Grand Canyon

Have you seen the movie Guilt Trip?  There is a scene where they stop at the Grand Canyon, and they wonder how long they should look at it before it is ok to move on.... that is about how I felt.  

There were hiking trails along the rim, but I had hurt my knee yesterday in Vegas - so those were out of the question.  Instead I stood at the viewpoint, took about a million pictures, and then drove on.  The whole experience was a bit underwhelming.  I had driven 5 hours to get here and spent all of maybe 15 enjoying the view (and it is a spectacular view, don't get me wrong).  But how can you not go see the Grand Canyon when you are so close???  

Some quick facts:  the Grand Canyon is 446km long, up to 29km wide and 1.6km deep. Pretty impressive indeed.  You can do a 34km hike to go from Rim to Rim (meaning you go down to the river and back up the other side... how do you cross the river I wonder, must be a bridge).  I would have loved to have done this!!! Next time :)

The Grand Canyon is considered one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World.  When I heard this I wondered what the others were - so if you are like me, here you go:

• Great Barrier Reef
• Harbor of Rio de Janeiro
• Mount Everest
• Aurora Borealis (I can cross another off the list!)
• Paricutin volcano  (in Mexico)
• Victoria Falls

There is also a list of the New 7 Wonders of Nature.. but these do not include the Grand Canyon, so moving right along.  

Apparently there is some great debate among geologists over how the Canyon was formed - seems right now they think the Colorado River established its course through the canyon 17 million years ago!  

And to think, I only spent 15 minutes, if that, enjoying Mother Nature's handiwork. 

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