Day 15: Grand Canyon - helicopter flight

We all slept in until 6:45am which was total bliss – Steve and I were in bed at 8pm last night!  We had decided to take today at a leisurely pace, so Steve made pancakes to ease us into it.  Using self-raising flour really improved the pancakes from the crepes they were last time!

Today Rohan and I were recycling socks, so it was time to do some Laundry.  I had a nice chat to a woman from Massachusetts who was driving back there in less than 10 days.  She and her husband had already been on the road 10 days driving down to Washington DC and then across to San Diego before coming here.  They were planning on doing 300-450 miles a day for 20 days!  It seriously makes our road trip of 3000km in 14 days seem easy!

After the clothes were washed and in the dryer, we headed across the road to the National Geographic Visitors Centre to watch their Grand Canyon IMAX movie.  Unfortunately we missed a screening by 5 mins, so we had to wait another hour for the next one.  We looked around the gift shop and were disappointed that there weren’t more of the excellent National Geographic books that we had been seeing on our travels so far, so we didn’t buy anything.

Today was a buy lunch day and Julian was adamant that he didn’t want to go to the sandwich place which left us with McDonalds.  Again.  Anyway, enough was eaten to keep everyone happy.   We returned to the visitor centre for the movie.  Surprisingly this was the same movie that I saw at Gold Coast Dreamworld IMAX in 1987 and it didn’t look dated!  (The end credits said it was made in 1984). I had spoken to the helicopter people yesterday about this movie and how it had made me want to fly through the Grand Canyon in a helicopter!  Both Julian and Rohan LOVED it.  Julian especially enjoyed the animal parts showing an eagle, a couple of lizards and a tarantula like spider (amongst others).

We walked back to the camp, picked up the laundry and then proceeded to put Rohan down for a nap in his cot.  It is 2 weeks since he has had a daytime nap in it, so he was a little bit confused.  Thankfully he settled down quickly and was soundly asleep soon after.  Unfortunately we had to be at the helicopter place for 1:30pm, so we had to wake him after 40 mins.  All good though, no angry tantrums J

When we arrived at Grand Canyon Helicopters, a couple of other helicopters were taking off and another was landing.  Rohan looked excited.  We all got weighed and Steve and Julian ended up in the front and I was behind them next to the window – great spots.  Rohan sat on my lap and happily wore earmuffs the whole flight.  He also looked out the window, pointing out a couple of points of interest. I couldn’t see Julian, but Steve said that he didn’t blink or a say a word the whole time.  He was buzzing when we got off.

(Claire's photos)

The sky only had a few puffy white clouds in it.  Apparently the Colorado river is normally green but the rains had made it the cocoa colour that we were now used to seeing.  The North Rim was looking good and apparently it was open at the moment – we had been told the whole journey that it was closed and with no internet, we had to believe what we heard.  The pilot, Dale (a woman), said that this morning it 34F/2C and they quite often have snow now at the South Rim.  The North Rim is 2000ft higher, so it was surprisingly that there wasn’t snow there either.

(Steve's photos)

We didn’t see any wildlife or any rafters on the river, however it was an awesome experience.   The 45 minutes just sped by and before you knew it we were landing.

We came back to the camp, and after some playtime and more of The Witches, we headed to the Store for a short walk and some fresh air.  We found a stubbie holder with Julian’s name on it.  Steve wasn’t sure that it was appropriate for a 5 year old but I thought he could grow into it J

Back at camp, I cooked the last sauce mix from home (Masterfoods Honey Mustard Chicken) and added our last vegetables – a handful of carrots and a couple of heads of broccoli!  We have found the Basmati rice here the best anywhere in the world and it is Walmart home-brand!  We will miss it.  We skipped the shower again tonight and both boys were in bed asleep by 7:20pm.

The helicopter flight was an awesome experience and really our only big ticket item of the trip.  We had both wanted to do it for years, and thankfully the skies were our friend – no sign of rain today.  Even though we were a mile above the river, it didn’t look that far away.  I am now thinking of coming back and rafting it with the boys when they are older, as that looked exhilarating.  Julian’s face lit up when they boats in the movie were crashing through the rapids, so I am sure he will be keen.