The inconceivable abyss

The Grand Canyon National Park clings to the course of the Colorado River as it slices through the north part of Arizona. The Grand Canyon is the greatest natural wonder in North America and one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

The natural beauty portrayed by countless photographs that I have seen, placed the Grand Canyon in my bucket list many years ago. Although it is a well-known location, photographed endless times by numerous photographers, I wanted to have my own photographs of this unique place. This year I finally made it to the Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon that I knew, from the photographs, was completely shattered upon my arrival to this incredible place. I cannot find the words to describe it. When I had my first glimpse of the Canyon I was speechless. No photograph can prepare you for such vastness. My sense of distance, depth and space, became blured by the grandeur of this wonder.

The Grand Canyon is the inconceivable abyss. To have a sense of scale, a whining trip through the canyon, by water, is approximately 450 km. Its wide varies between 6 to 29 km and more than 1600 m deep. It is said that the canyon could hold the entire water, of all the rivers in the world, and still be half-full. It is so vast that can even be seen from space.

The Grand Canyon is an endless area of incomprehensible shapes and colours, conspicuous desert brightness with impenetrable shadows, stark promontories and rising sandstone pinnacles. In the bottom, the Colorado River unwearyingly carved this enormous gorge over millions of years. Billions of tons of rock eroded, leaving behind one of the world greatest wonders.

The Grand Canyon formations evoke shapes that only man imagination can bring to life. The formation below is known as "Duck on a Rock" . Can you see the duck? Due to power of erosion, the Grand Canyon is in a constant mutation. In two hundred years, will the shape of this rock still resemble a duck?

Walking around the rim is an incredible experience. As the sun travels across the sky and clouds move silently, the landscape mood changes unceasingly. As a result, all the overlooks along the rim offer views that shift continuously, from dawn to dusk.

As the sun starts to rise, one by one, the countless numbers of rock formations, turn gold for a short period of time, creating an incredible show of light and shadows.

Sunsets are no different. Before darkness, the red harsh land turns golden again, and slowly fades away into the blackness of the night.

Simultaneously, the golden sky starts to turn blue, clouds contrast in colour, from yellow and orange to purple, softly fading away in the night sky.

But this wonderful show is far from over, as on the opposite direction of sunset, one by one, thousands if not millions of stars start to twinkle and unhurriedly begin to illuminate the sky.

As I stood at the edge of the cliff, less than half a meter away from the abyss, looking out over the vast expanse before me, my perspective of our world changed. I never felt so small and insignificant. Our life span compared with the making of this canyon is like a drop of water in the ocean.

The wonders of the Grand Canyon cannot be adequately represented in symbols of speech, nor by speech itself. My pictures will not illustrate the natural beauty of this land nor what I felt while there. In other words, my attempt to portray, in language and with photographs, what I saw and felt, will most likely fail.

However, if you can visit the Grand Canyon, maybe then these words will mean something.