple with their son loved petting Supar. Maybe that’s why they helped us decide where to spend the night and which other nature sights to visit ;oP Thanks little buddy!

At the campground each spot had their own roofed picknick table. Of course, we used ours to have dinner outside by lantern light *oohhh*