One of the world’s most famous, most oft-photographed natural attractions can still greatly surprise even an allegedly “well-informed” first-time visitor.
This post’s photos were both taken from a helicopter, looking down at the northern “wall” of what many humans (wrongly) believe is “our” planet’s biggest and/or deepest canyon.
The Grand Canyon is neither the biggest in volume, nor the deepest, nor the longest, nor the widest, but it is very grand.
Some parts of the Grand Canyon are a deal “leafier”, cooler, and wetter than most people imagine.
On average, the Grand Canyon’s North Rim sits 2,438 metres above sea level, and its highest point is more than 300 metres higher again.
That is much higher than the South Rim, which averages 2,134 metres ASL.
The South Rim – easily accessed from Las Vegas – sees many more tourists, and is also much less likely be “closed, owing to snow”; unsurprisingly, most “iconic” Grand Canyon images are “South-siders”.
Average maximum & minimum temperatures are very much lower on the North Rim, whist precipitation is usually very much (circa 2x) higher.
A much higher proportion of the North Rim’s precipitation falls as snow.
Accordingly, the vegetation on the North Rim (and on the upper sections of the “wall” below it) is distinctly different to the South Rim’s.
The featured image atop this post shows a lower & drier section of the northern wall than does the photo below.
This, and the next several posts are the fruit of an autumn morning helicopter flight in October 2012.
Advice to anyone who visits The Grand Canyon: if you can afford to do so, it definitely is worth taking the longest and best-available helicopter flight.
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