The South Riding RV Travels

718

18th September 2012 - Grand Canyon AZ

It is difficult to portray the vastness of this space and we can only see a part of it. There is a glass platform which has been built out over the canyon edge about 100 miles to the west.
Waiting in the shade for the bus.
The bus arrives. The shuttles are quite frequent but do not stop at all stops in both directions.
A brief glimpse of the river which is normally quite hard to see from the rim.
They do rafting trips down the river over several days but we did not see any this time.
The Hermit's Rest cafe and gift shop at the end of the 12 mile road from the visitor centre.
The road stops but the river goes on for many more miles. The horizon is about 60 miles away.
There was some uranium mining here in the 1940s but now they are just cleaning up the spoil heaps.
The cliffs are quite precipitous but again show the layers of sediments from the sea beds which this was millions of years ago.
I'm not sure what this is but it looks like a parasitic plant resembling our mistletoe.
The colours are just fabulous especially in the late afternoon sun.
There is some bird life and I was lucky enough to catch this one before it flew away. We think it was a Western Scrub Jay.
Many of the rocks are quite sandy and thus quite prone to erosion.
We called this the sand pit because it looks just like someone has been playing in it.
The shadows are beginning to lengthen and it is time to go home.