Day 1

But for Dave waking me up around 5:20 am, I would have to be satisfied by watching canyons in my dream or probably on TV! We started around 5:35 am and I was the first one to check-in. It was good to see an operational coffee/snacks shop (a satellite center of Shipping Shop). NWA agents were requesting people to stay back (over-weight problem) – I was tempted to accept the offer but since I had so many things to do in my short vacation, I declined it. Eventually, two people didn’t show up and I wasn’t at loss! I met Dr. Pushpa Murthy and Sonali, spent quite some time talking to them, both in Houghton and in Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport, on varied topics; The journey started off on-time and while on board NW2790, I met someone who specializes in IT part of Avionics. Our flight attendant turned out to be very social and given a chance, I would love to be on a flight with her again. Flight reached MSP on time too. Not having taken time difference into account, I did get a mild shock when I thought it was just two minutes to the second part of the journey. My next flight started off on time too and my co-traveler was a travel agent from Bloomington, MN. She did give me useful, insider’s, information about ‘flight cancellations. I reached Phoenix a few minutes ahead of schedule, around 10.50 am MT. My luggage too reached Phoenix by the same flight and journey to the wild (or the Wild Journey) started off in a nice car, Nissan Sentra Compact, about 45 minutes later. Owing to a hard-learned (and strictly being followed) No Panic Policy, I did not miss exits – though there were too few to miss anyway.

Journey from Sedona to Flagstaff, on AZ89-A, was another segment of my drive that’s beyond my capacity to explain. Curly, snakish roads, climbing up at least couple thousand feet was great but I just wish I was in a better state of mind to enjoy the drive. Beyond Flagstaff, continuing my journey on I-40 West and AZ-64/AZ-180, I could not help but wonder as to where exactly was the canyon – all that I got to see is plain land for miles and one small hillock hinting that I was on the right road. Probably due to headache or over-anxiousness to see the canyon, I had forgotten the fact that Flagstaff itself was at 6000+ feet above the sea level and more importantly, I was driving on an almost flat but wide mesa. I reached Grand Canyon by about 6 pm or so and just a glimpse of the canyon from the road gave me, as it probably does to most, a sense of accomplishment. I had some difficulty, first finding a place to park my car and then in searching for my room. All that I had in me was enough to take some more pictures of the sunset, talk to few people, get something to eat (Banana and Yogurt), and I forced myself to sleep, just to avoid aggregating my already cracking headache.

Day 2

I got up, as planned, pretty early and made it right in time for the Sunrise in South Rim. It wasn’t spectacular or anything like that, but the change in shades of various colors was nevertheless enjoyable. Needless to mention that I took quite a few pictures and soon, around 6.30 am MT, started my journey to the Meteorite Crater Center. I am glad that I stopped in Valle for gas and the lady at the counter gave me easier-to-follow directions (than Yahoo! Maps had done). Road condition was so good and the traffic was so thin on I-40 East that I went past 100 mph mark again – this time to check the repeatability of my first attempt. Meteorite Crater Center is literally in the midst of nowhere – about 6 miles South of the highway and with absolutely no clue about its presence.

I thought an entry fee of $12 was quite cheap, given that they also offered an hour long guided rim tour or interested tourists, at no extra cost. I went up to the View Point, took some pictures, met a Physics grad who worked on some cool thing for her thesis and went on the guided tour. Bob Kruse, my tour guide, aged 65+, was in my opinion, extremely energetic and very clear in his explanation of the facts about the crater, and its history. As usual, I took several pictures and I did something that I had never done before : I talked to Bob about having a group picture and everybody agreed. The picture was taken from the first, now extinct, museum on the rim of the crater. Many thought I was some journalist for a magazine!. After taking down everyone’s email address and eating at the SubWay, I started my return journey to the Grand Canyon. Just for sheer pleasure of it, I went past 100 mph once more on I-40 West. While driving along, I noticed a cargo train, traveling on a track parallel to I-40 East. Since trains aren’t very common in Houghton area, I decided to get a picture of it. I had to drive at 100+ again to go past that train. Incidentally, I had driven so fast that I had to wait a few minutes before the train appeared!

On AZ-64/AZ-180, I visited Kaibab lake and out of some weird curiosity, I stopped in the Grand Canyon Airport (in Tusayan) just to take some pictures of low flying aircrafts/helicopters. Little did I know that the helicopter ride over the canyon cost so less. There seemed no way I could pass this and signed up for the 3.15 pm MT ride. My co-passengers were a family from Bolivia, I have no words to explain what I saw in my second wild thing – probably the simplest way would be to write WOW and repeat it a 100 million times or write out all the exclamatory superlatives : it still wouldn’t be a good enough expression of one’s feelings. The ride lasted about 40 minutes. Only time I got scared to death was during a near 270 degree turn coming into the Canyon from the North side. Needless to mention that I took some of my best pictures. After taking a copy of the group picture, signed by Tim (Guiding Pilot) and my fellow passengers, I headed back into the Canyon.

