So excited - we're going to the GRAND CANYON today! It's 80 miles away but the scenery should be fantastic. Set off about 9.00am & drove through countryside not unlike Cannock Chase only bigger. We stopped at a small carpark & went for a walk around a circuit in the woods with views of a mountain with snow in the distance. Lovely & peaceful. Then we carried on & stopped at Tusayan where we had coffee & then went into the Imax cinema & saw the most amazing film about the history of the Grand Canyon, including when the Indians lived there & how the white men discovered & charted it. All in 3D so it felt as if we were going down the Colorado river, which was brilliant! Very well worth the $12.50 each.
After buying a few bits in the gift shop we continued on the few miles to the GC. It was only $25 per vehicle to drive in.
We drove through to the carpark & walked over to the walkway & then WOW!!!! Nothing can prepare you for the breathtaking view, pictures don't do it justice, it is AMAZING! Put it on your list of places you have to go in your lifetime.
We walked along the paths round the South Rim & could have stayed there for days just looking, the scale of it & the clarity of the air can't really be described. It looked as if we'd hardly walked anywhere on the map but we did, it's so massive.
Then, after a few hours, we drove to the Market Plaza & posted some postcards, hopefully they'll have the Grand Canyon post mark on them.
We stopped at Grand View Point, Moran Point, Lipan Point , Navajo Point & finally, Desert View, where there's a tower you can go up for even better views. We kept getting glimpses of the Colorado River in the distance & wished we could go down to it but time & age was against us!
Drove the 80 miles back to our hotel through the wonderful countryside again & got back just as it was getting really dark. Flagstaff has hardly any lights as they don't want to spoil the clarity of looking at the stars so it was a challenge to find our hotel again.
A WONDERFUL, UNFORGETTABLE DAY!
Day 28 Flagstaff - Blanding, Utah 12.5.12
Woken at 5.45am by a bunch of French people (not young ones!) who decided if they were up & about then so should everyone else be! Had breakfast about 8.30am & packed ready to move on to Blanding.
As we got closer to the Monument Valley area the landscape became much more rugged, just like the cowboy films from my youth!
We stopped at Tuba City for a coffee & most of the people were Native Americans. Then we booked our jeep tour of the valley for tomorrow afternoon & carried on the 68 miles to Blanding through real cowboy territory. Arrived at our hotel & Blanding is little more than a street with a supermarket. The hotel was lovely & quiet with a good room. Went to the shop & bought some food, Blanding is a 'dry' town - NO ALCOHOL!
Managed to find a channel on the tv showing 'Doc Martin' & 'New Tricks'.
Day 29 Blanding 13.5.12
Our trip isn't until 4.00pm this afternoon so we had a lazy morning & did a load of washing. One of the great things about this trip is meeting people & we had a great chat to a couple from Ireland at breakfast, exchanging tips on where to go etc.
Left about 12.30 to drive the 68 miles to the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Village. $5 each to go in & we looked around & bought a few bits in the gift shop then ate some sandwiches looking out over John Wayne's favourite view of the valley, not a bad place to eat! He made 4 films here & Johnny Depp has just finished making the new 'Lone Ranger' film there too.
Then we went to get on our jeep & it held 20 people. We were last on ( of course!) & had to sit by 2 older guys, the one I sat by was from Arizona & Roy got the Croatian one.
Our driver & guide was a genuine Navajo called Jonah & he was very knowledgeable & likeable. We went to a 'hogan' which is the native house & saw an old lady weaving. Then started driving around the track, my goodness, they were really bumpy! We stopped off at certain places to get out & take pictures, but that wasn't good enough for our guys! I nicknamed them 'Statler & Waldorf'! They kept banging on the glass to tell the driver to stop & complained to him all the time because he kept missing the good shots! He didn't & was amazing with his information about all of the monuments & local customs. He even sang some Indian songs to us on the way back & drove over sand dunes to make it exciting.
This is another place for the list as you can't really explain what it's like. Absolutely amazing landscapes & so much more to see than we thought. WONDERFUL!!!
The trip ended at 7.30pm & we drove back to the hotel through the twilight. Covered in the orange sand & my hair feels like straw, can't wait for a shower!
Day 30 Blanding - Moab 14.5.12
Had breakfast & packed up for our 75 mile trip to Moab. Scenery very much like Monument Valley & we stopped at Wilson's Arch & The Hole in the Wall, which is actually a house built into a huge rock. It was great, very spacious & quirky but preserved as the people who built it in the 50's had left it when they died.
They blasted it out of the rock & ran a cafe as well. It's been kept as they left it & they are buried in a tomb that they made in the rock, a great place with all sorts of quirky things to see. This is one of those places that you don't know is there, you just stop on spec & find it very enjoyable!
We carried on to Moab & our hotel, The Sleep Inn, the first time we've stopped at this chain & we weren't disappointed, lovely room facing the mountains & overlooking the pool. Went into moab & walked by the Colorado River, did some shopping & came back for a swim in the pool & a read on the sunbeds - fab!
We went for a meal in the Moab Diner & this was our first proper meal for several days so we had soup, pork chops & apple pie, all for $30.
The Grand Canyon
On the way to Monument Valley
The jeep tour
Would have put more pics on but taking so long to download, sorry!
TTFN xxx
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