Visiting the Grand Canyon With a Twist

Did you know that every year around 5.9 million people visit the Grand Canyon? In the spring of 2019, my family decided to visit and take on the Grand Canyon not knowing what would occur. It all started early one morning when we decided to walk the rim trail of the Grand Canyon which is around 13 miles long. Everything started out normal and it was really amazing to see how big the Grand Canyon actually was, the views were just unforgettable. With my sister only being nine years old we tried to avoid walking very far distances, so instead we would use the buses to get from one point of the rim to another. This was a great way to get to the higher points of the Grand Canyon because we avoided walking up hills. The issue came once we stepped onto the bus that was taking us to the highest point of the Grand Canyon. 

The bus we were on was absolutely packed, people were standing anywhere they could and were holding on to whatever they could. Within about a minute of the bus moving Ashlynn turned to me and said, “Riss my stomach really hurts,” and within seconds after that she passed out on the ground. Thankfully my mom was able to catch her, but she was beyond embarrassed. Once we got off the bus, we made sure to sit Ashlynn down and gave her food and water. Turns out that she had passed out from the high altitudes. It is called Altitude Syncope and travelers will often experience a brief fainting episode during the first 24 hours. It often occurs because of the changes in blood pressure that occur at altitude, and it only happens once. I asked my Mom how she felt about the situation and she stated, “I never even thought about that possibly happening, but it makes complete sense”. It was simply an incident that happens to many people every year but was really just an embarrassing moment for Ashlynn as it occurred in front of a bus full of people. I asked Ashlynn her thoughts on what had occurred and she claimed, “it just happened so fast, I felt really sick for a very few seconds and then don’t remember what happened next”. This experience is one that my family will never forget and we hope that someday Ashlynn will get over this memory that will forever stick with her from our trip to the Grand Canyon.