Grand Canyon

Hi again its taken me a little while to post this blog post about the grand canyon trio due to having a busy week trying to catch up with work I should have done last weekend, but here it is. Click the jump to read more.
After getting up to leave at 7am we packed up the coach and left just before 8am. What followed was a 9 hour coach journey to the Grand Canyon National Park. Nothing too much happened on the journey other stopping for lunch in Holbrook Az and watching a couple of films (Blades of Glory and 21). My first impressions of Arizona was that it was very much like New Mexico just with a lack of hills and slightly larger bushes. This did change though, Matt and me had started to do some Electromagnetism homework and were so engrossed that we didn't notice the transition from desert to forest suffice to say were very surprised when we looked up. This part of Arizona is very scenic and has large snow topped mountains in the background.

Eventually we reached the park and had to unpack the coach and set up camp in intermittent rain. We were the first to set up our camp which meant we were able to go off exploring. Firstly we tracked down a source of Wifi so we could contact the other half of our group so they could find us. Next we thought we better go see the canyon so off we went. Just before we got to the canyon it had stopped raining so when we reached it everything was misty and there were clouds within the canyon. This looked amazing. It soon started raining again so we decided to head back to camp. For dinner we had a BBQ which was very good. Eventually our friends arrived at about 8pm as the had taken a wrong turn and had almost ended up in Utah. This meant we had to set up their tent in the dark so they would be able to sleep.

Our tent

Misty Canyon 

In the morning we packed up camp and headed back to the canyon to walk around some of the rim. This was a lot of fun and there was plenty of opportunities to climb down into the canyon to get some good pictures. Unfortunately the pictures don't do the canyon justice as you can't get a good sense of scale, it is a lot larger than it appears and you can't even see the bottom.

Canyon View

The Canyon Floor

Group Photo

Later in the day we got back on the coach and headed back to Flagstaff which is the nearest "big" city. This city though is a perfect example of small town America. It was small but just big enough to have everything that you would need. Here we enjoyed a very nice meal at a restaurant called the lumberyard which is by the railway. The food here was brilliant and I'm told their beer (which is home brewed) was some of the best Matt and Ali had tried, but unfortunately as I am under 21 I was unable to have some myself so I settled for a glass of sweet tea (very sweet iced tea). After this we turned in for an early night so that we could get up early to explore the city. Whilst exploring we stumbled upon a local farmers market which reminded me a lot of home.

The view from Flagstaff

Matt and Ali in small town America

At about 10am we got back on the coach and started driving back to Albuquerque via the petrified forest national park. This was not quite what I was expecting as there were not any full trees only small segments and not really enough of them to call it a forest, however it was still very nice. Another part of the national park is called the painted desert as it appears as if someone has painted it. This was very beautiful and so another chance to get some good pictures. After lunch in front of this it was time to get back on the coach for the final time as we arrived back in Albuquerque about 8pm and then just had to unpack the coach and head back to my flat.

The Petrified Forest

The Painted Desert

Hopefully you have enjoyed reading this post I will post another one shortly with some more pictures in it to show off a bit more of the canyon. I'm not sure when I will have a chance to write another post as I'm not sure what I will be up to in the coming weeks. If its anything exciting I will try to post something a little closer to the event than this one was.

Thanks for reading
Sam