As we crossed the Colorado-Utah border I saw God in the sky in the form of huge sunburning clouds above the desert that seemed to point a finger at me and say, “Pass here and go on, you’re on the road to heaven.” Ah well, alackaday, I was more interested in some old covered wagons and pool tables sitting in the Nevada desert near a Coca-Cola stand and where there were huts with the weatherbeaten signs still flapping in the haunted shrouded desert wind, saying, “Rattlesnake Bill lived here” or “Broken-mouth Annie holed up here for years.” –Jack Kerouac, On the Road

The route from Zion to the Grand Canyon is pretty sparse country—some parts pretty and others pretty in their own stark way. We had time to listen to our audio book or talk or just be quiet. Rog is a good traveling companion (not too much like Kerouac’s Dean Moriarity). We got to the Grand Canyon after dark, so there we were—but we couldn’t see anything. No problem, we were tired and hungry so we wouldn’t have stopped anyway.

When you’ve seen one bunch of red rocks, you’ve seen them all, right? Nope! We weren’t necessarily planning to spend all that much time at the GC, but we spent half a day or more. It really is spectacular, and in a different way than Zion.

[By the way, you should be able to click on these pictures to see larger versions.}

We did not go to the part where the clear Skywalk juts out over the canyon. (That’s not inside the National Park.) However, there were a number of places with rails up to the edge of the cliff where you could look down.  For someone who flew balloons for 30 years, and was completely comfortable looking over the side of the basket, I found looking down into the canyon that way pretty unnerving.

We’ve all seen photos and videos of the Grand Canyon, but seeing it in person is something else.  My photos don’t compare with some I’m sure you’ve seen, but enjoy them anyway.

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