26 Sept: Grand Canyon (South Rim)

So I was the only one who made sunrise. What an incredible experience. I’m so glad I got up. The colours on the rocks kept changing and it was soooo quiet. A crow flew past and I could hear his wings flapping. I’m so pleased that Mark got to hear this later as I didn’t think anyone would believe me! When the sun was finally up, it was directly behind one of the large buttes - so more amazing photos ensued. I think I said it before, you just can’t take a bad photo around here. It was bloody freezing though - I reckon that’s why Mark stayed in bed. It wasn’t really that early - it was 6:30am their time. Oh, and during the night, I got up to have a look at the stars. It was too cold to go out on the balcony, so I peered through the glass doors instead. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many stars before. The sky was full, totally. It’s all the little things. 

After brekkie at the restaurant with a view, we took a few weeks more photos and then hit the road to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. The scenery changed again - this time, large, smooth, flat rocks everywhere. Also dinosaur footprints at Indian roadside stalls (go figure). We stopped at another roadside vendor and got a lovely bracelet and some matching earrings (and a couple more pressie pieces). The trip is taking longer than we thought it would, even though we pick up that ‘hour’ due to the daylight savings time change. Plus, there has been a large number of very slow drivers and few overtaking lanes on the highway. 

Today seems to be a day of mini stops at road side traders, both large and small. The large one was to restock on mints and Oreo cookies, oh and the obligatory restroom break and quest for good coffee (alas on the last one). There were a couple of very Southern ladies in the restroom complaining about the lack of toilet paper “God dang it, I’m gonna go out there and tell them they need to put some paper in this place” (but you need to imagine that with the very strong accent attached). Off we went and then found another trading place to grab some dreamcatchers for Jamie.

We’re back on the road again now - yes, I’m typing while Mark drives) but we had to turn around to find an ATM as the Grand Canyon National Park has a $30USD entry fee and they generally don’t take credit cards, unlike the tiny roadside vendors. 

Once inside the park, we caught glimpses of the canyon between trees. Lots of trees again as we were around 5000miles up. There are a few roads inside the national park, and the one main one has a few viewing points before you reach the visitor centre. Like every man and his dog, we stopped at the first one. I think that first real look at the canyon is mindblowing. It’s immense, deep, wide, craggy, jagged, raw, powerful, so many adjectives and like the photos - doesn't do it justice. We sat down on a seat near the edge (again, many places with no barriers) and just took in the fresh air. A couple came over and were trying to selfie a happy birthday message to their granddaughter, so I offered to film it for them. They were really cute, but very average singers LOL. I did the ‘hip hip’ thing at the end, but they just looked at me blankly. I don’t think it’s an American birthday thing. (I later asked Connie and it seems that it’s not). 

We stopped at the gift shop here as we figured it would be madness at the visitor centre. Some bad lunch (some weird chicken roll doovey) and then we hit the road again to the next lookout. As we were leaving, there was a lone tarantula crossing the bus lanes. I walked after him and took a video - I was pretty excited about seeing him. Mark said a guy had stirred him up by pushing him around with a camera, until it burred up at him and he walked away then. Why do people do that? While I was videoing, an American lady was laughing and telling me that it would jump on me (they don’t) and was trying to scare me - again, why do people do that? I was enjoying watching him go on his journey (did I mention that Shea had earlier told us it was tarantula migration season?). I just laughed at the American woman and said I was from Australia and not scared of little spiders. She shut up then. 

The first three lookouts were all similar, just (obviously) a little further around. Each view was magnificent though. They all had an area that had a barrier, which made it easy for me to look and take photos. Everywhere else was barrierless though, and so many people were climbing out on ledges and the like. Good on them - I do wonder if any of them fall over the years though. At one of the lookouts, we saw black hawks flying overhead. We know they were black hawks as a tour guide told her group that they were. Blessed be us eavesdroppers. 

We got to the ‘Grand View’ lookout and as the name suggests, this was the best lookout we saw. It was on a bend and the canyon stretched out on either side of us. The Colorado River was an electric blue snake way, way down there. If you stood in the right spot, you could see the rapids. As beautiful and peaceful as this was - too many groups of Germans and Chinese were loud and pushy. (I feel like I’m being racist and stereotyping, but it just seems to be this way). They’d push in front of you, particularly while you were taking a photo, and they yell! Like really yell! I know I can talk loudly at the best of times, but these people were all amazing. Soooo loud. And it seemed to me that they weren’t interested at all in what they saw, they just wanted to get that perfect photo and then move on, so much of it seemed to be yelling directions to pose this way or that. Anyway….

