Grand Canyon

Today is Tuesday 14 September. I have to keep saying that as I am beginning to lose track of the days. I know that we are back in Utah, having left the Grand Canyon yesterday and are generally wandering in a north-westerly direction towards the Rocky Mountains and Fort Collins, which is about 75 miles north of Denver.

Although due south of Utah, the State of Arizona is one hour behind. This makes for interesting time calculations when you are moving along the State Boundary. (Arizona is in the same Time Zone as California).


There is not much to say about the Grand Canyon that has either not already been said or which you cannot already imagine from photographs that appear in magazines. It does not disappoint. It really is bigger than the gorge in Graubunden between Chur and Ilanz, known as the Swiss Grand Canyon. Actually it is mind-bogglingly huge. Boris Kraus told me this, but it really does have to be seen to be believed.


We spent half a day hiking along the South Rim, within yards of the edge of the 1 mile drop. The views are more varied than I had imagined, but had to stop when the midday sun simply became too hot.

The vegetation, although hardly tropical, is denser and greener than I had expected and goes right up to the edge of canyon. Imagine being a pioneering trekker, thinking that you are on your way westwards and then arriving at the gorge. Providing that you did not fall in, you would have to have believed that you had come to the end of the world.


In the early evening, we went to a popular viewing point and watched the sun going down. Later that night, I saw only the second shooting star that I have ever seen, the first one being in the Ticino region of Switzerland, earlier this year, while sitting on the balcony of the apartment of Bruno and Regina Engel. The stars are so clear. I think that if you had enough time, you could count all the stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way.