Travels in a Tin Can

be having driven for a day and spending $80 a night on a room? In the mid
afternoon we wrapped up warm and drove to the nearest visitor centre.
Thinking we were headed to the information centre and planning to pick up
some maps, get advice, etc., we walked through a thin stand of trees,
following the crowd. Unfortunately we went the wrong way, and all we found
was a ‘big hole in the ground’. This is how a recent Burger King advert chose
to describe the Canyon.... and it is so true.
The land drops away very steeply, and very far, and the 'hole' stretches
away for miles. The only thing wrong with the fast food commercial? The actor
should say BIGGGGGGGG - not just big. The weather was cold, almost cold
enough to snow, but the sky was clear and lit up the canyon beautifully. The
sunlight also made the rocks seem soft, which I'm sure they are not, and I
imagine that in other conditions the colourful 'hole' would appear more rugged
and foreboding. As it was, we were considering taking a stroll part of the way
down to the canyon floor, as friends of ours had earlier in the year. With this in
mind we headed - the right way - to the visitor centre.
Outside the building we found huge panels describing various aspects
of the park - including the trails available. These trails are graded according to
how hard the hikes are - and use 'number of sandwiches required' as a key.
We quickly discovered that the easiest walk was declared ‘hard’ (four
sandwiches) and most were ‘hard/strenuous’ - needing a whole loaf of
sandwiches, probably doorstop ones, and not poncy panninis. The information
also said that we would need crampons at this time of year. In the other
national parks that we had visited we had usually tackled easy or moderate
trails...we really had no hope here.