Day 25. Grand Canyon. Monday 13th January

8am at the Grand Canyon and it's -13degrees! By the time we start our days activities at 9am it had warmed up to -5. Cold enough to freeze a bottle of water and a Coke Zero that had been left in the car overnight. Luckily we still have a bag full of snow clothes to wear if required. Our first stop was the Tusuyan Heliport. After a safety briefing video, that worried Chelsea a little bit, we boarded a  Ecostar helicopter for a 25 minute flight over the Grand Canyon. Luckily the 8 seater (including pilot) only had us on it. We had to sit where directed, based on weight, with Chelsea and Christine in the back seat with a window each, Andrew front right, next to him was Cam, then Jake, then the pilot on the front left. Jacob and Cameron were very excited to experience their first helicopter ride but Chelsea was a little concerned (terrified!) after the safety video spoke about  how to inflate the life jackets, where the first aid kit was and what the brace position was  The views were as expected - amazing! It is one very very big hole in the ground at 446 km long,  up to 29 kms wide (It was 10kms where we viewed it) and has a depth of over 1.8 kms. Much to Chelsea's relief we arrived back at the airport safe and sound. We purchased the obligatory memorabilia photo, got back in the car and headed to the Grand Canyon. Our first stop was the visitors centre on the rim. We got some hiking advice and watched a very informative movie about the Canyon, when it was discovered and how people have used it or developed it over time. We also learnt that 5 million people a year visit the Grand Canyon National Park. That works out to be 13698 per day. Luckily for us (again) in January the average is 1000. After the movie we made our way to the edge of the canyon. We did a 9 km return walk west along the rim in a couple of hours. It was very peaceful with plenty of opportunities to take photos, video and gaze in amazement with nobody else around. The best photos were the panoramic photos taken on Christine's phone camera. After returning to the visitors centre we and some lunch and Andrew returned to the rim trail and went for a 6 km run to the east. The 6000 feet altitude made the run harder than his usual runs at sea level but he managed very well. In the late afternoon we drove to the western view points further along the rim to watch the sun setting and saw a herd of Elks along the way. The temperature plummeted from the mild 6 degrees to -2 in the hour. Luckily for us we had our bag of snow gear in the car. The changing colours were spectacular and reminded us of Uluru. In the end the weather beat us and with freezing hands, feet and faces we headed back to Tusuyan. We had tea at a local restaurant. We were 5 of about 10 in the restaurant which could have easily sat 200. It obviously caters for all those visitors in the busy season.

Is this Nissan Quest the worlds ugliest mini van? Christine with a frozen bottle of Coke Zero

Our tour vehicle

Chelsea thinking about her escape if we need to ditch.

Cam & Jake enjoying the view

The view as we approach a big hole in the ground

Christine and the kids on one of many lookouts along the rim walk.

The Grand Grand Canyon

Andrew on the edge

Andrew off for a run 

More stunning views

Elk with a bit of frozen snow

Long shadows

Chelsea at sunset