Memories memories

As I begin my journey on the shuttle to Phoenix to join my mum and sister in New York, this is the first opportunity where I do not have a list of university commitments to fulfil and I have spare time...

It may be a few months too late, but I'd like to begin with the end of September, when my UoL friends, Grace and Zeinab, joined me in Tucson for ten days. As keen geologists, it would be impossible for these ladies to be in AZ and not visit the one and only Grand Canyon. 

We thought we’re only going to do this once, let's go all out and book a Mustang! It sounded perfect at the time, but for three leggy people, it wasn't as enjoyable as hoped. The scenery on the five hour journey was fantastic and it was incredible to notice how it changed with altitude as we climbed to 8000ft at times. 

Having packed light due to the camping gear taking up the majority of the boot space, we arrived in Tusayan and set up camp before sunset, eagerly awaiting the once in a lifetime opportunity that we knew would follow the consecutive day. 

Walking boots strapped tight, and rucksacks heavy in weight from water, we began our ascent to Grand Canyon Village at the South Rim. The four of us peering over the rails in utter silence; in awe. This was it. That perfect picture postcard was right in front of me, soon to be in touching distance. Having gotten up bright and early, hoping to make the most of our adventurous weekend, we began our descent down the Bright Angel Trail at 8am. Our faces beaming in delight at the textbook perfect cross-bedding, in reach of our hands, my hands. 

It's incredibly hard to put such feature into perspective. Knowing the real thing is just metres away from you, yet still looking and feeling like your viewing photos on the Internet. One thing for sure, photos do not do it justice.

With smiles on our descent, they soon turned into sweat and sighs on our climb back up. It felt never ending, but determined as we were, we made it back to the top before the sun beamed onto the face of the rocks. It baffled me as to why people were still descending knowing fully well they would be returning during the blazing heat of the Arizona sun.

One of my most fondest memories of that day was watching the sun set over the canyon, watching the shadows form and engulf that picture perfect postcard. It was then that we knew, it was time to head back to camp, start the fire and begin the evening with s’mores.

On our way home from our camping weekend, we stopped off at Barringers Meteor Crater, because we could. Such eager beavers would never say no. As the surrounding topography of the impact crater was flat nature, it was easy to spot what appeared to be a hill in the distance.

This was something I thought I'd only witness in a textbook or on the Internet. How very wrong I was. 

I think the weekend in general was breathtaking. I still look back on this with such vivid memories as if it only happened yesterday. I've since gotten my selfie with the Grand Canyon printed onto a mug as a birthday present to myself. This experience I hope will stay with me forever, and I can't wait for many more to come.