In my previous post, I mentioned, in a melodramatic sort of way, my desire to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon to fully experience what nature has made available over the last bazillion years or so. Think about that… 2,000 million years of geologic history!

There’s an interesting analogy used to help express such unfathomable geologic time. If the age of the canyon were condensed to a 24 hour period, human existence on Earth comprises something like a mere fraction of a second. Still don’t get it? Some say a single step down the canyon takes you back 20,000 years (unless you’re tall like me and it’s probably more like 30,000 years). They say tall people tend to live longer - there’s something interesting here I think.

Anyway… the Canyon is freakin’ old and it’s quite apparent. It’s big - bigger than anything you’ve ever seen unless you’ve been fortunate enough to zoom off into space, in which case I’m sure the entire planet is quite impressive. I’m rambling and getting off track. Back to my hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon…

The first thing I did to prepare for the hike was buy a fantastic guide book by Frommers. It’s small, easy to carry and offers all sorts of interesting tid-bits of information like what to do if you only have 1 day, 2 days, 3 days or an entire week. It’s very helpful… buy it and come back for more fun details.

• Journey to the Center of the Earth (part 3)