Ride of the Valkyrie (Grand Canyon part 2)

The second part of the trip was a helicopter ride down to the bottom of the Canyon from the airport. This is the best road sign ever:

Here is our helo. Again, note the Nomad designator in the tail number. Impressive they made such an effort to personalize the experience...


One thing I didn't really appreciate prior to the trip was that the Canyon isn't really a hole in the ground - it's carved into a large plateau whose top is thousands of feet above sea level. Imagine a solid block of mountain about 4,000 feet high which has had many channels cut into it, or Manhattan carved from a solid block of skyscraper material so the buildings are 3x or 4x as tall as the tallest ones in the city and you have a good idea of the scale of the place.


It is a privilege to be alive to see such things.

Here's an action shot from the gunship skimming the Colorado River. Hum Airwolf theme if necessary.


Note intense level of job satisfaction on the guy on the right.

Here are the two best pictures of the canyon walls. Again, they barely do it justice.



The helo dropped us off at the bottom of the canyon and then took off.

Notice how quickly it gets lost against the walls.


The LZ sure was hot!!