Dorsal's Diary: Ewen

Our internet system is back on line, so I'll bore you with some more stuff.

Mardi just got another message that the plane that was supposed to take off at 10:15 is still sitting on the tarmac at 4:34. So we didn't make a bad decision after all.

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By the time that it was Ewen's turn for an adventure trip I had screwed up my courage for the Grand Canyon crossing. But the first tour company that I contacted wouldn't take a 12 year old. They had no problem with a 77 year old, so go figure!

The second company took us on but kept in touch with emails encouraging us to get in shape. So, we did a couple of Bruce Trail hikes with backpacks full of bricks.

Brother Roger joined us (here showing Ewen how his GPS worked).

We're on our way.

We did a bit of a "big stupid thing" tour on the way.

And some not so stupid things. Like Mount Rushmore...........

..............and Crazy Horse Mountain.

The Devil's Tower.

And an ancient hallowed Indigenous medicine wheel at 10,000 feet.

And then it was off to Yellowstone and Old Faithful.

Then the Sedona area.

The Verde Valley rail excursion.

Hoover Dam.

And the view from inside the dam itself.

And then we started the canyon crossing....it was a wet day.

Besides our own items we each carried a share of the food that we would eat over the next few days.

You can see the bridge at the bottom that we crossed, and the trail continuing beyond. Pretty awesome scenery!

And some scary sections.

Along the way we took a side trip.............

...........to see this waterfall.

The rock that the water is hitting was actually created by salts left as the water evaporated. You can climb up behind it, as Ewen did, or climb inside and stick your head out of a hole, as our guide did.

Temperatures in the Grand Canyon can get up to 120 Fahrenheit.

We were lucky it was only 95, but it still required cooling off when the opportunity presented itself, muddy water be damned.

We gradually got deeper into the canyon.

The Colorado River was very cold, but a relief from the heat.

After we crossed the river, it was all uphill.

At our next stop at the Indian Garden campsite, we took time to walk out on the plateau for a better view of where we had been.

If you look closely at the following picture, you will see the zigzag trail we had to follow on this steep section. The trail bears off to the right and continues to where we are standing.

A good guide makes all the difference and we had one of the best.

And one final bit of excitement, lying on the Skywalk with just a sheet of glass between you and the canyon below (I missed a similar picture in the blog about Malcolm).