Grand Canyon and the end of a journey

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November 5th 2012

Published: November 22nd 2012

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Some peace away from the crowds

You just have to go find a precipice somewhere. Grand Canyon National Park

After 2 days at Zion we hit the road once more down to Grand Canyon South rim village. I had seen the Grand Canyon before but it was Jamie’s first time and he was definitely impressed. We arrived in time for sunset and we were treated to a great show. The only minor gripe was there was a fire nearby which resulted in a very hazy view as the smoke settled in the canyon.

As we were contemplating life, we discussed the possibility of hiking down to Plateau Point, which is a 20km return trip into the canyon, and descends 3,000 feet. This still isn’t all the way to the Colorado river. That hike is much further and not to be attempted in a single day. We pretty much made up our minds to hike to Plateau Point the next morning, but when we woke up our bones and muscles reminded us how much hiking we had done over the past week and we aborted the mission. Probably a wise decision in hindsight.

The next day we had another long look at the canyon and went on our way to Flagstaff. We made detours at Sunset Canyon - containing

The site of volcanic activity

Sunset Crater National Monument

a number of relatively recent volcanos, and Wupatki Ruins – an ancient Navajo Indian settlement (1,100AD). We also ventured out to Meteor Crater which believe it or not is where a massive meteor struck Earth around 50,000 years ago. It is 1.2km wide and 170m deep. Unfortunately this is privately owned and operated so was a little tacky and expensive. Still an impressive sight nonetheless. The guy who discovered it spent 27 years trying to find the meteor buried underneath the surface, but little did he know that most of the meteor was instantly vaporised. That’s a shame.

We found an Indian place for dinner which was very good, and the host spent 10 minutes at the end of the meal talking about cricket. My cricket knowledge isn’t very good these days, but I reeled off enough names to keep him happy. Andrew Symonds.

We took the scenic road for the last time the next day on our return to Phoenix, through Sedona and the red rock country. This is 2^nd behind only the Grand Canyon in tourism in Arizona. I deduced that most of the tourists contributing to these statistics were in a geriatric state. Still nice

Meteor Crater

scenery though.

Jamie and I capped off our last night together with some beers and basketball at a sports bar and reflected on the past 2 weeks. We savoured the moment like the last bite of a hot fudge chocolate brownie that had been wolfed down too hastily. We were quite content with life.

The next day I flew to Denver and Jamie to Albuquerque, our heads a little worse for wear but clear in the knowledge that we had a brilliant trip that won't soon be forgotten.

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