Day 18.

The sound of an engine starting up and 

the blaring lights from the truck woke us up. Both the noise and the light stand out like a sore thumb in monument valley, it's totally silent and the sky is lit from stars. It was 5:45am and sunrise was at 6:45am, so we rolled our sleeping bags and mats away, threw them into the trailer, avoided using the one toilet (which is a compost toilet so it's DISGUSTING) and jumped in the truck. We went about a mile away from our sleeping ground to a spot when, once we turned the corner into it, the entire view in front of us opened up and on the horizon you could just see the warmth of the sun starting up. Both fliss and I wanted to experience the sunrise in different parts so she went off and found a spot by herself and I went as far forward as I could. We sat for about 20 minute until we saw the first stream of sun light burst over the horizon...

We watched it rise higher and higher for about 15 minute until the warm orange morning glow filled the entire space around us, the red in the rocks especially glowed a magnificent red, so nice! We then had breakfast in the desert while the sun continued to rise over us, pretty special! Once the guide dropped us back off at our van I HAD to go brush my teeth, no running water is seriously not a hoot! So I had to resort to brushing my teeth in the restrooms... Yes it was pretty low but I just slept on a frickin dirt road last night so having lights and water was such a blessing!!

We had to do some shopping before Grand Canyon, while I was shopping Lewis managed to skip out and get his beard trimmed! So jealous! I'm looking like a frickin' bush man here!! So I missed out on that... But after that it was none stop driving to Grand Canyon. I put my ear phones in and reminisced about my time in Monument Valley and within no time we were in front of the Grand Canyon sign! We, naturally, had to get a quick group photo in front of it, before we headed to The First View point. 

When we pulled up into the car park, I thought I would be right in front of you, but I couldn't see anything? Becca turned round and said she had a surprise for us... A SURPRISE!? I LOVE SURPRISES!! She told us about her first experience of seeing the Grand Canyon and she was blind folded up until she was right in front of it. This was how she was going to show us the Canyon!! She gave us all a fabulous bandana (which whether she liked it or not I was keeping!) and told us to tie it tight around our eyes and NO PEEKING! She then asked who ever was scared of heights to go with mark and people who weren't go with her, well clearly the ones who weren't would get the better view, so again, I sucked it up! Bit the bullet and jumped in the 'not scared queue'! It was a very weird feeling giving up control and letting someone lead you to the edge of a cliff BLINDFOLDED, but the view that was to come was worth it! She placed us all accordingly and began a count down...

Mark was filming our reactions because she said 99% of people who do it this way get the strongest reactions. I felt a bit under pressure! The moment she said '3!' everyone whipped off their blind folds and I can honestly say, I gasped. To be stood right on the edge taking in the whole view all at once was actually quite over whelming. All your eyes could see and take in was this iconic image of the Grand Canyon on display right in front of your eyes, the way the sun shown into the Canyon made it look almost like a back drop, it was just too perfect... It took everyone a minute or two before going for their cameras and phones, it was nice to just stand and take it in. Obviously after that it was shutterbug city! Selfie here, selfie there, selfie EVERYWHERE!! 

Now obviously I couldn't go to the Grand Canyon and not take a comical shot... Has to be done!!

We spent about 30-45 minutes exploring where we were and snapping photos from different angles before going back to the van. We were going back later that day for sunset so plenty of time for more photos, right now everyone needed a freshen up from a night in the bloody desert. We had a few hours to ourselves before setting off again for sunset, so me and fliss went in search for a very large lemonade, luckily Wendy's topped us and gave us a delicious strawberry lemonade, dare I say better than New Orleans!? We then spent the rest of the time relaxing in the shade of a tree (because I burnt my back wearing my slutty vests!) reflecting on the amazing past 36 hours...

At 5pm Becca came back with a van full of pizzas! (I looove American pizza!!) we were taking them up to a place on the Canyon called 'The ledge'. You can figure from the name what it was. The views were even better than the first spot, the ledge stuck out on a corner of the Canyon so you had about 300 degree view of the Canyon. I thought dinner under sunset in Monument Valley was special but this was equally, if not more special! I popped a squat on a rock with a slice of pizza and soda with Fliss and Becca and took in the expansive views.

After some food I dared myself to go out onto the lower ledge which fliss had been a dare devil earlier and been down to take photos, I said I would do everything, so I bit yet another bullet for today and climbed down the rocks and narrow 'paths' onto the lower ledge. Well after mastering cliff edges and 32ft ladders this was nothing, potentially hanging off the Grand Canyon! We sat there snapping photos of each other in front of the incredible view behind us not realising there was a crowd of people above taking photos of us and pointing!! OMG does this mean we're famous!?

After getting a few good photos after a few attempts (love a good 'candid' shot!) we made our way back up to the higher ledge for the sunset. It's pretty amazing to think we watched the sun rise on the morning and here we were hundreds of miles away in the Grand Canyon watching it set... Me, Fliss and Becca decided we would go down a level as it was starting to fill up and we didn't want our view to be interrupted, so we headed back towards the ledge we took photos on and perched on a rock to sit and watch the sun set.

We sat in almost silence as we watched the sun disappear behind the outline of Canyon, as it got lower it filled the sky with bright orange lights which oddly illuminated the canyon more and brought all it's colours to life. Sunset at the Canyon is pretty epic for anyone heading out there! The photos are awesome but it doesn't touch on how beautiful it really is...

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