The Grand Canyon to London Bridge - only 300 miles?

Got to say that three nights in Vegas was definitely plenty and we were kind of glad to be back in our car heading onto our next destination, the Grand Canyon.

We had an awesome campsite close to the canyon but Ad was really disappointed as all fires (even smoking!) were banned due to the heat.

We rose really early the next day as we were planning to hike a short way down into the canyon. In one ridiculous moment (while sitting in our freezing cold camper van somewhere in New Zealand) we had considered trying to hike all the way down and back out in the day. So glad that we dismissed that idea as one extremely fit, twenty something American marathon runner had attempted this foolish escapade a couple of years ago and sadly never made it out of the canyon alive. So, armed with lots of water and wearing our caps, as instructed by park officials, we headed down into the canyon. Now, canyon hiking isn´t like normal mountain hiking. You have to do the easy part first when you´re feeling pretty fit and the weathers that litte bit cooler, then, just as the sun starts to reach it´s peak and you´re feeling pretty shattered you´re faced with a long upwards struggle to get out again!

The views inside the canyon were just amazing though. To be standing inside something that enormous (we went just a sixth of the way down) that has been formed through erosion is mind boggling, really hard to comprehend.

We were feeling pretty proud of ourselves by the time we reached the top of the canyon again, all that exercise and it wasn´t even lunch time! Inspired, we decided that a hike along the rim seemed the perfect activity for a swealtering hot day. Again, the views were just breath taking. Different rock formations and sections of the river could be seen with every turn and each one seemed more impressive than the last. Got to admit though that after hiking along seven and a half miles of the ten mile trail we were absolutely starving and so gave up and caught the shuttle bus back.

And so it was time to begin the ridiculously long drive back to LA. How surprised was I when during this seemingly endless journey Ad exclaimed, ¨there´s a sign for London bridge!¨ Now, Adam quite often makes random statements to work out whether or not I´m listening to him so I wasn´t sure if I should take him seriously but sure enough after another couple of miles there was indeed a sign for London Bridge. Looking it up in the guide book we discovered that an American bloke had bought the bridge when the Government put it up for sale in the late 1960´s. He´d then had it flown over to the States where he´d reconstructed it in the middle of nowhere in Arizona. Turns out that he was expecting Tower Bridge and so was quite disappointed with the finished thing!! Being English we had to go and see it and so off we set to see London Bridge surrounded by a very tacky supposedly English style village in the middle of the USA desert, extremely surreal!