Around the rim

We arrived back at the top of the Bright Angel trail shortly after 6pm, which seemed to leave enough time to do the 4.8km walk around the rim of the canyon back to where our coaches were parked. Just one of the colleagues joined me for this walk, since it was going to be brisk in order to cover the distance in time (and stop and start at all the photo opportunities).

I neglected to mention that, earlier in the day, it had been a nearly-but-not-quite-jaw-dropping moment, when we arrived at the Bright Angel Trailhead and had our first glimpse of the canyon. Seeing photos prepares you a little, but not entirely, and its sheer magnitude in all three dimensions is truly awesome. Our journey down and up the Bright Angel trail had given us some insight into the canyon interior, but the view of the whole expanse was limited. As we walked around the rim we got some different viewing angles and saw more of the Grand Canyon’s vast scope.

You may just be able to make out a trail going across the level area above the rocky outcrop below. We didn’t get anywhere near down to that depth, and the canyon drops again down to the river after it.

This mesa/outcrop in the near distance had been a touchstone for our journey down the trail.

From this angle you can see the initial cliffs up at the rim, above the plateau below. I like the skeletal tree, which appeared to be the same species as another still alive nearby that bore a very striking resemblance to Tasmania’s alpine-loving pencil-pine (despite the very different environments).

The late afternoon light made for some lovely effects.

As we looked back to where we’d come from we could see the switchbacks of the Bright Angel trail. You can see it just above the middle of the photo below, where the lower part of the left wall and the lower part of the right wall of the canyon meet, and you can also see the longer zigzag (which was shown in one of the photos on the last blog post) coming up towards the rim on the face of the upper cliffs. The Mile-and-a-half Resthouse is probably behind the cliffs right in the middle of the photo, where there is a cream wiggle of trail extending from those zigzags (and well before the trail moves into the redder rock and the set of switchbacks that continue down to the lower right (which we didn’t go anywhere near!).

The sky had become a little overcast after being a mix of clouds and clearness, and so the lowering sun was only occasionally sneaking through to light up the canyon walls as it set.

We also got our first glimpse of the Colorado River at the very bottom of the canyon; you can just make out a small stretch of brown water in the middle of the photo below, just below the lowest rightmost twig of the tree on the left.

The sun and hazy clouds created some interesting light effects as we looked to the west-north-west, and it was really hard to get the exposure right in order to capture the glow and layers of ridges.

The sun managed to cast a fairly feeble red glow on the cliffs, so it wasn’t the most spectacular of sunsets … I mean, apart from the fact that the cliffs are a mile high and the several miles on the other side of a valley and you’re staring at one of the natural wonders of the world!