Up in the Sky

In all seriousness, this has been one of the best days of my life. I'll never experience something like this again and I'm truly thankful that I've been given the opportunity to see the breathtaking scenery of the Grand Canyon today.

Everyone who had booked the helicopter tour left Williams an hour early to get to the Grand Canyon Airport. I've never been on a helicopter ride before, so I was very excited to begin with. But honestly, I could've never imagined how amazing it was going to be.
Our group was divided into two smaller ones (I boarded the helicopter with "my mates" Axel, Heike, Martin and Tine!) and after a short safety instruction a shuttle bus picked us up and took us to another terminal. There our black chopper (Martin named it the "Black Pearl") awaited us. We got on the helicopter, put our headphones on (Music was played and the pilot could talk to us. Later, when we flew above the canyon, a narrator would comment on the landscape we saw.)

and our adventure began: To get to the South Rim we flew over the Kaibab National Forest, which was impressive enough on its own. But then as we got closer to the rim, the music changed to "Chariots of Fire"... We entered the canyon and immediately tears started rolling down our faces. We just couldn't help it, it was just such a magnificent sight and we were overwhelmed by our emotions. (The next song, "Adiemus", didn't help at all in calming down.) I'll never forget that special feeling and the pure joy I felt up there.

We landed 20 min later and were brought back to the main building. There we learned that Titi, Cipi's father, was so moved, he couldn't stop crying even back on the ground. He's such a sweet guy! At the age of 62 years, it's his first time ever on a motorcycle (he's riding on an Electra Glide together with his son), he's in the States and now he's been flying over one of the 7 Natural World Wonders... It was just too much for him. :'-)

Thomas then led us into the Grand Canyon N.P., gave each of us a map of the park and told us to meet again in 3 hours at the Desert View Watchtower. Whatever we did in the park was completely up to us, which was really cool. My mates and I didn't want to separate and decided to drive to the different viewing areas together. And what a great idea that was! We got some awesome pictures of the Grand Canyon and ourselves and had a lot of fun exploring the park at our own pace. Heike even saw a huge stag in the woods, while we drove through the park!

Leaving the Grand Canyon was one of the hardest things to do. I'm so in love with the scenery, I wish I could've stayed there for a few days, hiking the different trails... I'm still in awe of all I've seen and I love being here so much...

Nevertheless, we needed to drive to our next destination, Cameron. The hotel here is magnificent! I'm sitting in a beautifully decorated Native American styled room and just had a very delicious traditional Navajo Taco to eat. The restaurant was just part of a much bigger facility, that has been turned into a gift shop, where traditional Native American products, from sandpaintings to jewellery, are sold. I'm in paradise!

Now this day is ending and I know that I don't have much time to process all that I've seen today. Speaking of time: tomorrow morning might be a disaster, because we're in a different time zone and I'm not sure everybody got that. So we might have to wait a bit before leaving for Horseshoe Bend. At least my mates and I had lots and lots of fun with Birgit and Thomas, debating over the current time, breakfast times and of course, the departure time... ;-)