Day 7 - Lake Havasu City to Grand Canyon

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We were up fairly early today. I went for a last swim in the lake then we had breakfast and left at about 9.00am, but even that early it was really hot and the air-con was on full. There was a lot of freeway driving again today, most of it on one long straight road through the desert. The weather deteriorated as we approached the Grand Canyon area and we passed through a huge thunderstorm on the freeway. The local radio stations (half a dozen stations playing country and western!) were giving flash flood warnings with some roads closed, and in places we could see rivers of mud running through culverts under the road.

We arrived at Grand Canyon National Park in the middle of a torrential downpour and it rained steadily for the next few hours. The temperature had been dropping as we climbed towards the canyon (about 6000 ft in all) and it was only around 17 or 18 degrees when we arrived, but Sam isn't a hot-weather person and was quite happy with the cooler weather.

When we arrived we had a bit of trouble finding our accommodation; there are lots of different lodges hidden away in the woodland around the Southern rim of the canyon in Grand Canyon Village and we did a few circuits of the place before we found our lodge. It's a very quiet and peaceful place and every attempt is made to blend the buildings with the surroundings (everything painted green).

Despite the rain we walked over to see the canyon and took a few photos, but the rain soon became torrential and we headed back for the car. We drove around looking for other viewpoints and we got to the Grandview Point just as the rain stopped and the sky started to brighten.

We got a really good view of a large part of the canyon and it really is amazing to see. I've seen pictures and read about it on the Internet but I really didn't appreciate its scale and the impact it has. Even Sam was impressed; he just sat looking for ages. The rain and mist muted the colours a little but it was still an amazing sight. There are lots of walks and tours into the canyon, but with the shortest of these being a 6-hour donkey ride we didn't have time to do any. Maybe next time!

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