Balloons, Snow and the Canyon

Unfortunately, I (Mark) had a terrible night last night. I was violently ill and won’t be able to look at Taco Bell again for awhile. We had wanted a proper restaurant last night in Phoenix, but there was nothing but fast food for blocks and blocks.

This morning, we were surprised to find ourselves roused by the sound of many roosters crowing, near and far. Not what we expected in the city of Phoenix. We left early and drove across town to the highway. Last night, while looking for some dinner, we got a fairly poor impression of Phoenix. It seemed all fast food, industrial lots and all very down-at-the-heel. This morning, however, we drove clean across the downtown and the outer commercial districts and in the cold, hard light of day it seemed a neat, clean and pleasant city. The neighbourhood where we stayed was simply like Glenorchy on a bad day.

We left town on the I 17, northbound (Dale wins the prize), destination: Flagstaff, Arizona. About 50 miles north of Phoenix we pulled over to watch a bunch of hot air balloons take off nearby, then shot straight up to Flagstaff, about 140 miles away.

Flagstaff held 3 attractions for us:
1) It is a historic and very pretty town, that had been recommended to us by some fellow Aussie travellers;
2) It’s main street is part of the famous old Route 66, and;
3) It is about 90 miles south of the Grand Canyon.

We got to Flagstaff in the late morning, having ascended to almost 7000 feet of altitude, and had a bit of a look around at the town. Because night-time temperatures are still getting below freezing, we decided to check into a motel. A couple of walk-ins and we were set. Time for the Canyon.

The drive out to the Grand Canyon was beautiful. It is not desert here, it is aspen country. We drove over 8000 feet. Rolling hills, jagged mountain peaks all around, pine trees everywhere and still a lot of winter snow laying around, even though the day was warm. It was an unexpected pleasure of a drive. At one point, I walked out over a snowy field for Pia to photograph me. The snow was solid and my shoes only sank about a centimetre. When Pia walked out to the same spot, I took her picture and on the way back she stepped on a soft spot and sank to her ankles. She was wearing sandles, of course and the look on her face was priceless. Wish I’d got a picture of that.

The Grand Canyon: You know it’s big, right? You’ve grown up hearing about it. You’ve seen it on TV documentaries. You’ve heard some facts and figures. You understand that it is very, very big. What you can’t imagine, until you see it, is how MASSIVE it is. Firstly, although there is a Ranger station and a Visitor Centre, there are almost no guardrails on the Canyon rim. You can just walk right up to the edge of overhanging rocks and look over. It’s a drop of almost 7000 feet to the bottom, but that’s only part of it’s size. It covers the entire landscape from horizon to horizon in every direction. It is difficult to get your mind around the scale of it. It defies belief. And the rock formations are just beautiful. It is not something you can begin to understand until you see it for yourself, and maybe not even then. We spent a few hours there, and the squirrels played fearlessly among the tourists as the ravens wheeled above and below us.

On the return to Flagstaff, we saw one of those cheap, tacky roadside attractions that thrive in the deserts here. It was an old, Flintstones theme park and Campground. We also stopped to look around in an old Trading Post, now mainly local crafts and souvenirs. Back in Flagstaff, we walked around town for awhile and ended up having a lovely “anniversary” dinner in a cute little Mexican restaurant with good food, a nice wine, a lovely atmosphere and good live music. It was very cool. Then we walked back through town, along Route 66 to our 1950’s era, western-themed motel.

Funny Fact: Some funny names we have found today – Horsethief Basin Rd and Bloody Basin Rd. Some of the desert landscapes look very Australian and some look utterly alien.

Cowboy Wisdom

The Canyon

Snowfield Pasture at 8000ft

Marks feet and 7000ft drop

The 'honeymooners' at the Grand Canyon

Flagstaff, Arizona
Note the street name next to the red light