Grand Canyon National Park

Grand Canyon National Park

It's impossible to describe the scale.

Grand Canyon National Park

An early European explorer described the canyon as a wasteland of interest to no one...

Grand Canyon National Park
Grand Canyon National Park
Grand Canyon National Park

There were lots of wild flowers around our campsite.

Grand Canyon National Park

And lots of bees.

Grand Canyon National Park
Grand Canyon National Park

The layers of rock are so well defined. At the lowest part of the canyon the rocks are over two billion years old.

Grand Canyon National Park

On the way back up.

Grand Canyon National Park

Desert View tower.

Grand Canyon National Park

Looking out into the desert.

Grand Canyon National Park

This was my third visit to the Grand Canyon and it's still just as breathtaking as ever. The scale of the thing is unbelievable. Looking down from the rim you don't really have any points of scale for what you're seeing. 

We hiked a short way into the canyon which is an unusual experience for several reasons. Firstly it's the reverse of climbing a mountain and the return leg is much harder. You have to turn around before you get tired. It also gets hotter the further down you go. We walked down for what felt like a decent distance but we were still so far from the bottom. 

We visited the eastern end of the park which I'd not seen before. It's called Desert View because of the vast perspective you get of the towering cliffs and canyons of northeast Arizona.

It's a very busy park so we had to camp outside in Kaibab National Forest as all of the sites inside the park were full.