Day 3, Sunday, December 14 Grand Canyon!!!

The Six Arrow's first sight of the Grand Canyon, one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

We decided to hike a little way down into it, even though there were only about four more hours of daylight. (Can you find the boys way back on the trail in the background in the picture below?)

It tends to take about twice as long to come out of the canyon as it does to hike into it. We started on the Kaibab trail and walked about 3/4 of a mile down to this place called "Oo Ah Point."

For a while, we walked on a steep switch-back trail down the side of the canyon wall. The trail starts in a smaller tributary portion of the canyon...

But you keep getting glimpses like this once in a while as you come around an out-cropping of rock...

You can see the trail snaking along below us on the rocks in the foreground.

Then at Oo Ah Point, the whole canyon spreads out before you. The awe and rugged majestic beauty of it are staggering. We kept taking pictures, but somehow you could never capture the real essence of it unless you were there seeing it with your own eyes.

It was hard to get a picture of the magnitude, even when someone would point out a landmark and say, "That is five miles away." I think after a while we all begin to feel very insignificant and weak in the presence of such an incredible witness to the sheer power and beauty of God our Creator.