On Sunday, Paulita and I crossed the road from Motel 6 to buy doughnuts, juice and strawberries for breakfast (the hotel supplied coffee). Once everyone had roused and been fed, we set off through Winslow, which is an interesting, historical little western town, with an old fashioned cinema in an early twentieth century building, which interests Paulita.
We set off for the Meteor Crater, which is not far from Winslow. This is one of about 150 known meteor craters in the world, and is regarded as one of the best preserved, most complete, and was actually the first to be proved. It is rather a strange feeling to sit on the edge of a meteor crater and wonder what fell from the sky and what impact it had. In fact this crater was probably made about 50,000 years ago, and we do know what sort of material hit it, as there is quite a big lump surviving in the visitor centre. We spent about an hour and then said good bye to Chidi, Kate, Paulita, Zaria and Freya with lots of hugs and kisses and admonishments to take care of our various selves. I was a bit overcome and tearful, to my shame. It was partly because I'd felt so at home and comfortable with Chidi and his family and didn't want to leave them, and perhaps a little of that feeling that we were off into the big wide world...! It's a long, long way to Chicago.
James, Oksy and I drove off however with our hearts full of anticipation. After all it is not everyone who gets to see the Grand Canyon (though apparently 6,400 car loads a day do ...!). As we drove towards Flagstaff, we saw one place called Two Guns, and another called Twin Arrows: our mood lifted. Who's wouldn't? Soon we arrived at a National Park called Walnut Canyon, and decided to take a quick look. It proved to be well worth a look as the sides of the canyon are riddled with ancient dwellings set into the cliffs. Spectacular. After a shortish stroll along the rim of the canyon, we set off again, stopping at Flagstaff for a fast food lunch, and then following a very scenic route among pine trees with glimpses of snow capped Humphrey's Peak (12633 feet) to our right.
We arrived at Tusayon village (which is 1 mile from the Grand Canyon South Rim Park Entrance Gate) at 3:45 pm, and checked into our hotel, probably the poshest we'll stay in on this trip. As soon as we'd dropped our luggage, we drove up to the Grand Canyon, using our newly acquired annual National Park Pass ( $80 for up to 3 adults for a year, but worth it for us on this trip as the Grand Canyon alone would have cost $25 for entries, Bryce will cost another $25 and there are various smaller National Parks we'll look at on the way, like Walnut Canyon, which cost around $10 or $20. Best of all I can post it to Chidi and Kate as I've left a signature space for them and they can use it until April next year).
Entering the Grand Canyon South Rim area, everything is very organised and managed, but not in an intrusive or horrible way. They have so many visitors a year, that they have had to develop systems to cope. One of these is their shuttle bus system which provides regular buses all day from one viewing point on the South Rim to another. There are trails all along the South Rim and a number of trails into the Canyon. To get right down into the Canyon requires proper equipment, fitness levels, and time: you can't get down and back in one day. This first evening we walked along the rim, to and from the Yavapai Observation post from Mather point (about 1.4 miles), took photos of the sunset and of a cooperative deer, and then went for dinner at the Arizona Room of Bright Angel Lodge. This is written up in LP as one of the places to eat, because you sit beside windows with great canyon views in the departing sunlight, and there is supposed to be good food at modest prices. The views are great, but the food was disappointingly mediocre and the prices were not as cheap as we expected - partly because everything has a really hefty sales tax of 9.9% in Arizona at present. It didn't really matter. We were feeling mellow and privileged. We drove down to Tusayon in the pitch dark and had a good night's sleep.
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