The grand Grand Canyon

Sree had driven to the Canyon thrice already, once everytime in his US trip. He always said to me that he would like to take me there atleast once; but the chances of our trip coinciding was rare. Thanks to the circumstances and our decision of taking a break, we are doing some great trips together.

After spending a day (more of night) at Vegas, we headed to Grand Canyon. The first sight of the Canyon gives goosebumps. An amazing natural wonder of deep ravine carved by the Colorado river; the views are breathtaking. The river has cut through the channels layer by layer on the rocks, leaving patterns so overwhelming. A trek on the rim gives wonderful vistas.



We took the famous hike trail, Bright Angel trail in the South rim for around 2-3 miles one way.
Even though we spent only a day at the Canyon, it was awesome to sit and watch it; specially during the evening watching the sunlight shift from layer to layer before it set.

They say the great experience would be to hike down, camp in the canyon at the river level and then hike back up. Visiting the Canyon from all the directions would be another awesome experience. After this short visit to the Canyon and the short trek, we now await for an opportunity to experience the camping.

Banff

Its close to 850kms from Vancouver. Well, we could drive. It would take may be more than 10 hours, with a few refreshment stops. With kids it might be tough to have them tied down for that long at a stretch. Breaking it down to a one-stop journey seemed a good option. In that case we could start a day early, drive half the way, rest and continue from there the next morning.

That's how we decided we would stay in Salmon Arm and then continue to Banff the next day. The drive was aesthetically scenic and beautiful. It's called the Avalanche Country 'cos you see avalanches everywhere and driving through those snow filled rocky mountains was amazing.



Almost all the lakes that we passed were frozen. It was very sightly to see each one of them. In few the ice had started to melt, on few we could see layers of ice floating and creeks had thick side layers of ice & streams flowing in between.



They say that we should visit Banff once in winter and once in summer. The winter visit was a great go, I'm eagerly waiting for the summer visit.