| It is difficult to
portray the vastness of this space and we can only see a part of it. There
is a glass platform which has been built out over the canyon edge about 100
miles to the west. |  |
 |
Waiting in the shade for the bus. |
| The bus arrives. The
shuttles are quite frequent but do not stop at all stops in both directions. |  |
 | A brief glimpse of the
river which is normally quite hard to see from the rim. |
 |
They do rafting trips down the river over several days but we did not see
any this time. |
| The Hermit's Rest cafe and
gift shop at the end of the 12 mile road from the visitor centre. |  |
 |
The road stops but the river goes on for many more miles. The horizon is
about 60 miles away. |
| There was some uranium
mining here in the 1940s but now they are just cleaning up the spoil heaps. |  |
 |
The cliffs are quite precipitous but again show the layers of sediments from
the sea beds which this was millions of years ago. |
| I'm not sure what this is
but it looks like a parasitic plant resembling our mistletoe. |  |
 |
The colours are just fabulous especially in the late afternoon sun. |
| There is some bird life
and I was lucky enough to catch this one before it flew away. We think it
was a Western Scrub Jay. |  |
 |
Many of the rocks are quite sandy and thus quite prone to erosion. |
| We called this the sand
pit because it looks just like someone has been playing in it. |  |
 |
The shadows are beginning to lengthen and it is time to go home. |
|