The canyon in general was bigger and definitiely wider than I expected. At points it gets to 18 miles (29 km) across (not long, across). It is 277 miles (365 km) long and 1 mile (1.6 km) deep. There are so many layers and mesas (spanish for tables) that it’s like giant stepping stones down to the Colorado River at the bottom. In addition to this, the colours were different to what I expected, it wasn’t just brown/ochre cliffs, there were multiple tree lines, and the mesas were sparsly covered in brush. It all made for an awesome scene.

Which trail to take? Of course we wanted to hike down into the canyon, so we did the South Kaibab Trail, 6 miles (9.7 km) round trip to Skeleton Point, elevation change of approximately 2000 feet (610 m). It was graded as “difficult”—they weren’t kidding—and we completed it in 6.5 hours. The climb back up the canyon was not trivial, but absolutely worth it.