Today marked the hundredth day of my trip and was also the day I would finally get to see the Grand Canyon which always appears near the top of all the spectacular travel lists in the world. We even managed to get up reasonably early since we would be driving and walking around all day. The sun shone but there was a chill in the air which would only get deeper. We scoffed our bran flakes in the room and went off to discover the next great American State park. Daniella really isn’t a very good navigator, I had put in a random road for the town by the park village and was following those directions and we passed the turning for the south rim without me seeing it. Dani did say something but then waited for another 50 miles before mentioning that we had probably gone past the turning. The random road was the highway that leads to the village and I had obviously messed up but she should have more forcefully told me I had passed the junction. Oh well, cursing our dual doziness we had to turn around and head back. More time wasted we could be spending in the canyon though. At the junction we stopped for coffee and m&m’s. As I’m getting in the car a woman pulls up and tells me that the coffee I had just bought isn’t very good and I should be buying it from the coffee place just around the corner. Apparently they make it with ground water. Great. Thanks for telling me I wasted my $1.20! Like I’m now going to tip it away and go buy some more…..

We finally got on the right road and knew it was all good as we saw the metal placard telling us trucks weren’t welcome in the park. A good sign! Bam-Dum-Tshhhhhh! The sun was now gone and more snow started to appear by the side of the road. My stomach started feeling tight and I poured the rest of the coffee away. It was either the power of suggestion or it really was bad but that woman ruined my cup of morning joe! We could see the canyons starting to open up on our right hand side and I now realized this road was more the exit from the park. I had seen a travel show where the tour guide made a blind man chain with his passengers and directed them to the rim for a spectacular surprise, there wouldn’t be any of that on this trip :( We certainly were in the grand canyon before I had even shown my national parks pass. I bought it in Florida for $80 and it was a bit of a mistake really. I hadn’t gotten value for money at all. Maybe I should stay in America another 9 months and really use it :p I don’t think so. January 6th was the date I had to leave and that is when I would be out of there…

We drove up to the Desert View area to get a proper look over the edge and despite the slight chill it was the wind that really got you. I’m guessing the Grand Canyon is completely different in the summer but without my hat and gloves I was soon suffering for the view. The wind was biting and we stood by the tower at Desert View for only a short time before we had to get away from the edge. The rim was high enough to remain covered in snow but the bottom of the canyon was much warmer and was relatively clear of it. There was plenty on the edge to make it kind of treacherous but I don’t think we were in any danger. It was another few miles to the south rim and a bit too far to walk so we drove over for a look at the main tourist site and to check out the visitors’ center. The place was packed, mostly with Chinese and Japanese tourists it seemed. The sun was peeking through occasionally to highlight the colours deep in the canyon but it seemed we’d chosen the wrong day to come to one of the wonders of the natural world. There was lots of information about walks and we left the south rim to drive away from all the tourist concentration and do one of the hikes along the rim and a bit of peace and quiet. We parked up by one of the posh and ridiculously expensive hotels overlooking the canyon, packed up some supplies and set off to the west.

I thought we couldn’t drive any further but we could hear and occasionally see the cars also heading west as we tramped along the paths. It would have been great to take a full day hike down into the canyon itself but we were now short on time and this afternoon was all we would have. The path was pretty empty, we passed a couple taking the usual funny angle pictures like anyone would believe the Canyon had tilted 45°. At the next outlook we were alone apart from a guy and his dog but were soon joined by an American family. They wanted to know if the Grand Canyon was one of the wonders of the world. I told them that was a difficult question and the lists are constantly revised and changed. I named the 3 wonders of the ancient world that I knew and it wasn’t on that list. They seemed to be satisfied with my answer and then I pretended to try to push Daniella off the edge

The path was cold and slippy. My boots were rubbing me too, by the time we walked past the abandoned Uranium mine they have there I was ready to go back and we went to look for a bus stop which we found by one of the lookouts. They only ran every hour after sunset and the sun had just gone down. Seems we might have made a boo-boo. We walked the 50 meters back to the road figuring we could probably hitch back quicker and get the bus if/when it passed. We waited a few minutes and a few cars passed us by, probably thinking we were 2 crazies on the road and then a mini-van pulled up with the wonder of the world family. We had a few minutes to chat as they took us the 5 miles or so back down to our car and they were off to Disneyland in a couple of days and the wife then started going on about how the Lord blessed them with this trip etc etc. They seemed quite normal on the rim :p We were grateful for a lift though and again they were more impressed with the fact Dani was from Canada than my status as a Englishman. I guess I need a cooler country!

It was now dark and time to leave. We flirted with the idea of coming back the following day to hike down to the bottom but it didn’t seem like a good idea with the amount of snow on the trails. Next year! We drove south towards the I-20 and civilization. The Grand Canyon is a massive park and we listened on the radio about how they were thinking of reintroducing wolves there. We didn’t see any wildlife at all apart from the odd bird but then it was the middle of winter. I was just mental bitching at the guy that was 2 car lengths behind me when I saw 2 deer by the side of the road and one decided he was going to run out in front of me. I had told Dani that if any animals were going to run out in front of the car I would rather run them over than serve and brake heavily and end up on my roof but that mostly referred to little critters. These deer were pretty big and the mess if I hit one would be pretty brutal. I braked pretty heavily and just missed it. Fortunately the guy behind had probably seen it as well because somehow I wasn’t penalized for my attentiveness by getting slammed into the rear. We both started breathing again and then I noticed he decided it would be best to trail a hundred meters behind from now on. Well done moron, seems it takes nearly getting 2 cars crashed to figure out you shouldn’t be driving up my ass!

American drivers are pretty bad I reckon. Not that I’m going to win any prizes myself but I have no rush and like to cruise along just under the speed limit taking in the view and conserving my fuel. This means everyone and his dog likes to pass me and since my cruise control had stopped working in Florida I was erring on the side of slower speeds since I was having to manually work the pedals. It sure was taking its toll on my backside though, more than a few hours of pushing that pedal gave me a cramp in my right buttock that wasn’t nice. I would have to get it looked at when I finally got a service. The car was running well too, I managed to remember to check the oil every once in a while and it was fine on that, the transmission oil was also holding steady and was still waiting for my first flat tyre. I still wanted to pick up a regular tyre somewhere but hadn’t thought of it much since Miami. I saw a guy driving on the spare donut and that gave me a good reminder. It didn’t look at all safe. I could live with being the slowest guy on the highway as long as I was going to get wherever it was I was going in one piece.

We found a statepark near Williams but it was closed for the season. Down in town we checked the internet and figured it would be best to take a 30 mile diversion east to Flagstaff and sleep in the walmart carpark there. Flagstaff had the added advantage of a vegetarian café called Macys so maybe we could get some non deadly food too! We sat there drinking nice decaf and making couchsurfing requests for the following night until they kicked us out and then we went and set up the bed. Amazing how quick you can do it when its -5° :)



You might also want to read....