April 10…. Up, up, and awaaay! And then down, down, down.

SO FREAKIN’ COOL!!

I took my first ever helicopter ride this morning and it was awesome!

If I had a job, I’d quit right now and start training for a new career as a helicopter pilot. Might even have to rethink the Moose Ranch.

I took flight with Maverick Helicopter Tours in a Eurocopter EC 130, aka Airbus H130.

There were five of us plus the pilot in a machine built for eight, so we each had plenty of room. Wearing headsets, we could all talk and listen to each others comments and Ooh’s and Ahh’s, and in between, the pilot gave us a commentary on what we were looking at, pointing out landmarks and giving us the history and geology of the Grand Canyon.

The 45 minute flight took us out over the widest and deepest parts of the canyon, and all the way from the east side to the west side of Grand Canyon National Park.

Other than a fabulous new perspective on the scenery, we flew over a place where the Little Colorado River joins the regular Colorado River. You can see the milky turquoise waters of the smaller river as it joins the larger. Beautiful!

He also flew us out over the North Rim to look for bison, but we didn’t see any today. LOTS of snow though, the north rim will not be opened for visitors until May.

After physically returning to earth (my mind is still up in the sky 🤩), Susy and I rode the bikes over to the South Kaibab Trail just in time to meet a mule train coming up from below.

Then, we took Neal’s advice and walked down the trail. And down. And down some more. Not so far along the trail, but we descended about 200ft in altitude below the rim. A completely different view, looking UP at all the rocks and layers.

Another standard day in the life of boring ol’ Mike and Susanne. 🤣