Grand Canyon, Day 6 Helicopter Tour.

Wednesday

An early birthday present for Ray, a helicopter tour over the Grand Canyon ... at least the area that they are allowed to fly over. This was a "bucket list" item that we wanted to do since we were last here 7 years ago.

You have to check in at least 30 minutes before your flight so you can watch a safety video. I imagine they want you to also spend time in their gift shop. Our flight was scheduled at noon, all earlier ones were already booked so the colours of the canyon are not quite as good as they could have been.

There were helicopters coming and going like crazy. Apparently they have 200 pilots on payroll. I booked us the longer flight that takes the gold route in the pic below. As this is the airport, there are also plane rides you could choose to take, as well.

This is the chopper we took. Ray and I were in the front seat with the pilot and a family of 4 sat behind us.

Here we go.

Lots of travel over the pine forests. We did see a few trailers camped here and there.

About 1/2 the flight is over forests with no view of the canyon due to air space regulations. The airport is south of the park. We flew to the East end of the park and crossed over the canyon by the Watchtower. Here are the views of the canyon that we can see.

We travelled a little ways over the Little Colorado River.

Hardly any water in the river.

We got to fly over the confluence of the Little Colorado and Big Colorado.  The Little Colorado is milky as it starts as a spring with a heavy concentration of calcium.

My view out the window, including the floor. lol Life on the edge!

Amazing how the ground just drops a mile or more down to the river.

We saw some rafters on the river.

Next up was the Subduction Fault Line that created the North Rim of the canyon.

See the upthrust jagged edges.

Once over the canyon we flew over the North Rim. This rock formation is known as the dragon. 

Views looking down onto the North Rim Plateau which is 1000 feet higher than the South Rim.

Back flying over the South Rim here are the train tracks for the train from Williams to the Grand Canyon.

Coming to the end of our trip we flew over the town of Tusayan.

And finally back to the airport.

A great adventure, but wished it was much longer and we could see more of the canyon. It definitely was a different perspective to be so close to the actual formations. We especially liked seeing where the Little Colorado joins the Big Colorado River.