The Great Canyons

Bryce Canyon: A long straight road, green fields on either side, mountains half obscured by mist bordering the fields on the far end, a light rain and Taylor Swift's sweet voice humming in your ear, just perfect!! And when the rain lashes against the windshield, the wiper cuts a neat semi circle and the tiny water droplets glide upwards because of the car's speed, making it look like someone was blow painting a setting sun on the glass. That's how the drive from Nevada to Utah was. Just beautiful! We passed a fair number of spots that made me get all excited, Summit 7777, Mount Carmel Junction, Scofield Avenue, etc etc. The Virgin River Gorge looked exceptionally beautiful in our scenic drive. After a few hour's drive we reached the toll booth to enter Bryce Canyon National Park. When we started our drive inside the national park it seemed quite cloudy. The first spot we went to was Sunset point. Oh well Sunrise point was also in the same spot but obviously in the opposite direction. That's how high and vast the Canyon is! We can see both the sun rising and setting from the same spot!! The canyon is like a whole lot a Indian temples made of red mud running in a line. Or like a HUGE fort. It's astonishing to see how deep the river must have been to have carved out such a magnificent piece of art! I wonder why the Bryce Canyon is not one of the wonders of the world. It certainly is one of a kind and totally deserves to be on that list! My mum amused herself and other tourists by finding face shaped sedimentary rocks. She found one that looked like Bart Simpson and a firangi guy was so happy that she showed him that. The weather was pleasant, but cold for our standards. My cousin had told me that California is warm and pleasant. I was so skeptical about it. The statement itself seemed to be a contradiction!! After seeing Bangalore's rising heat, I never imagined warm could be pleasant. I learnt that only after stepping into the car from the cold winds outside. "Ah! Warm and nice", I would say. Hehe. We went to the Bryce Point, from where we had the best view of the canyon, to Inspiration point, Natural Bridge, the Rainbow and Yovimpa points. The last two points were at a height of 9115ft! We had a picturesque view of most of the national park. Just as we finished the last point, it started pouring. So we ran to the car, with my aunt thanking God that it didn't rain when we were sightseeing. We drove to Panguitch, where our hotel was. It was maintained by an Indian guy so it didn't meet my standards. :P I watched a movie called "Me and My Prince" or something and I so badly wanted to correct whomever concerned that it should be "My Prince and me". When will they learn!!
Grand Canyon: "No language can fully define, no artist can ever paint the beauty, grandeur, immensity and sublimity of this wonderful piece of architecture by Nature's own architect. One must see the Grand Canyon to appreciate it". It has been rightly put by reporters in the 60s that just writing about the Grand Canyon will do no justice to it. So I won't write about it. :P Ok too bad I'm kidding! The Grand Canyon, Arizona, is a gorge created by the Colorado River. We can see the river from above, but it looks like a tiny little stream. It's actually a mile deep and a great deal of people have lost their lives in the restless rapids of the river. If one is lucky enough, he can hear the river roaring from a mile away. There are many trails for hiking too. So if one is all set to trek, it should be the ideal place. But we read of incidents where people lost their lives hiking at the canyon because they carried insufficient water n all that. It said about 250 people are rescued in a year when they get lost hiking. I love reading about such adventurous people and how they died. There is a watch tower at the entrance that was designed such that one could see the entire Canyon from there. That's quite a task. The Grand Canyon was once occupied by the Native American Indians. So they had Indian art all over the inner walls of the tower and a guy was playing the Indian flute. It was enchanting! We saw the remains of the Indians' village which was nothing remarkable really. Was just a few rocks arranged neatly. I saw five chameleons there! :D We saw the Canyon from all possible angles from different spots, that could be accessed easily with the help of a car. The National Park is gigantic! I think it's almost impossible to walk around all the points. We first went to the Desert Point, from where we could clearly see the Mojave Desert. Then we went on to see Navajo Point, Moran(moron) point, Grandview Point, Yaki(yucky) point, Mather Point and Yavapai point. (The words in the bracket mean no offence. I just like calling those points that.) Each of these points gave is new and different versions of the canyon. It's surprising how things can look so different just from quarter a mile away. It was delightful to watch the changing play of light and shadows. There was this place called Hermit's Rest which was accessible only through a shuttle. So we hopped into a shuttle, made some Indian friends. They had a baby which was a year old. It kept wailing till we reached Hermit's Rest! So annoying! The Hermit's Rest was a tiny cave, which they have modernised now. They're turned it into a store I think. After a nice mug of hot chocolate, (the weather was still very cold!!) we made it back to the car park. We exited the park and went to an Imax theatre. To everyone who goes there, the Grand Canyon movie is a must watch. The movie was so impressive! They have shot the Canyon so well. I loved the way they showed the wildlife at the National Park. All hail the movie makers!
I saw llamas and elks; I only half believed these animals existed because I had seen them only in animated movies. We had a nice time in the car. I learnt a lot about what happened in Ramayana from my mum, aunt and uncle. Listened to them talk about the silly things they did when they were young. I kept (still keep) my eyes open for characters from Prison Break. :P This trip totally inspired me to be a travel journalist! So yeah.. It was a great road trip! In my opinion, Bryce Canyon is better than Grand Canyon. Then again, it all depends on perspective!