“You’re going to the Grand Canyon!?”

“I’ve always wanted to see the Grand Canyon!”

“I would love to go there someday!”

I heard all of these a few times when I told people where I was going.  I suppose my expectations were highish because, well, its the GRAND Canyon.  It’s grand.  It’s one of the Seven Natural World Wonders, after all.

I didn’t love it.  There, I said it.  My mind was in fact, still in tact, when I left that park.  It was not as blown as everyone made me think it would be.

I mean, it was pretty, I’ll give it that.  Maybe it would have been cooler if I went in it.  What I expected it to be was different from what it really was.  There was a lot more forest and driving than I imagined.  And it seemed a little hazy or something.  Maybe that’s what happens when something is so grand.  Who knows.  There’s probably a better explanation than this, but I’m not too worried about that.

Maybe the North Rim would have been cooler.  We just went to the more popular South Rim.  Maybe there just wasn’t enough to look at in it.  Or it was all just too far away to really have my mind blown.

Maybe I’ll go back someday and fly over it.  Maybe I’ll go in it next time.  Maybe I’ll just see a different part of it.  Or maybe I’ll just go there first in a trip so I’m more excited about it.  I liked Arches National Park and Bryce Canyon a lot more, but maybe that was because they were the first things I really saw of the west.

I wouldn’t say don’t go to the Grand Canyon.  But I also wouldn’t say I loved it.  I just liked it.  And sometimes that’s ok.  It would be too hard to love everything, everywhere, all the time.

Have you been to the Grand Canyon?  What did you think of it?  Is it on your bucket list?