Holy cow - it's the Grand Canyon

"Is it bad that I'm not that bothered about seeing it?" I asked Rich yesterday.

"I mean, I know everyone raves on about it, and I know it will probably be amazing - but it just seems like a massive windup."

Let me just tell you one thing. When people bang on about how awesome the Grand Canyon is.... let them drone on. They're completely justified. Go and see it. I don't want to hear your excuses. Just go and see it now before you DIE.

I admit I was rather reluctant about going. I mean, OF COURSE, we were going to go to the Grand Canyon on our road trip. It's like the law. It's just what you do. But I wasn't particularly excited. How good can a pile of rocks be? There wasn't even a 3D cinema.

To make matters worse, because the place is such a mahoosive big deal, going there is a giant mission. We were warned crowds would be terrible, that we would die of old age before we found a parking place, that all your photos would be taken over pushy tourists heads.

So it was to my surprise that I found myself waking up at 5am this morning to go somewhere I wasn't particularly interested in. 5am? The last time I got up that early was to queue up for the £5 Anna Hindmarsh bags at Sainsburys.

But thank the Baby Jesus we did. We arrived just after 6am and found the place blissfully peaceful. Nothing can prepare you for seeing the place. No photographs, no films, no crappy bloggers pathetic attempt at description. When you catch your first glimpse through the pine trees your mouth literally drops open. Uncontrollably. Like you've just watched that scene in Speed for the first time when Keanu is hanging under the bus, his white tank top splattered with oil and his biceps bulging.... Basically the Grand Canyon is like the Keanu of nature. Excellent.

Again, Americans seem very laid back about letting tourists explore. You can easily scramble over rocks and hang your legs over tummy-wrenchingly-steep drops for the best photos. And dear lord do you take a lot of photos. Every single view from every single place you stand is so jaw-droppingly awesome that you develop some kind of photo-taking OCD. Unfortunately, this morning I woke up with special gravity-defying hair and my eyebrows have appeared to be bleached off by the sun. So in all my photos - which will no doubt be framed on the mantelpiece for my entire lifetime - I look like the baby from Family Guy if he'd just put his fingers into a live socket.

Due to our early-rising antics, Rich and I had a good hour or two where we had the place pretty much to ourselves. We hiked about 5 miles across the rim - stopping to take many ridiculous photographs. Yes, I admit, there is one of me pretending to be Mufussa from the Lion King roaring on a makeshift Pride Rock. But by 9am the place was completely packed and you felt like you were at Disney Land. There was a remarkable amount of fat people there as well. Definitely the largest mass-obese-sighting we've seen since we got here. Perhaps they all come to the Canyon so they can stand next to it and feel thinner?

We left after about 6 hours and returned to our cute little hotel in Williams, Arizona. It's a genuine Route 66 town and great fun. Classic cars pour through the narrow streets, stopping for pizza or a place to sleep. The hotel we're staying at is the oldest in the whole state and we've got this darling (and surprisingly cheap) room that overlooks the road so we can watch all the 66-pilgrimagers rattle by.

Tomorrow we head to Sedona - which we're both quite appehensive about. It's famous for it's red rocks and supposed to be beautiful. But the place also attracts people (mentalists) from all over the world who believe the town has 'energy vortexes' hidden in the landscape that transport you to a genuine and long-lasting state of euphoria. I think it's going to be a bit hoovy-groovy and bollocksy - but hopefully with nice views. Apparently you can only experience the intense euphoria of the vortex if you are 'spiritually open' - and as Rich and I are about as spiritual as a ferret we think we're going to spend most of the time laughing at people.

So that's the Grand Canyon. Don't suppose there's much you can say about it other than the usual cliches... It's beautiful. It's intimidating. It's awesome. And you absolutely positively have to go and see it for yourself.

Peace out

Holly xxxx