Grand Canyon

Magnificence of nature

With out an ounce of doubt I can say the journey of 2.5 hours was as beautiful as the destination. Through out the barren stretch I could see solar farming and wind farming to harness energy, what a beautiful way to use the desert. They also have started green farming in large patches and if it continues down the 50-100 years one shouldn’t be surprised if there is no desert left.

Very impressive must say!!!

 The Grand Canyon is home to the ‘Hualapai’, ‘Huvasupai’ and ‘Yuman’ the moment. The Sinagua were a cultural group occupying an area to the southeast of the Grand Canyon, between the Little Colorado River and the Salt River. Now the conserved area the Canyon has an open door for the tourists and the moment one sets foot into the canyon, is nothing but mesmerized by its enormity. Suddenly a sense of being tiny strikes in.

Found in 1932 by a naturalist Erwin McKee is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona. The Grand Canyon is 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide and attains a depth of 6,093 feet. Nearly two billion years of Earth’s geological history have been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut their channels through layer after layer of rock while the Colorado Plateau was uplifted, several recent studies support the hypothesis that the Colorado River established its course through the area about 5 to 6 million years ago. The tourism industry promotes the tribes and insight into their lives distantly by selling their handicrafts and am sure it profits them in several socio-economic ways.

There is a dedicated souvenir shop where you can find tiny pieces to take back with you but caught my heart and eyes were the books on the Grand Canyon and it’s tribes. I suggest if you read do not forget to pick a copy of one of the books as a gift to yourself or souvenir. Well we bought a magnet and that’s because we have decided to decorate our fridge with magnets from the places we travel.

We had the opportunity to visit the west side of the canyon, where we saw the Hualapai habitats, the ‘Eaglepoint’ where the rocks uniquely are shaped like an eagle with its wings spread out, then there was the ‘skywalk’ that took my breath away, it’s made of glass and has a transparent floor that allows you to see deep down into the the canyon from the top, down clearly into approximately 4500 ft. I was so scared to walk in the middle without holding the railing, let alone looking down . I think it takes time to get used to such massiveness. However I bravely took a round. There was another quick stop called the ‘Guanopoint’ which showcased the machinery which was set up for the first time in an attempt to mine from the canyon(though it’s redundant now), particularly rocks of variety and also to share the canyon is rich in the uranium.

It was a complete day trip that left me inquisitive, parching for more. I surely will go back to quench, into the Grand Canyon and that is the souvenir I take back from the lands of ‘nativeindian’