The Grand Canyon

What does one say about the Canyon that is Grand?  A camera is so inadequate to capture the awesome beauty that God has provided for humanity in the north of Arizona.  We drove to the main visitor centre, and walked straight out to Mather point, which is everyone's traditional first look at the canyon.  So what if I have been there three times before?  It is still mind blowing and....breathtaking.

We then caught a shuttle bus that travels from viewpoint to viewpoint, allowing you to see things from different perspectives.  At the Yavapai viewpoint, there is a geological museum.  Completely disregarding the millions of years rubbish, I noticed that the names of the rock formations have been changed from when I was here in 1978.  Back then they were named things like Angel's Landing, God's throne, etc.  Now they are Isis' Temple, Buddha's temple, Cheop's pyramid.  God has been banished from his own creation.

Oh well, it doesn't take away from the beauty.  It is just disappointing.

So we went back to the car and drove 7 miles west to a place called Hermit's rest, where it turned out that God had not been completely banished.  This plaque was mounted on a rock there. 

Again, a camera was inadequate, but I took a few (dozen) photos anyway.

While wating for the shuttle bus, a resident of the park came by.






I never tire of astronomical viewing.  This is the moon at about 11 AM over the canyon.

 A lone Scrub Pine on an outcropping at Mather Point.

 The Indian Watchtower.

From Hermit's Rest we drove back to the main centre, and then south to a place called Desert View, where there is a very old looking watchtower built.  It was built by one of the native American tribes of the area, and affords views all the way back to the San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff, and well north and east towards Lee's Ferry, the start of the Grand Canyon and the Little Colorado Gorge.  Of course you can see the Grand Canyon better.

From there we headed south to Flagstaff, where we had lunch at Arby's.  I didn't frequent Arby's much as a kid.  I think that might have been the fourth time in my life I have been to one.  It was okay as fast food goes.  Better than Maccas or Hungry Jack's (Burger King).  I am looking forward to cooking something when I get back to Seattle with my dad.

East on I-40 from Flagstaff is the result of a collision of two of God's creations.  One is the earth, and the other was a 150 tonne meteorite that left a 4000 foot diameter, 570 foot deep crater in the earth.  Again, it was an awesome site, but the best photos to be had of that are for sale in the gift shop.  I took some photos, but they were inadequate.

This was from the internet....credit to (http://maravilhas-naturais.webnode.pt/english/usa/meteor-crater-arizona/)

The photo below is from my camera.  That is as much as I could get in one shot.  I will try to stitch a few shots together when I get back to Perth.






From there it was back to Flagstaff and then 
south to Phoenix, where I am now, ready to head for church at Maranatha Baptist Church, where Greg Iehl, the pastor of Faith Baptist Church in England where I attended from 86 to 90, is now pastoring.  Haven't seen them since 1992, so really looking forward to that.

More tonight or tomorrow perhaps.

God Bless,

Jonathan