it could have been. We stopped at the only shop on the way for breakfast before we made the final leg to the canyon. Cath remarked to the shop owner that she’d heard that the North Rim was more scenic than the South, to which the owner replied that it was the same big hole, just the other side!! Our first sight was through the trees, but once we got out of the car and got to the viewpoint we were all gobsmacked by the sheer enormity of what appeared to be a huge hole in the ground! The way that the North Rim village is situated means that you are so close that you don’t really get the impression that you are looking at a canyon, so a hole in the ground is just what it looks like, all be it the biggest hole in the ground any of us had ever seen! The North Rim is the least visited and least touristy side, and that was evident from the general lack of people around. The view was absolutely stunning though, and we had a good walk around all the trails before settling into the restaurant for some lunch

with a view!!

In the afternoon we drove to **** point, where it was possible to get our first glimpse of the Colorado river, and therefore the canyon floor proper. It was amazing to see that even though it looked enormous up until that point we hadn’t even been looking at the bottom of it!! There was also a great view back up towards the starting point of the canyon at Lees Ferry. This was the first time you could actually see the path that the river took, and a very narrow canyon carved into the plateau, once again the sheer scale was astounding - we read that the canyon was 288 miles from one end to the other!! (or in other words approximately Stoke to Northern Cornwall!) One thing that I figured would be fantastic is you can raft down the Colorado river through the canyon, although the downside is a 2 ½ year waiting list!! There were some pretty big thunderclouds forming, so we decided it