I stopped in Mather Point, near the entrance, which offers spectacular views of the canyon, in all directions. My camera seems to be attracting lot of attention and I have no doubt in my mind about the quality of pictures/service it has been giving me ever since I bought it. One more joined my camera’s fan club and she gave me her email address, so that I could mail her the details of the camera, accessories and link to the site from where I bought.

I got into this restaurant, attached to the Bright Angel Lodge, and had some very tasty food. Trailed Chilli or something like that was its name – it tasted too good, and was filling too. Wish I knew about it yesterday, for it would have helped me reduce my headache. I desperately wanted to cancel the Soft Water Rafting and go hiking down the Bright Angel Trail to the Plateau Point instead. But the lady at the counter (Kathleen Tiedge) refused to cancel, citing a 48 hour notice restriction. I started staring at the night sky in disappointment : but as is almost everything here, it was just amazing – with stars and other objects visible all around, right to the eye-level.

Day 3

I got up around 5 am, took everything I wanted to and walked over to the Maswik Lodge. My journey, kind of a package tour, started off in a reluctant mood/mode, but all traces of reluctancy vanished pretty soon, with Rick (Guiding Driver) lightening up everybody and the view from the Desert View. Soon after, I went up to Rick and sat next to him for most of the remaining journey – taking some very good pictures (in Sports Mode) and enjoying the sight all the way. One must not forget to visit this beautiful place called Page, which I was later told that has the famous Horseshoe Bend in Colorado River, as a part of Glen Canyon. We reached Lake Powell by about 10 am and after the usual security check and drive through a two mile long tunnel, we arrived at the starting point for the soft water rafting. It was nice of the organizers to arrange individual group photo session and I got into Paul’ s raft. The dam itself in an engineering beauty, given the type of rock formation found in this area.

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as our tour guide, Paul, was an extremely learned person having worked as a Park Ranger for nearly a decade. His explanations seemed very logical and language was very clear. He stopped at the best possible places for us to enjoy the water and the breathtaking beauty of the Glen Canyon. The first stop, Acclimatization Beach as Paul called it, was the first time we, the people on boat, started interacting and following the Price family, I took a dip in the freezing waters of Colorado (first of the wild things I did today). It sure felt so good/thrilling and I was so eager to plunge in, that I forgot to keep my wallet aside. Journey continued, with raft speed varying according to the places of interest and stopped at a place that had Step Trail and some petroglyphs, some as old as few thousands of years. There was dramatic, 30 F, difference in temperature from the on the river to just 15 feet above!

After having traveled for about 90 minutes or so, we stopped for food, and there was something for me too. I jumped into the waters, though it was very close to the deepest point of Colorado, had some food, then swam for couple minutes, talked to some more fellow travelers. I was very surprised to learn that some one had actually come to UP for their last year’s vacation! During the reminder of the journey, we passed through the famous Horseshoe Bend, a 270 degree turn, and stopped for one last time in the transition zone – transition between Glen Canyon System and Grand Canyon System and transition being apparent even to the naivest of eyes. I had to do quite a bit of circus to find a suitable place to set my camera up for a group picture, and it did come out pretty nice. Paul did another short stop at Mile Zero on Colorado before ending the tour at Lee’s Ferry. It is about a quarter mile from here that White Water Rafting starts and a tiny tributary that joins Colorado, changing its color from pristine bluish green muddy brownish.

The return journey was good too. From Cameron till we reached Maswik Lodge, I talked to a family from New York area : topics varied from general Science, Physics, Astronomy, Solar System, Network Security, Patience, Family Affairs, Infosys, Narayana Murthy, mothers loosing a part of their brain while upbringing their kids, and so on. Like a cute little girl (aged about 3 I guess) said it, everyone on the bus had started to feel like being a part of an extended family. At the end of the day, I was just glad that I did not cancel this trip; and was left thanking my stars and counting my blessings.

Return Journey

As planned, I got up around 2.30am and started towards the big city, with a hope of reaching Phoenix before it woke up for work : after a non-stop 4+ hour journey (didn’t even stop for gas) and missing only one last exit (which did not make any difference whatsoever to my trip), I was well within the city before 6.30am and in PHX by 7am! I tried my best to get bumped off, both in Phoenix and in Minneapolis, but both lights were under-booked. When I checked my NWA WorldPerks accounts after reaching Houghton, I realized that I already have 25,000 miles! One thing that I could remember was a statement from one of the plays I had done, about 12 years ago – Nature can only fulfil a man’s need, but not his greed.