The Mojave Desert

November 10, The Grand Canyon

The passengers have just gotten off the mini van that took us to the Grand Canyon and we are standing there looking. As I stand there holding taightly to the railing, I look down, down through the layers of white, grey, pink, purple rocks, I feel slightly dizzy, but that must be because we are at 7000 feet above sea level. It could although well be because I was born in a deep valley surrounded by high mountains: I get a feeling of upside down mountains and for a split of a second I don't know if I like it. Then I start to walk. We are on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon with a great view of the North Rim; with a bit of immagination I can see the river down below snaking through the canyon. It's a breathtaking view and te colours are fantastic, but as I walk I realize that my dream to hike the Grand Canyon one day has just evaporated! I am so dizzy that I feel I have just lost all desire to walk down this upside down mountain! At the visitor centre, I look through the telescope with a sign:" Is there a river down below?" What looked like a path at the very bottom of the canyon turns out to be the raging Colorado river. Neat! Near the telescope a man with a park uniform and a beard down to his chest is telling people how he likes to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon at night, and only at night. It's especially beautiful when the moon shines. He tells people that he hiked it just once during the day; it was so hot that he almost killed his family! Another reason not to want to hike the Grand Canyon, ever!

The leisurly walk takes about 2 hours and it's back on the van for our long trip back. Travelling with me are a young Japanese couple, an elderly couple from New England visiting Vegas because it's cheap and not because of the casinos and another couple from Buffalo. On the way to the canyon our driver-guide gave us information on the many places we drove through. First there was the Eastern Mojave Desert, a picture stop at the Hoover Dam where a new highway is being built to allow heavy traffic through the region. Works on an impressive high bridge above the canyon were in full swing, and when I said that it was beautiful the driver said: "Yeah Silvia, this will be the next bridge for you to bike on". I was glad to encounter my first Joshua trees, "arms" stretched to the sky like in a prayer; pinyin pines followed by ponderosa pines, Utah junipers and banana yucca. All strange but very beautiful trees and plants. At Kingman we stopped to look at an old steam locomotive that used to run between Kingman and Santa Fe. The young Japanese lady seamed more intrigued by the fact that the pecans fom a near pecan tree were edible, and I showed her how to crack them with a rock. It would have been a great trip if it had not been for the lack of silence. 5 movies were showed during the trip: 2 had to do with our trip, one was about the construction of the famous Hoover Dam, the other about the canyon , but then there were 3 silly movies and not a moment of silence. Pity. One passenger had expressed the desire to see the stars in the desert, but there were no stops once the night set in. I couldn't help but smile: at least from the Greyhound bus the night before I had seen the stars over the desert.