The main activity of the 3^rd day was "scenic airplane ride". I know that many people complain about the noise, and it is probably not too environmentally friendly, neither. In fact, the FAA has regulated the flight in the canyon recently. But with my injured knee, what else can I do?

Anyway, we went 45 minutes of airplane ride from Tusayan airport. It was wonderful. Definitely worth $100 for its price. I finally could felt how big the Grand Canyon is, by looking at it from the sky. The Colorado Plateau is very high (about 8000 feet) but also very flat. The canyon is a big crack in the plateau as far from the east to the west as I could see. As we flew near to the canyon, I can see where the green plateau abruptly and cleanly cut by the canyon.

The Colorado Plateau is filled with green. You can see this canyon literally as far as you can see; measured as 300 miles according to my guide book. Incredible.

This is Little Colorado River and its associated canyon. Again, you can see how flat the Colorado Plateau is, and how the Grand Canyon cuts through it.

As we flew over the canyon, I could see how clean the plateau ends at the canyon edge.

In the afternoon, we went to the West Rim Trail. My knee was fine walking on a flat trail. But we walked really slow. Took a lot of photos, again. There were a lot of scenic views of canyon, interesting sight like old mining, and very easy to walk. It was not as crowded as Bright Angel trail (surprise, surprise). It is also nice to know that there are West Rim Drive parallel to the trail, and there is a public shuttle bus in every 15 minutes so that we could ride back when we were tired.

Many of the cliffs in the Grand Canyon are almost vertical.

The hike started around 2:00 pm at the village, and reached Mohave Point only one hour before the sunset. It was probably only 2 miles of walk. So, we decided to wait until the sunset at the point.

To be honest, the sunset was a little disappointing. I guess it was because the sky was too clear. Ravi said "the sun is saying 'good bye' to us, and says 'good morning' at the other side of the earth." The sunset wasn't that great, but the canyon is. As was the case in last 3 days, the canyon under the sunset light is gorgeous.

A great photo but one serious problem. The black dot is a fly, not a bee I thought. Ouch.