"Of all the parks, I'd say sitting on the veranda at the Grand Canyon was the most relaxed way of either enjoying solitude or striking up a conversation. And then there's the view." - Carolv (Fodor's Forum)
When I originally planned to go to the Grand Canyon, I wanted to take a few days and backpack Havasu Canyon, an area in the west of the park on the South Rim side, on Havasupai (name meaning "People of the green-blue waters") land. It's known for being an oasis in the midst of the desert with amazing waterfalls. Sadly, there was a massive flood over the winter and the trails are still closed, and the pools have not recovered yet to their namestake blue-green glory. So I headed to the South Rim, with all it's crowded tourist glory (and this was in the "off" season!). Nevertheless, I had an enjoyable stay camping at the campground and utulizing the shuttle system to navigate to the Rim trails. The canyon . . words don't seem to do justice. To say that it's massive, grand, deep, large . . . they are too mundane to describe it. The colors were neat to see, imagining the various layers of geologic past that created them. It's amazing that the sheer force of water carved all of that. I definitly enjoyed sitting on the edge, taking photos, and looking down into the depths. I really enjoyed birding along the rim - seeing mountain bluebirds and even a California condor (just a glimpse as it flew overhead, but amazing!).
One of the most humerous moments was watching a japanese tourist, who very loudly counted to three in japanese before taking any photo - and she took about a million every ten seconds. Not only that, but I head a clopping noise on the rocks and looked at her footwear - she was wearing three inch white heels, while walking on the rocks along the rim of the canyon! Incredible.
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