Tuesday 25 September Grand Canyon
Today we decided to do the Pink Jeep Tour as
we wanted to find out more about the surroundings. This tour went from National
Geographic Tourist Centre along the south rim to Desert View, the east entrance
to the park. Our guide was Keith. Our first stop was O,Neil’s Pass. While we
were there, two Caliafornia Condors soared over the canyon. Keith told us that
there were only 400 left in the world and they were bought back from extinction
through an intensive breeding program. It was really exciting as with the
camera, I could identify the condor. The female was 80 and that is visible on
the wings and her mate was . We stayed for ages watching the condors before we
drove on. At each stop a new vista unfolded before our eyes and we were
reaching into our vocabs for different words to describe the scene. The last
stop was Desert View. Here we saw
the Desert View Watchtower that was originally built by architect Mary
Elizabeth Jane Colter in collaboration with Hopi artisans. Hopi artist Fred
Kabotie’s murals are featured in the building. It is a copy of the original
Anastaassi watch tower. Climbed to the top to see the views back down the
canyon and out towards the painted desert
In the afternoon we took the shuttle bus in
the opposite direction to Hermits Rest. Again it is a hop on hop off and a
shuttle comes every 15mins. We did not stop at all the points enroute. At the
Abyss, we met up with a volunteer who is part of the team tracking the condor.
He allowed us to use his spotting scope to look at a baby condor in a cave 2
miles away!! Amazing. We did not get back to the Visitor’s Centre until 6.30
and missed the best sunset!!!
After dinner we went to the IMAX theatre to
see the film about the Grand Canyon. Think it was the same one I saw 20 odd
years ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment