Today, there's no time to lose as we're heading for the Grand Canyon. We get up and have a quick breakfast, before hitting the road.
We don't even stop on the way to the Grand Canyon, as there's not much to see, so we don't waste any time.
It's only when we get to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon that things get interesting, and so we begin our stops. The first is a view from a tower on the east side of the Grand Canyon, the Desert View Watchtower. This first view gets us going, but also makes us realize that there are a lot of people at the Grand Canyon. Not least because we're obliged to wait 30 minutes if we want to climb the Watchtower and get a view overlooking the canyon, so we don't do it.
We continue with our usual regular stops at every point on the road, eventually stopping for lunch. We set off again, still making regular stops, until we reach Grand Canyon Village. The problem is that it's already 2.30 p.m. and we have an appointment at 5 p.m. 30 min from the village for a helicopter ride over the canyon. This appointment is a bit of a hindrance, as we can't start hiking or take a shuttle into the canyon. So we take the opportunity to recover our accommodation, take a walk along the canyon through the village, and take a short break.
All afternoon the weather is bad, with rain and thunderstorms, seemingly compromising the helicopter tour. We even get a message from the company warning us that it might be cancelled.
At 5 p.m., we're on schedule, and after a short safety briefing, we wait for our turn to board the helicopter. It's raining on the ground, but the tour doesn't look compromised. However, the tour will be shortened to 25 minutes instead of the original 45.
It's our turn, we get into the helicopter, and it takes off over the rainy terrain. In the end, these less-than-ideal conditions offer us some unique landscapes, with reflections of light, rainbows, etc. Then, above the canyon, it's clear all the same. From the helicopter, we get a better idea of how the canyon is made, and it really gives us an overview. On the way back, the weather is worse than on the outward journey, with thunderstorms on the ground, which I have to admit is a bit scary. We pass through a mass of clouds and can't see a thing. A few minutes later, the helicopter lands.
We drive back to our lodgings in torrential rain. We emerge a little later to see the sunset, which is truly magnificent in this bad weather. It's a rather unique landscape, which you can't see very often here. We take our photos and go for lunch.
On our way out, the sky is very cloudy, and our hopes of taking a photo of the stars are dashed, as we'd expected anyway. So we went straight to bed.