Hanging with Dawn and her Korean Chorus

OK.  I think its official.  We are now 100% certifiably crazy with no hope of redemption.   For the third time in six days,  we decided to make the most of the day and set our alarm for 4.30am (4.30AM, I TELL YOU!!!)  to get up and watch the sun rise over Grand Canyon.  We'd sort of missed the sun set the night before - not quite sure how, but it just snuck up (or down, I guess) on us until we realized that it had already dipped below the horizon while we were occupied elsewhere (I think we were looking at the condors).  We rationalized it beautifully, however, with plenty of comments about how cloudy it was and that we wouldn't have been able to see anything anyway, so we weren't desperately upset.

Cue Dawn Chorus.
(um...who??)

Anyway, pre-dawn shuffles in and its time to rectify the omission, so alarm goes off and we are up, dressed and out of the door within 15 minutes.  Given the abundance of wildlife the night before and the sighting of bears by one of the folk we got chatting to last night, we kept our eyes peeled as we walked the short distance from our room to the car but, alas, nothing of note.  I think it was even too early for the wildlife!

The infamously perky Nipple Rock, off in the far distance

We were going to watch the sunrise from a scenic vista called Yavapai Point - handily located less than a ten minute drive from Yavapai Lodge (funnily enough).  Sunrise was scheduled for about 5.15am, so we arrived just before 5am, to make sure we were in place for the big event.  Unlike Brian Head Peak, this time there were already several other hardy folk there, sitting on the big rounded log benches, gazing out across the hazy dim canyon, waiting for the sun to break across the horizon.  It wasn't as peaceful as before, but it was OK - most folk were waiting quietly, shuffling their feet occasionally to try and keep warm against the chilly morning breeze.

And then an entire horde of Koreans descended.

Lori, reggae and a reluctant sun finally
peeking out from behind the clouds

Peace?  Out.  Quiet reflection?  Forget it.  It was like they were in Grand Canyon Sunrise Theme Park and they didn't even seem to have any awareness at all that they were being incredibly noisy.  There were about 20 of them, shouting and laughing and goofing around, and getting in the way of everyone else who'd been patiently standing or sitting, waiting to take pictures.   Its such a majestic place, its really hard not to get irritated with people who don't seem to treat it - or those around them - with respect.  Lori got so annoyed with them she resorted to putting her headphones in and chilling out to a personal soundtrack of cool reggae.  Alas, I didn't have that option, so tried my best to ignore them, but it was rather difficult as they were VERY annoying.  So, that spoiled the mood a little bit and, as 5.15am came and went, we were beginning to wonder whether we'd either got the time wrong or, perhaps more worryingly, that this could mark the first day in history that the sun didn't actually come up and that we were about to be plunged into darkness forever and an inevitable zombie apocalypse armageddon.

Go back to bed already, people.

Fortunately not.

It was clouds, not the presage of a undead invasion, that marred our view temporarily.  There's a lot of those fluffy buggers about.

After 10mins of hiding, we finally spotted the little fiery bundle of fun already at least three inches above the horizon (according to my iPhone), playing hide and seek behind a cloud.  Unfortunately, as you can see from the pictures, it was still very hazy so it wasn't the spectacular reveal of Canyon as far as the eye could see that we were hoping for.  Despite that, we managed to get one or two nice shots and, as we were staying overnight in the park, I think we'd have regretted not having gotten up early to go have a look.

Ahoy there, cap'n! Grand Canyon dead ahead!

View was great; people were rubbish.  They were, indeed, out of order..

My favorite picture of the day.  

After another ten minutes or so, we'd both had enough, so legged it back to the car to warm up and head back to the lodge.  We managed (somehow) to stay awake long enough to then head out to the El Tovar restaurant as soon as it opened for breakfast at 6.30am.  As I was checking into the lodge yesterday, I'd asked for food recommendations, so the front desk guy told me that breakfast at El Tovar was a must.  Unlike the fine dining dinner service, breakfast was first come, first serve and was very casual.   Just as well, given how...um...natural-looking Lori and I both were by this stage, after almost of week of no primping or make-up, lots of hiking in the sunshine and crazy baseball-hat hair.    Fortunately, all would be made right as soon as we hit Vegas but, til then, a relaxed dress code served us both well!  

Russian for Awesome Breakfasts

Oh yes.  Cinnamon roll as big as my head.
 No wonder I've got such a big smile on my face.

Oh my God.  Breakfast was DELICIOUS!  And, because we were there early enough, we managed to bag a coveted table by the window, so there we were, chowing down with a spectacular view of the Grand Canyon rim literally feet from the window.  I was VERY happy (as you can tell) by the special of the day - an enormous cinnamon roll thing that was sprinkled with oats and sugar, as well as drizzled with white icing.  The bun and I shared a special moment together - maybe my fate (foretold by Matrimonial Springs) was actually to marry a pastry.  At that moment, I really wouldn't have minded.  It was probably still less flaky than some of the guys I've had the "pleasure" of dating - come to think of it, it probably lasted longer than most of them too.  

Anyhoo, breakfast over and we were stuffed mcstuffed.  So, the only thing to do was to retreat back to bed, to calorie coma it off until it was time to check out at 11am for the final leg of our trip.  

Oh yeah - its time for VEGAS, BABY!!!

