Grand Canyon and
Colorado River Tour
(best viewed 1024 X 768 resolution)

The Grand Canyon and the Colorado is a sight to behold of. It is truly mesmerizing to stand at the rim and just behold the awesome beauty that God created. My wife and I had an incredible tour guide company take us on this trip. Adventure Photo Tours took us on the Grand Canyon - The Total Experience tour and it beat anything else that is offered on the web. Seriously, I searched for 5 hours and this one is the one. (Eat your heart out, Jimmy Hendrix, because these tour people are "experienced") Rainbow Canyon is normally part of this tour, but the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) had closed it due "lambing" (birthing) of Proghorn Sheep. The last 2 years of drought has taken severe toll on the animals and the BLM is trying to maximize births this spring by not disturbing them and thus reducing chances of miscarriage. Adventure Photo Tours has a fleet of over 20 vehicles, double the amount of drivers and over 19 years of tour experience with a perfect safety record. Our guide was Don Smilers and has been a tour guide all of his life. They connected us with Sundance Helicopters for our descent into the canyon. Yikes! That was a totally vertical descent with sharp banks and sudden drops (1500 feet in 45 seconds). It put the movie, Vertical Limit, to shame minus the snow. Double treat. The 3 frames immediately preceding the 2 helicopter frames are the "ascent" photos and a much more laid back ride. The boat pictures are the Colorado River tour. Very tranquil with raptors above and Proghorn Sheep lapping water at the edge. Cold, clear, sweet water. The couple of frames just before the guide and indian pictures are the lunch on the West Rim shots. The area is located on the Hualapai (Pine Mountain People) Indian Reservation and the next few shots are some wildlife specimens from the area. It is said that a huge "El Nino" approximately 900-950 years ago changed the climate from temperate to arid thus wiping out the forests. Stay tuned for more information at another time.