The Grand Canyon is Breathtaking

In my perspective (a little belated but still somewhat valuable), is that the Grand Canyon was breathtaking . . . for multiple reasons . . . .

1. It is 6,000 feet in elevation, duh.
2. I am extremely out of shape when hiking in and out of the G.C.
3. It looks fake, even when you are there. Being there in person still does it no justice.
4. Kara thinks it can be described as a large divot in our country's land (She wants to make sure you know the Grand Canyon is in Arizona, not Colorado and that when she says divot she does not mean it in a negative manner, but rather just that it is a large hole.) Lindsay disagrees very strongly. She is an Environmental Science major and would be happy to comment to whatever questions/concerns you may have on the background of the G.C.

Really, it was an amazing experience. We had a ridiculous time hiking up and down the Grand Canyon. We felt really good after our amateur selves took a small hike down and up the G.C. and then a few more miles along the rim. Seriously, I was pretty impressed with ourselves (well, mostly myself). I never would have made it without Angela's Camelbak. It was an essential piece of my Grand Canyon experience. I even bought a sweat-wicking Nike tank top and Under Armor shorts to go with the highly technical hydration system so that even though I had no idea what I was doing, I still looked good doing it. (Look at our pictures, it's true). Kara and Lindsay were extremely jealous (especially Kara) and they bought one as soon as they could. I'm sure Kara will blog about it later. They spent 2 hours in the car, after the purchase, exploring/obsessing with their new Camelbak purchases.

As I continued to feel good about ourselves and our physical activity, we boarded a bus towards a stop that promised a "breathtaking" view of the sunset. As we were all shoved onto the bus, longing to find the same beautiful 'vista', the bus driver advised all passengers to leave the front seats open for senior citizens. I joked with the ladies sitting in the seats next to us (we took standing spots), that I feel like a senior after all of the hiking we did, she answered with, "Oh yeah, I hiked the whole canyon and back. How far did you go?". . . . . . Immediately, I felt really bad about myself and didn't say anything but words about trying to reconcile the fatal attempt that we made hiking only 1.5 miles down (and then 1.5 miles back). Regardless, it was a humbling experience and we have now set higher standards for ourselves. Hopefully, we plan to come back and hike the entire thing. That usually takes a three day trip. One thing that did make us feel better was that we hiked down and back in less than two hours which is projected to as many as 4 hours. So that was nice. Really, I am just rationalizing.

As a side note, we camped two nights in the Canyon. Kara did surprisingly well and I have been declared the BBQueen by my two traveling companions. Sweet. (Lindsay says to Jackie: "No. You declared yourself the 'BBQueen', Jackie then blushed and laughed embarrassingly, acknowledging the truths to the facts.)

Grand Canyon: Truly a humbling experience.