Cinnamon roll appetizer = winning

The main event.  Eggs benedict with smoked salmon on an
 english muffin.  Bloody delicious - and very filling!  

Basil, basil, basil!!

Mumsie, recognize this place?

Lori wishing upon a moose

NERD POSTSCRIPT

Ok, for all of you who've been looking at the pictures wondering "but Sarah, just how was the Grand Canyon formed?", this bit below is for you.  Its shamelessly copied and pasted from the NPS's website but its actually pretty interesting.  Kinda wish i'd checked out the Trail of Time.  Maybe next time...

The Grand Canyon Geology

The Grand Canyon features one of the world's most studied geologic histories anywhere, because it possesses the most complete sequence of rock that represents two billion years of Earth's geologic history in North America. There are 40 identified rock layers and 14 major unconformities that indicate where there are gaps in the geologic record. It is by far one of the most fascinating and easily accessible places for geologists to catalog the Earth's major events and delve into our planet's veiled past.

Grand Canyon Trail of Time

Trail of Time Receives National Recognition
 

How Was the Canyon Made?

Scientists cannot be completely sure how the canyon was created and there are still theories evolving, but they do have a very educated guess. Erosion is what most target as the main contributor to the creation of the Grand Canyon. This was caused mostly by water, ice and wind, however; continental drift, weather and climate changes, and even volcanoes were also contributing factors to the formation of the Grand Canyon. Most scientists agree that the largest component in the creation of the canyon was water and the path of the Colorado River. Water is one of the most powerful forces on Earth, with the ability to build and destroy.

The first contributor in granting water the ideal components to complete such a great feat as carving out the Grand Canyon was the Laramide orogeny, which also formed the Rocky Mountains. This event occurred 75 million years ago and caused an estimated 10,000 ft. (3,000 m.) of uplift, which granted the Colorado River a steeper slope to carve its way into the four plateaus that make up this area. A river alone with its steady ebb and flow could not carve out a canyon so massive without a little help from Mother Nature.

Flash Floods and the Arid Desert

Flash floods are one of the most destructive forces on our planet, with the power and force to move boulders, uproot trees, obliterate buildings, wash out roads, and destroy bridges. The floods also take many lives because of how suddenly they can occur. They move quickly with the ability to possess walls of water 10 - 20 ft. high and can carry debris in their front: it is easy to see how they can carve out rivers and canyons.

The reason flash floods occur in places like the Grand Canyon, is because of the desert climate. The Grand Canyon is situated in an arid desert that only receives an average of 26 inches (66 cm) of rain each year. Since the ground receives so little moisture, it bakes under the sun each day, which makes it difficult and almost impossible to absorb water easily. When the skies open up and rain pours down, the water falls at such a rate that the ground is not able to absorb it fast enough and this causes a flash flood. Since the water cannot be absorbed it goes wherever it can; moving fast downhill and picking up debris along the way.

Today's flash floods are powerful, but they are nothing compared to the floods that helped shape the canyon! When the Earth was young its climate, weather and geology was very unstable. From the little history we can find locked away in fossils, old and petrified trees, rocks, magma, soil and the ocean, scientists are able to document that the worst, largest, and most catastrophic natural occurring disasters were during the time when the Earth was young. Everything was more extreme; tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, storms, droughts and earthquakes. The climate and the Earth itself were exceptionally unstable.

Droughts lasted longer and so did storms, which made the effects of floods that much more devastating. In fact, amidst the many layers of rock that the canyon holds there are breaks and some gaps where time periods are missing or an uneven spread of sediment; this is called an unconformity. Throughout the 40 layers of rock there are 14 unconformities that have geologic history gaps as large as 165 - 250 million years and 12,000 feet of sediment washed away in some places. Scientists can only speculate about how large these natural disasters must have been to cause so much damage; one theory is that large floods either caused by storms or glacier melt. 

Geology

The canyon's major exposed sedimentary rock layers range in age from 200 million to two billion years old! The canyon's oldest layer is called the Vishnu Group; it is made of thousands of feet of sand, ash, mud and silt and is the dark-colored, garnet-studded layer at the bottom of the canyon in the Inner Gorge. This layer was created two billion years ago in the Precambrian time period when all land mass on earth was comprised of a few islands that plate tectonics caused to slam into each other and form the first few growing continents.

The canyon was formed only five to six million years ago and is much younger than the lowermost layers. In fact, most of the canyon walls are deposited marine sediment from when ocean covered the land. Each layer of rock responds differently to the erosion qualities of the Colorado River. Some rocks become cliffs and others form slopes or erode faster than different layers, this creates the variety of textures you will find at the Grand Canyon. The vivid hues that the canyon features originate because most of the rock layers contain iron and other mineral deposits.

The Grand Canyon Today

Today the canyon is one of the world's most amazing natural wonders, where people come from all over the world to marvel at its beauty and mystery. The Grand Canyon is 277 miles (446 km) long, between 4 - 18 miles (6.4 - 29 km) wide and over a mile deep (1.6 km), which makes it the largest canyon on land. Erosion is still occurring and will continue to do so, but at a much slower rate than in the past. This is mostly due to the Glen Canyon Dam. The dam is harnessing the hydroelectric power of the Colorado River, controlling how much water is put in the river and filtering out much of the sediments that erode before it hits the canyon.

The Grand Canyon National Park is a place of wonder and beginning, where learning about our geologic past is being used to ensure a better future.