I frequent the natural wonders of other countries but have seen very few of the ones that exist in my own country of origin, USA. This is mostly because of the fact that USA is a rather gigantic country with very poor public transportation. This, combined with the fact that nearly everything is really expensive no matter where you go and this is the reason why I haven't seen much of my own country during my time on this earth.
I recently had the chance to ride along with some family members in their RV and now I am finally getting to see parts of this huge country that I have called home for 40 years. I am extremely grateful for my family inviting me to come along because I am quite certain that I wouldn't have ever seen these things otherwise.
I think that no matter where you come from in the world you have at least heard of the Grand Canyon. I have heard about it all of my life and was very familiar with its majesty but I never thought I would get to see it up close seeing as how it is one of the most popular and therefore expensive things to visit in the entire country. It is also friggin massive so even though we had our own wheels - including a Jeep that is towed behind the RV - we only touched the tip of the iceberg in our visit. The objective wasn't to see the entire park but just the highlights and it was pretty evident that there were a ton of other people that had the same thing in mind.
No matter which vantage point you go to you are going to be completely surrounded with other people who had the same idea. I am not berating these people for being here because I am here for exactly the same reason. Nature is just a bit more enjoyable when you have a lot less people around than this and unfortunately if you visit the Grand Canyon this is exactly what you are going to encounter. We hoped that since it is the hotter time of year that we might get to "dodge the crowds" but we kind of suspected that it would be this way.
For polite people, everyone kind of queued up to get their chance at the front for a photo and then moved on. Other, more rude people were constantly getting in the way and only thinking of themselves. Even though I only took a few photos and my relatives shot a video or two, it was actually quite time consuming to get a picture without a bunch of other people in the foreground. I suppose it is asking too much for people to be polite these days.
We didn't stick at any one location for very long and we didn't even stay here because even the RV parks were extremely overpriced in our opinion.
I can understand why a ton of people would want to come here because it is some of the only truly unique landscape that the United States has to offer. The fact that it is absolutely massive can be seen as a blessing or a curse though. The huge size means that there is tons to do and tons to see but it also means that you need your own transport in order to have a go at it which thankfully we did happen to have with us.
The hotels that are close are quite expensive as you would expect and even the RV parks with water, electric, sewage, wifi, etc were $40 or so a night and from my very limited experience that is some of the most expensive in the world. I can't say it surprised me a great deal though since so many people want to come here and land is pretty scarce.
I'm happy I got to see it with my own eyes and if you have considerably more money than I do I would highly suggest that you do so as well. It is one thing to see photos of it but another experience entirely to be there and witness it. The crowd almost seemed to be mesmerized and even though there were people all around most of the visitors were trying to be very quiet. It was very peaceful.
And now we are headed north. We haven't decided if we will stop in Montana or just carry on through to Canada but I'll let you know when we get there!