As we were driving, there were road signs warning of elk and mountain lions. I really wanted to see a mountain lion. We had learnt from signs at the redwoods that if you see a mountain lion, you need to make lots of noise and wave your arms around to scare them off. It’s the opposite for bears. Just don’t get them mixed up. Alas, no mountain lions (from the safety of our car). Elk though - well, we saw elk. There was a mum and three babies just grazing on the side of the road. We pulled over (like many others and how convenient was it that there was a car park right there!) and took some photos. There are signs everywhere saying not to approach of feed wild animals - makes sense. Now, its single lanes with double lines, so if you get stuck behind someone, you just have to stay stuck. So, while we were peacefully enjoying watching the elk across the road with lots of other people, a four wheel drive full of young German people, stopped in the middle of the road and held everyone up. For ages, no exaggeration, at least five kminutes. People were nice and not blowing horns as they didn’t want to scare the elk (I assume) but eventually, cars started to cross the double lines to get going again. All of the drivers that passed them make rather rude gestures or said something out their windows. The Germans didn’t care. The really arrogant part of it was that there were three vacant car parks right in front of them. Everyone on the side of the road was shaking their heads at them and we were all pointing to the vacant car parks trying to get them to pull over. They just kept taking photos, but then eventually, one of the girls pointed to the space and had the driver pull over. He didn’t get out of the car, but the girls did and they all raced across the road into the bush and got into the elks’ faces. Naturally, the elk moved on. Sigh. Luckily for us - there ended up being elk everywhere the further we drove into the park. At one stop sign intersection, a very large stag wandered across the road, letting everyone know we were in his territory. I would not want to mess with one of those things. His hooves were huge and he looked very strong. Beautiful, but strong and scary. 

We decided to miss the visitor centre when we saw a huge and completely packed car park. By this time, it was well into the afternoon and we really wanted to see what the canyon looked like down at the other end of the road, which was a half hour drive away (dependant of course on not running into people who wanted to stop on the road and hold everyone up). So we skipped it and headed for the Canyon Village. We found a park at some of the lodges and went for a wander over to the canyon, via the train tracks. More trains (yay, Shea). We had a look at this end, but we both agreed the other end was much more impressive. Then again, when I say ‘end’, we’re talking about a tiny, tiny part of the canyon. On a map, if the canyon was 30cm long, we saw maybe 5mm. There were hiking trails down to the floor of the canyon and this is also where you can take a mule train down. There were many red faced, sweaty people coming up. some looked painful, others looked painful and happy. I’d hope they were all proud of themselves as it looked like no small feat. 

By this time, it was getting late, we badly needed to do laundry and it was around an hour drive to our hotel, so we hightailed it out of there. We’d really love to go back and do some of the (easy) hikes around the place. I’d like to see more of the wildlife. 

It was a nice drive into Williams, but if you ever stay there, don’t stay at the Howard Johnson. When you book, they don't tell you that you may be in an entirely different building or on a second floor with no elevator on the night that you need to lug all your bags into the room to get ready for the laundry and the next leg of the trip. They also didn’t mention the choking smoke in the hallways of the non-smoking part of the hotel that is so bad, you’ll need to put a towel on the floor to stop it getting in under your door. BUT, the town of Williams is amazing. Totally amazing.

It is the last town to have lost Route 66 to the interstate, and has retained all of its old buildings, gas pumps, and paraphernalia from it’s Route 66 days. We drove down the main street to the laundromat and got really excited about checking out the town. Mind you, it was already 7:30, we hadn’t had dinner, and we hadn’t started the laundry, and we were totally exhausted - but the town was so alive that it perked us up. Laundry done, (bloody hell, it took almost an hour) we were beyond famished and tired and dragged ourselves over to the steakhouse across the road. Rod’s Steakhouse. OMG, so far, this has been the best meal choice of the trip. This was the steak that my nan used to cook. I haven't had a steak that good in about 25 years. It was not only melt in your mouth, it was totally flavoursome and juicy. We both fawned all over it. It was also huge, and we were starving. It definitely hit the spot.

It was a big meal and even though we were dead on our feet, we couldn't resist having a look at some of the stores on the main street. We wandered down one side, past fairy lights, partying people and old gas pumps, onto the other side where we passed life sized fibreglass Elvis and a theatre with a very large bear at the front of it. We walked into what we thought was an interesting store that turned out to be a gift/souvenir/oddities shop that really took up four shop fronts. The place was amazing and we couldn’t help but grab some things. I liked the town so much that I bought a shirt with it’s name on it. Arizona delivers! While we were at the counter, Mark spotted some old photos and the young girl brought them down for us to look at (after I fell for the Jackalope heads mounted on the wall - just like a drop bear story I guess). The photos showed the main street in the 50s and 60s. It's been very cool looking at old photos and comparing them to the new in many places that we’ve been. I think America is very proud of it’s heritage. 

So, it’s off to Vegas in the morning. I’m very excited as I’ll be seeing Jamie and meeting my friend Connie. Connie and I have known each other for over 10 years now and although we Skype frequently, we’ve never been in the same room, or city, country or hemisphere before. It’s going to be good.

See the Canyon and Williams photos here.