Grand Canyon From Above

One of the three reasons (besides the marathon & Garth) I came to Vegas was to check out the Grand Canyon- forget the casinos and flashy restaurants.  Since it was a short trip, we didn’t have time to do a proper tour and spend a few days exploring, but the helicopter trip in was amazing and it’s always such an incredible way to see enormous landmarks.

I loved that among all the desert rocks & steep, stark walls were these little meadows filled with colorful flowers & lush fields.

I’ve heard such praise for the Grand Canyon & it really doesn’t hit you how incredible it is until you are there, surrounded by towering walls & trying to comprehend the vastness.

The colors, shapes, patterns, and towers are all so mesmerizing.  I feel like these pictures do it no justice- you really need to be there inside the canyon, winding around ever corner, soaring over the peaks & marveling at the beauty of nature.

I was so excited to see all the snow surrounding us on the far peaks & plateaus.  They don’t get much precipitation in the desert, so it was quite a treat to be there with a light dusting of snow adding some extra sparkle to the place.

Really- I’m out of words of how beautiful & stunning it was, so I’ll just share a few of the many pictures I took.

Will be moving up “white water rafting in the Grand Canyon” on the Life Menu of Awesome list.

Hard to comprehend how a little water & a lot of time created such a masterpiece.

The helicopter company has an arrangement with an Indian tribe that owns some of the land & they have permission to actually land inside and let us take it all in from the ground over snacks & champagne.

We walked out to a little ledge where we can get a bit closer to the Colorado & I finally start to appreciate how enormous that river really is.

So happy (and cold) to be here with my hubby.  We’ve traveled all over the world, but this is still up there with one of the most impressive things we’ve seen so far.

This is such a place of contrasts- highs & lows, desert & river, lights & dark, peaks & plains, hot & cold.

Yea, it was below 40 degrees out there & my sandwich was frozen, but I still went for the champagne toast to being in an extraordinary place.

This is our tiny helicopter- we sat in the back on the way out & rode up front by the pilot on the way back to Vegas.  There was actually a fatal helicopter crash by this some company just a few days later- so glad we had a safe trip!

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: The leaves are actually turning beautiful shades of orange & red here in Houston- so beautiful!