Day 18: Grand Canyon, Part 2

Day 18: Grand Canyon, Part 2

Apparently, it only rains three weeks out of the year at the Grand Canyon. Lucky for us, we’ve been caught in thunderstorms ever since we got here.

There wereso many people.

I never knew just how gigantic ravens are until I got to see them up close.

We spent the day at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, where we hiked the Rim Trail before a colossal storm rolled in. I have never before experienced a thunderstorm from an elevation of 9,000 feet—it is absolutely terrifying.

We ended up running for our lives back to the car, including across a set of train tracks that had a train only about 100 yards away, trying to escape the thunder and lightning that was directly overhead.

By the time we got to the car, it had started to hail. Again.

We waited out the storm, then toured the rest of the South Rim and West Rim via shuttle bus. Since the storm was moving fairly rapidly across the canyon, the West Rim was closed for an hour or so, and the crowds at the bus station when it finally reopened rivaled those of China.

It felt like the storm was chasing us as we visited most of the scenic points along the route. Caroline’s umbrella was blown inside out, and we all ran back to the bus as soon as we got our photos, as the rain and wind were threatening to carry us over the edge of the cliff.

Good thing we got caught in another storm on the way to Sedona.