Thursday, September 29, 2011

Day 10 - Flagstaff, AZ to Williams, AZ

No trip across the US would be complete without a trip to one of the major National Parks, and thus today we drove the short leg of 66 to Williams, before breaking off to see the largest hole in the ground Arizona has to offer, the Grand Canyon.

But first, heading out of Flagstaff we detoured to see yet another 'Muffler Man', a lumberjack this time, once stationed outside Granny's Closet where we ate last night, and now the mascot for Northern Arizona University.

Our drive to Williams was fairly uneventful, the pine forests making a refreshing change from the plains of the last couple of days, and they stayed with us all the way to the Grand Canyon. And what is there to say about it that wouldn't be an understatement? Most people have seen pictures of it, and like ours they don't really do it justice. Simply, if you've already been, you know what we're talking about, and if you haven't then we hope our photo's inspire you to visit.






A little intrepid off-roading at the Canyon edge


The Colorado River winding through the bottom of the canyon

We stayed to watch the sunset, which was fabulous, and it's so dark round here there were far more stars visible than we're used to in Chicago.  Even though we're arrivng in the dark and missing some of Williams, this made it worth while...


A quite magical sunset

There is a train to the Grand Canyon, and anyone who knows us will be surprised we didn't take it, but it was rather expensive and we heard somewhat gimmicky - cowboys etc 'entertaining' you the whole way, and the train being 'held up' on the way back. So we decided against it, and we were glad as we would have missed out on the sunset, and you get quite used to being able to set your own schedule.  However, don't despair, we are making up for it, we're sleeping in a rail car this evening - photo's tomorrow.

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