In between the rapids, there were plenty of lazy stretches of the Colorado river that allowed us to just sit back and soak in all the beauty around us. The scene in this photo was everywhere around us all the time, but we didn’t get tired of it.

On many short excursions, we explored the side canyons that feed into the Grand Canyon. It was amazing to be inside these narrow canyons that were just a few feet across at the bottom with its walls sharply rising hundreds of feet on both the sides.

Moonrise over the Canyon walls on one of the evenings. The night sky was absolutely brilliant all through our trip. We were hundreds of miles away from any light pollution and that made the stargazer inside me very happy. We could see the Milky-way without any trouble and many bright star clusters and nebulae were visible to the naked eye. During the first night it was hard to figure out all the constellations as there were way too many stars than what I was used to seeing even on a dark night.