We arrived in Williams, Arizona at lunchtime on Wednesday. This is a great little town slap bang on the famous Route 66. Everywhere we look there are little stores selling Route 66 merchandise, there are classic 60's diners and saloons and restaurants, gas stations and motels. We have even found "Rod's Steakhouse", where we hope to have dinner.
Spent the afternoon shopping for gifts etc, and headed for the Grand Canyon, about an hour away, where we booked into the RV park for the night - luckily, we got the last vacancy. The Grand Canyon is located in a desert environment on the high pains of Arizona. It is surrounded by desert vegetation, red dirt and not much else. But once you reach the canyon, it is mind blowing. The RV park was not quite as mind blowing, though comfortable and cheap enough. The problem was that because it is for RVs only, it had toilets but no showers. This was only a a problem because our hot water system is not working. So, the trek to the showers takes about 10 minutes each way. That didn't phase us and we spent the night in anticipation of the Canyon visit the following morning. The RV park is inside the Grand Canyon National Park, and wildlife is everywhere. Our camp was even visited by four deer just on dusk (we think it was Rudloph's cousins), and they grazed happily amongst the RVs and the people.
We set out for the Canyon early on Thursday expecting to be impressed. We were not impressed with the Canyon, we were completely blown away. It is the most amazing sight we have ever seen - the canyon itself is HUGE - 277 miles long, between 8 and 16 miles wide, and is 1 mile deep. The landforms and colours and shapes and everything about the place defy description. We took loads of photos, but there is no doubt that they will not do it justice. It is incredible, and is easily the most impressive thing any of us have ever seen.
We attended an excellent talk by a Park Ranger on the Geology of the canyon, then headed to the IMAX theatre for a film, which we really loved.
Then the HIGHLIGHT. A helicopter flight over the canyon. We had booked a 1 hour flight, but because of the high winds today, that flight was cancelled as it was too dangerous, so we settled for the 30 minute flight which was running. If we thought the canyon was impressive from ground level, flying over it was another dimension entirely. We flew into ravines, over ridges and down valleys. We saw the rapids of the Colorado River and the sheer scale of the place is something we are all struggling with. WE LOVED IT. We have all rated it the highlight of the trip - New York was wonderful and we would all go back there in a minute, but this is AWESOME. It really makes you stop and think about what a tiny speck we are on this wonderful planet.
It was back to reality following the flight, and a 60 minute drive back to Williams for the night. We booked into a very new and schmick RV park, and managed to contact an RV mechanic who will look at our faulty hot water system in the morning. Thankfully, this park has showers for tonight.
What a day. We will talk about it for years and remember it forever.
Tomorrow, Hoover Dam and Vagas (on Friday night). How sad !!
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