Day 9; Grand Canyon; 11th July
When we booked this trip back in December we were flicking through the optional activities and I instantly decided if I did any of them it would be the Grand Canyon Helicopter ride.
Today was the day I finally got to do it!
Myself, Emily, Alan, Sarah, Joe & Michaela all opted to do the ride and it did not disappoint.
6am start for us & Adrian drove us over to Mavericks Helicopter 'airport'.
Our pilot Benton was a total hottie
Gave us a brief safety talk and then it was time to go!
Gave us a brief safety talk and then it was time to go!
Me, Sarah & Alan were in the front, and the others were behind :)
Benton joked with us, asking if it was our first time in a helicopter
"Yes"
"Oh yeah, mine too"
Tease ;)
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| Benton <3 |
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| Colorado River from the Helicopter |
Our flight was 45 minutes of pure amazement!
At first we were just flying over trees to reach the rim, and all of a sudden he took a swerve to the left and we flew over the edge of the rim.
Stomachs dropped and I felt like the helicopter was just going to go straight down into the Canyon.
Benton was thankfully lying, he had done this before!
The views were mind blowing
You can get a whole different perspective and appreciation of how big the Grand Canyon actually is and see where the erosion has taken place.
It was incredible
We flew from the South to the North rim and then back to the landing pad.
It was the most incredible thing i've ever done & I urge everyone to do the helicopter ride if you ever get a chance, it will blow you away!
Some team photo ops later we were back on the road towards camp to try to explain what we just saw.
No words can do it justice!
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| Selfieeee |
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| Sarah, Me, Alan, Joe, Michaela & Em |
Another free day today so the majority of the group set off together to do the Bright Angel Trail.
We chose to hike down to the 1 1/2 mile rest stop and back up because attempting anymore in 1 day would have been a bit daft.
Quick lunch stop at the bottom it was time to climb back up!
The hike was great but the lack of shade was brutal!
No idea how but most people made it back up in less time that it took to hike down???!!
There were loads of gift shops (& a bar we took advantage of) in this area so I stocked up on souvs and then me Em, Joe & Colin went for some post-hike bevs!
A brief walk around the rim & my hilarious attempt at a falling in picture
(I couldn't some laughing)
We made our way back to camp
Everyone fell asleep on the bus apart from me, was tempted to leave them on and let them just ride round all day.
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| Mid-hike on the bright angel trail |
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| Michaela, Em, Colin, Me, Matt, Joe, Sofia, Maho, Jana, Marcel & Alan |
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| Colin, Me, Em & Joe |
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| Pretending to fall but couldn't stop smiling haha!! |
Had a desp-needed shower, ate some Reeces in there & then made a crack on with laundry.
By the sounds of things Nicola & Ellie spent most of their day hanging out at the showers for the laughs & doing laundry :p #cougar
It was team 2 back on cooking duty and we made a delicious BBQ chicken salad.
Whilst it was cooking me Alan & Kayla went to the nearest shop;
THEY HAD STRONGBOW!
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey!
It was a big box full of different flavours; honey, ginger, berry etc
They went down a treat at camp & far too easily!
Around the campfire I just shouldn't stop staring at the sky. I have never seen a sky so clear and full of stars. You could even see the Milky Way!
It was fascinating.
I got a little over-excited later on when I saw my first ever shooting star.
It was very special
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Around the campfire I just shouldn't stop staring at the sky. I have never seen a sky so clear and full of stars. You could even see the Milky Way!
It was fascinating.
I got a little over-excited later on when I saw my first ever shooting star.
It was very special
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