Flagstaff to Grand Canyon

A slightly later start today and we were out of Flagstaff by 9. A slight change in plan took us to Williams,AZ which is the ‘Gateway to the Grand Canyon’.

It’s a pretty small place and very quiet when we were there so nothing of note really - after that we doubled back slightly to Bearizona, a drive through safari park. Whilst the drive through section is fairly short, you do see quite a lot including bears (obviously), wolves, bison. They reinforce the fact that through the bears and wolves you have to keep your windows up, and given how close the animals came we were happy to oblige! There is also an attached walk through park i.e small zoo. This was pretty good too, especially as the animals were different to that which we normally see. For instance porcupines, otters, beavers, foxes, bobcats and more bears. And one called a javelina - they are not pretty...

We had lunch and another loop round the drive through before leaving, great way to spend a few hours.

Then back to Williams for gas - ridiculous price difference of over a dollar a gallon either side of the I40! Glad I googled it so we could shop around .

Then we were off to the Grand Canyon, a nice straight drive from Williams. Despite the fact it was only a holiday inn, this hotel was the most expensive per night of our trip!! Any hotels in Tusaysn or Grand Canyon village are ridiculously in demand. After checking in and relaxing for a bit, we set off for the rim. After we’d paid, parked (naturally we chose the car park furthest away by accident) and a walk to the rim, I genuinely can say my jaw has never dropped so much. It was so amazing I even shed a tear. We walked along the rim trail from look out point to point and it took ages before my mind could even contemplate what it was seeing. It was also alarming easy to fall off a cliff face and my legs felt funny every time we saw someone be reckless or climb down to stand in an inadvisable position.

We were lucky enough to have perfect whether and the picture for today was taken as we sat and watched the sunset. The beauty and peace of the moment was only spoilt by the loud Aussie family whose children were a) disobedient and b) way too bloody close to the edge for my comfort so god knows how their parents were cool with it!

I’d prebooked dinner at El Tovar, a historic hotel in the village. Was lovely food in a magnificent venue. The short drive to the hotel was rather harey due to the local deer almost adding themselves to the days road kill count.

Hotel #12 Holiday inn Express, Tusayan, AZ

Road kill count, 1 small, 1 giant critter, 1 skunk type thing 0 deer despite their best efforts.