the grand canyon...

...is indeed grand! probably the most impressive natural feature i've ever seen. we went to the south rim first - its pretty built up - lots of restaurants, hotels etc and you can take a bus between viewpoints. amazing views but a bit to busy for my liking. after that we headed to the north rim; only 10% of tourists go here. it was way better and we stayed at a campground literally right on the edge of the canyon. first day we took a scenic walk around the rim, and then yesterday we hiked for about 5 hours down and back up. probably hiked only a little over 4 miles but all of it is steep - 600-700 meter vertical distance i think (apologies for mixing of imperial and metric - i'm so confused now and they were the figures i could remember off-hand!)

zion and yosemite national parks next...