Grand Canyon Helicopter Tour Report

I was lucky enough to visit the grand canyon a few years ago while on a trek America holiday. this is a type of adventure/walking holiday which i’ll write a review about at some point! We camped at the canyon for a few days allowing us to fully explore it. It is an amazing site and is really breathtaking. You don’t realize how large it is and how far it stretches until you take a grand canyon helicopter tour.

i flew over the canyon in a small propeller plane from the nearby airport (if you could call it that!). the plane held about 24 people and was rather narrow - 3 people wide! i can’t recommend this highly enough as it gives you a completely different perspective of the canyon and allows you to escape the crowds of tourists down below. from the air you can see how different each side of the canyon is.

the tourist side is barren and dusty whereas the far side is lush and green and looks very peaceful in comparison! from the air you could see how the sun affects the colors in the rocks which look magnificent against the dazzling blue of the colorado river. to truly appreciate the canyon in all its glory visit it at different times such as sunrise and sunset. my photographs taken from the plane turned out great!

i also went trekking in the canyon and i must stress this is something not to be taken lightly due to heat, humidity and exhaustion.

We left the top of the canyon at 6am and started down to our target which was a lookout called angels landing. there are plenty of signs warning you of the dangers of trekking in the canyon - “you do so at your own risk” in big letters!

On the way down there are plenty of rest stops which provide shade, water (an absolute essential) and toilets. they are well maintained and some are manned so in case of an emergency help can arrive quite quickly. even though we started vey early in the morning the heat soon became quite incredible and by the time we reached our target it must have been about 90C. The thing that you forget is that you have to walk uphill on the way back which is very disorientating and rather different from the Scottish highlands where I normally hike.

The lookout point was amazing as you were standing in the middle of the canyon half way down to the blue Colorado river. It was an amazing feeling to be standing inside and made you appreciate how deep and wide the canyon actually is. The trek back up to the top was absolutely horrendous but I made it and I enjoyed every minute of it.

I would highly recommend trekking if you are fit and experienced. Failing that there are donkey rides (!) you can take into the canyon. We passed some of these on our way back up. It was very odd to see women with perfect hair and makeup on these donkeys as we sweated and puffed our way past!

The facilities at the Canyon are excellent with lots of shops, restaurants and look out points. One very important thing about the look out points were the lack of barriers to stop you falling over the steep edge. Be very careful if you go there with young children - don’t let them wander away from you!
There were also buses (which I think were electric as they were so quiet) which you can jump on and off as they take you round the various view points. You can get a newspaper from the tourist office which lists all the activities that are on that day and a map of the park.

My main memory from the Canyon will be sitting on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Canyon eating takeaway pizza and drinking beer watching the sunset. An absolutely amazing sight.