Grand Canyon

I had never seen the Grand Canyon up close.  This has been one of  the places on our list so today we drove to the Canyon.  Why drive and not fly, well there are some places that you need a car to visit and we wanted to stay through sunset.  I was not going to be flying a single engine plane around the mountains in the dark and return to Sedona at night.  So the plan was to drive.

Another advantage of driving was that we could add other stops.  We left Sedona and headed to Flagstaff where we stopped at Walnut Canyon National Monument.  Yes we are taking advantage of our National parks.  I bought the annual pass and I was going to use it.  Also they often have some of the best sights around.

The site is primarily cave dwellings.  This was our third type of cave dwelling and it was interesting to see the various types.  Some difference were due to location and some seemed due to different time periods as people progressed, things got better.

By better, I mean terrible.  As I have said before life was really hard.  The park has a nice loop trail.  One mile but 185 of vertical drop and of course rise.  It is also at 7000 feet so it was a good workout. The website says "Strenuous, especially for those not acclimated to 7,000' elevation".

They said it would take an hour but I scoffed at that, 1 mile take an hour?  Well we did the loop in 30 minutes.  The thin air was a factor but that was a leisurely 2 mph stroll.  OK, the steps were harder going up than down but we had just climbed 140 feet of ladders a few days ago, we were ready for the challenge.

Leaving Flagstaff we took a little longer route across 180 because it had a reputation for better scenery.  It did not disappoint.  Forest, plains, wild flowers and rolling terrain.  Highway 180 meets 64 where you head North to the Canyon.  64 is the faster less scenic route so in the end everyone eventually goes 64.

 As we approached the highway intersection I saw some planes ahead to the left, Valle airport is located there.  One plane caught my eye and as I approached the stop sign I made a fateful decision.  I turned left away from the park and headed South.  You would think that this would be one of those super dramatic moments but in reality, I told CC, "want to get a better look at that plane" and she said OK.

The plane ahead looked like a Martin 404.  Not just any Martin 404, but a particular one.  Just over 20 years ago for his birthday, when my Dad turned 70, I went with him and we did a checkout in the 404.  Dad had briefly flown 404s for Eastern Airline long before I was born.

The particular 404 we flew had been turned into a flying museum.  After being checked out, I flew the plane as PIC (but with a real captain) from Camarillo California to Stockton for an airshow. We spent the weekend crewing the plane for the airshow and giving tours.  I had heard that it was no longer flying and had lost track of the old bird.

As we pulled up I confirmed the paint job and registration number, N636X, that was our old friend.  Sadly it looks like she is in worse shape and now a static display at a museum.  After a few minutes of looking and a few pictures, we were back on the highway to the canyon.

Faithful readers will know we had been warned about the crowds and even told that we might have an hour wait at the park entrance.  Approaching the gate we wondered, the other predictions of long waits had not panned out.  The gate came into site and we joined one of the lines.  We were the 5th car.   We have an annual pass and it looked like many other had them too so the line moved quickly.  We were in the park in less than 3 minutes.

The park was not empty but it was not full. Lots of bus tour tourists, many from other countries.  I always like saying Good Afternoon to the Japanese tourists in Japanese.  They are always surprised an American can speak their language.

We headed to the main visitor center and found a space easily.  A quick walk and we were at the Canyon Edge.  We had made it.  We walked the rim to several vantage points.  While the main ones were busy, the smaller stops were pretty empty and we often had the canyon almost to ourselves.

We also saw the infamous squirrels.  The park is home to many animals, some dangerous.  The most dangerous though is the squirrel, don't laugh.  They carry disease and they have no fear of people.  They can read the signs saying it is illegal to harm the animals.  Thus they are bold and will try and steal food and they bite.  What are you gonna do, can't touch them...

After the main visitor area we headed West along the rim to the Grand Canyon Village and decided to take a chance.  The big parking lots had many spaces but they were a walk from the rim.  We drove to the tiny lot by the canyon rim.  As we arrived we found some people leaving and scored their space right next to the visitor center.  We were less than 300 feet from the rim.  (Our car is the white one on the right)

We took another walk along the rim and came upon a Turkey Vulture preening itself.  Then we heard about a pair of Elk further down the path, so we sauntered down and found one lazy Elk.  We continued the walk for a while and enjoyed the views.

We decided to go back and explore the visitor center and the buildings by the rim.  The visitor center had a mini museum showing the growth of tourism at the Canyon.  There were also hotels, an art gallery and food.  We had bought snacks and water before entering the park but we had skipped lunch so of course we had to get ice cream.  Canyon Ice cream was pretty good.

I thought we would have too much time at the Canyon, how long can you stare at a ditch? After the Ice Cream I looked at my watch and and we were out of time.  We had thought about taking the red line shuttle bus for views further West but those views would have to wait until Thursday.  Leaving the lot we went by the bus stop and it was pretty crowded so skipping the bus seemed like a good plan.

The sun was descending and we had a plan for sunset.  We drove East to the Dessert View Watchtower.  This overlook is near the Eastern edge of the park and known for nice sunsets.  Over half the lot was empty so parking was not an issue.

On the drive to the watchtower we had come across a less lazy Elk eating.  We pulled off the road a respectful distance to watch.  Soon the Elk crossed the road demonstrating to the chicken how to do it.  This meant the Elk was closer than we liked so we entered the relative safety of our car and headed on as we had a date with the sunset and the sun waits for no man or beast..

We arrived just in time to climb the watchtower before it closed for the evening.  You can walk to the top but it is all enclosed and has windows so it makes getting clear pictures hard.  It was still a fun diversion.

We had about 20 minutes until the sun set and we alternated watching the sun set and the light fade on the canyon walls.  Yes we avoided looking directly at the sun.  Once the walls went dim, we turned and watch the sun dip below the horizon.  It was pretty clear and we could see that exact instant when the sun set.

The drive home was a bit of a challenge.  We had about 40 minutes of twilight and then it was really dark.  There are no lights on the highway.  The roads to Flagstaff are very good but the last 25 miles is down 89A which is not great.  It has about 3 miles of 15 mph hairpin curves with steep grades as you descend from Flagstaff.  After that it is just a dark, narrow road.

There was also road work this evening so about 12 miles out we had to stop as it went to one lane.  After waiting our turn we got stuck behind a jeep that was going well below speed limit and would slow down randomly.  I think he just liked to annoy the 100 cars behind him, think 20 in a 35 zone with no possibility to pass.  I stayed cool though and we eventually returned to our Sedona hotel.