Thoughts on the Grand Canyon and my weekend

Bury me softly in this womb
I give this part of me for you
Sand rains down and here I sit
Holding rare flowers
In a tomb...in bloom

Down in a hole and I dont know if I can be saved
See my heart I decorate it like a grave
You dont understand who they
Thought I was supposed to be
Look at me now a man
Who wont let himself be

Down in a hole, feelin so small
Down in a hole, losin my soul
Id like to fly,
But my wings have been so denied

Down in a hole and theyve put all
The stones in their place
Ive eaten the sun so my tongue
Has been burned of the taste
I have been guilty
Of kicking myself in the teeth
I will speak no more
Of my feelings beneath

Alice in Chains - Down in a Hole

Being only 3 and a half hours from the Grand Canyon, and having never been there, I decided to drive up there this weekend and check it out. Not too bad of a drive, if not a bit boring. There are giant dinosaur statues along Route 40 on the way up there, so at least that made it interesting. When I finally reached the canyon...

It was definitely NOT what I thought it'd be. I guess I was just expecting a cliff with a deep hole that led to the Colorado. What I saw was quite different. I never thought the GC (as I shall now call it) would be as long or as wide. It's impossible to accurately describe the immenseness and vastness of the GC, it's something that really has to be seen in person. There almost seems to be a small mountain range within the actual canyon. It was awe-inspiring to say the least.

My only complaints on the GC are the entrance fee (25 bucks!), which I guess is understandable considering the facilities they have, and the lack of day hikes. The trails are generally too long to complete in a day, so if you want to hike them to the end you gotta pack a tent and spend the night at the bottom of a basin. I wouldn't mind this if I wasn't just going for basically a day-and-a-half by myself. That kinda sucked. But regardless, they got some cool trails with awesome views. I stared into the canyon and muttered 'holy shit' under my breath on several occasions. Just utterly impressive. Ssome of the trails, though, came precariously close to the edge which was a bit un-nerving. One slip and I'm fucked.

Wanna make a killing? Go open a hotel in the GC. All the lodges in the actual park were sold-out and all the hotels right outside were practically booked solid. I ended up having to shell out $200 for a fucking room. If it's this packed during the middle of October (when it's actually pretty cold and windy by the way), I'd HATE to see what this place is like during the summer. There must be no room at all to move.

There were pretty much three demographics present at the GC:
1) Old, retired couples
2) Families with pre-teen children
3) And foreign tourists

I was surprised by the amount of foreign tourists there. I guess I never thought of the GC as this giant foreign tourist attraction. My favorite had to be the hordes of Asian tourists. They were all your stereotypical Asian tourists with cameras around their necks, flashing pictures every few seconds. I couldn't help but chuckle.

Okay, so I got pulled over on the way back (didn't get a ticket though!) and it occurred to me that every single time I've been pulled over it's been at night. Do cops just tend to pull people over more at night? Or do I just not notice them at night so I don't have a chance to stop breaking whatever law it is that I'm breaking at that moment?
I also must note that the cop was cool as hell. He easily could've given me a ticket (especially after it turned out that my license is expired or something, I should probably figure out what's up with that), but he didn't. If it was Texas rather than New Mexico, I can assure you I'd owe someone a fuck load of money right now.

So I got up early to catch the sunrise at the GC, and stayed late the night before to catch sunset, and in all honesty, they might've been a bit disappointing. Maybe I just had un-realistic expectations for what they'd look like. But coming back on 40 near sunset, I saw the best sunset I have very seen. It was incredible. The entire western part of the sky was a fiery yellow, and the eastern sky was a bright purple and pink. Never seen anything like that. Just amazing. Although maybe next time it'd be safer if I just pulled over instead of staring at the horizon through my rear-view.... But if you're ever in the southwest and you wanna see a sweet sunset, head along Route 40.