Oh you know, just a Caesars Employee Appreciation Party with my Bestie / Coworker #caesars #bestfriend #workparty #chateaunightclub #chateau #lasvegas #vegas #idontdrink #gimmewater (at Chateau Nightclub, Las Vegas)

The Grand Canyon was one of the major reason's i signed up for the tour. I'm an outdoors person, having travelled to Nepal as a kid i think it was ingrained in me that nature is just a lot cooler than cities and the like. It didn't dissapoint. As the bus pulled up and we began to wander through the trees towards to viewing area you could sense the buzz of the place. First setting sight on the Grand Canyon is surreal, theres no other word for it. I just stood there for a while by myself taking it in, in a sad kind of way it doesn't look real. It's simply too vast, to big to take in with one glance, it's grand. It was a special thing to witness and i'll remember it for ever. We were lucky enough to have a whole day to recover and made it a night to remember (for good and bad, sorry Mads) which included a game of kings (accusations of cheating yet to be confirmed), dave just laughing for a solid 15 minutes straight, luke and jarrad sharing rediculously self-depreciating stories which only made us love them even more and two cans of four-loko. Whilst many optioned for the heli rides over the canyon (for which i still regret but i optioned out of due to my wallet) i was determined to see the canyon properly in my own way. We we warned by our guide and the brochures not to attempt to walk the canyon bottom in a day, but there was a walk that i wanted to do. You can see it's end point in the third photo above where the track winds out to a precipice which overlooks the river below. Despite setting an alarm for 4am (hahaha idiot) and being hungover i left for my walk at around 9am. Hiking in the grand canyon is not dangerous because of falls or wildlife, it's the heat. At the time of year we were there it regular gets to upper 40's and even low 50's celcius. People often leave for walks without much water, food or experience and don't come back. I think i had about 7-8 750ml bottles of water with me, when i came out they were all empty. The bottom of the canyon had recorded a temp of 48 celcius that day. Walking down the path at 9am it was already warm, i took it pretty quick and even ran a few parts, the decent alone took about an hour (on the way back i tracked the acent with my phone, it's about a kilometre drop in elevation.) It's a well used track, whilst the corners are precarious it's quite safe Walking the bottom was pretty tiring, it was brutally hot by now, there was no breeze so it basically felt like sitting infront of an oven on full blast. hangover+48c+bottom of grand canyon (repping uc) From the bottom it was possible to get a true sense of the scale of the canyon, it seemed to stretch for ever and looking up at the walls just made you feel insignificant. It's a funny feeling being put in your place by nature. The Bright Angel track which i walked winds through a small campground by a stream at the bottom, there was a few other walkers around but most were headed back up by now which left me feeling a bit dubious. Walking the flat sandy bottom was a contrast to the track down, covered in low shrubs and thistles it was a really different landscape to the forests and grassy meadows at the top. The parts of Arizona surrounding the grand canyon are quite cool throughout the year because they are at such a high elevation. The precipice the track leads out too had some spectacular views of the river and the canyon, just as i arrived there was a huge vulture circling on the currents pushed up from the canyon's floor. It was a cool sort of gift i guess after walking that far, a little cherry on top i guess. I really wanted to get down to the river and even gave it a shot on the way back i left my bag and camera's and ran down the track with a water bottle for probably about 4k but it was still a long way off and i started to get some blisters so i backed out. In the third shot below you can see the criss crossing trail, i made it around there. (nick wilson dreamjob below, taking plant samples or something #vintagewilderness) (still the best socks, shout out Uni of Canberra Unigames 2011) Walking out sucked, pure and simple, it was pretty cathartic. It was hard, very hot and i didn't have much food so i was sucking on some packets of honey i took from breakfast. I was really glad and filled with a huge sense of happiness of where i was though. It was hard to believe, but it felt like a culmination of all the work and effort i put into organising the trip, getting a visa and everyhing associated with that was worth it for this one day. I ran into Mic and Damon on the way out, god knows what they thought when they saw me, i was sweaty, dusty and tired but i was thankful to have the company on the way out, we were pretty close after that. dork Smashed some cold beers and we all got kitted up in our fluro gear to go and watch the sunset. America has some really good sunsets as you'll see later on. cabin life