At some point on this trip Jess and I decided that we were interested in a helicopter tour of the grand canyon. I had never been in a helicopter before but I couldn't think of a better place to try it out, knowing how exceptionally large the grand canyon is. We had a slow start to our day, meandered around the Grand Canyon Village, freshened up with some quarter showers and stocking up on some rations at the grocery store (which had everything you could imagine). We took a short walk to a couple overlooks in the immediate area around the Grand Canyon Village and then made our way to the helicopter tour company.
Helicopter route, counter-clockwise.
The tour starts at the airport south of Grand Canyon Village and heads northeast to the canyon rim. As we flew over the upland forest the pilot played march of the valkyries and had it timed to climax as we came over the crest of the rim and the massive canyon opens up below you. It was entertaining but definitely a little silly. In one of the photos you can see the desert view tower to get a little sense of scale. It's such a tiny speck!
I loved these views flying directly over the Colorado River with the contrast of the emerald green water and the barren landscape. We saw a handful of big rafts floating the river but from above they were super tiny.
We flew up to the confluence of Little Colorado River/Canyon and the water had a very obvious white/light-blue color which was interesting to see mix with the Colorado River.
From there we headed slightly northwest and observed some cool geologic features which I can't remember much about. There was a neat spine that ran for miles and spire that looked like a battle ship.
We flew up on top of the North Rim and were instantly greeted with vast forest land.
I'm not exactly sure which canyon we flew out of to leave the North Rim but I was able to identify parts of the Hermit Trail in my photos as crossed back over the Colorado River and up and over the south rim to head back to the airport.
Overall the helicopter tour was an amazing experience. I'm really happy with how many photos I was able to capture, even with some window glare here and there. It really helps relive the experience.