The magnificent open skies and landscapes of the American West

It all started when my company first invited me to our annual tradeshow convention in Las Vegas. I had not been in the US for many years and was looking forward to a big change of scenery, and what better scenery to explore than the Grand Canyon.

I decided to book myself on some guided tours right after the show: this would include a helicopter ride from the Grand Canyon West Airport, which would bring us down to the river itself for a boat ride. After that, a bus would take us North to the Grand Canyon West scenic top and finish at Guano Point, before returning to Las Vegas, with a detour at the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead.

I had just purchased my first SONY DSLR (Alpha SLT-33) camera and zoom lens (16-105mm) the Christmas before and was looking forward to putting them to good use! 

As with all my overseas day-long trips, I booked everything through Viator: a simple, one-click process that got me all set. The tour bus then picked me up from my hotel in the early hours of a deep blue sky morning. The ride to our first stop at the heliport was a few hours away, and this was a good thing; the bus was very comfortable and, of course, air conditioned. And barely a few kilometers out of Las Vegas (Nevada), the concrete and oasis quickly gave way to the arid and desertic landscape of the Arizona plains.

This was all new to me: the deep, earthy colours under the intense blue sky, the immensity of the panoramas unfolding all around me, and with each kilometer passing quickly, the excitement grew exponentially! 

We finally arrived at the heliport, and our group wasted no time exiting the bus and following the guide's instructions to be triaged into smaller groups for the helicopter ride. With my surname's first letter being almost the first selected was always a bonus, and before I knew it, I was strapped in and in the air before I could realize it.

All this while I had been feasting my eyes on the plains and faraway mountains, but as we approached the great chasm, I realized nothing could have prepared me for the sight in front of me. The West Rim of the Grand Canyon first appeared to me as a great cut in the Earth, as if a colossus had taken a ragged-edged knife, or short rusty see-saw, and worked its way through the hardened desert crust. And we all let a short and surprised gasp when the helicopter banked and started descending towards the bottom, and the landing platform near the river! 

This was quite a ride, with the sheer walls of the Canyon enveloping us and making the helicopter look and feel very small and fragile. But our expert pilot delivered us safely, and again we quickly followed our guide's instructions, exiting carefully, going down a ramp, and before we knew it, we were boarding our small boat and starting our river tour while listening to some facts and stories about the mighty Colorado River. This was pleasure cruising, of course, here: no white waters, no rafting, no rapids to navigate.

The sun was now much higher in the sky, and the heat was definitely on, despite the cool breeze when our boat was moving. But when we stopped to admire a specific feature or tale from the guide, we could feel the heat wave suddenly enveloping our bodies: good thing we had plenty to drink and had applied some sunblock!

Our boat ride ended after about 40 minutes, and we slowly returned to the small pier where we would make the short climb to the helipad, where our helicopter was already waiting for us. And up we went, again admiring the amazing view of the Grand Canyon as we climbed out and up, still marveling at the rocky walls and outcrops on both sides of our windows. And before we knew it, we were once again flying over the flat terrain and back to the heliport, where our bus would take us to our next stop. 

After a short drive, our bus delivered us to Guano Point, part of the Hualapai Reservation (not affiliated with the Grand Canyon National Park), which offers some amazing 360-degree panoramic scenes and access to many rocks and locations where one can get close to the edge!

Guano Point, of course, refers to the exploitation of the precious substance (mostly used in fertilizer and even makeup…) in a nearby cave discovered in the early 1930s. But it became exhausted much sooner than anticipated, and operations stopped by 1959. All you can see nowadays are the remnants of the tramway cable system. 

We stayed a little bit more around Guano Point, exploring different areas and of course panoramas, as lunch passed, and the early afternoon suddenly became a little bit too hot to brave the sun… it was around that time our guide signaled for us to rejoin the bus, and the long drive back to Las Vegas, which we would reach just as the sun set.

This had only been a day-long journey to a very small section of the Grand Canyon, but I was hooked. I wanted to explore more, but this would have to wait another year…