Flagstaff & a huge great hole in the floor

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After Tucson I headed up just to spend 1 night in Flagstaff and see the Grand Canyon. My original plan was to take the shuttle bus from the hostel to the canyon, but it turned out that cost $60 for the round trip which I just didn't want to spend. Instead I got up at 7am and just asked random people at the hostel if they were driving to the grand canyon that day. After about an hour and a half with no luck, I discovered a very friendly couple who were driving out at 9am and driving back at 5pm which was perfect as that's how long I wanted to spend there. I helped pay for gas and the vehicle entry fee, and ended up spending $11 which was 1 dollar less than the $12 entry fee it would cost me just to enter the national park on foot (so it was actually cheaper than if I had hitch-hiked or somehow walked there).

The Grand Canyon itself was truly amazing, and I think I took more photos there than on the rest of the trip put together (I'll upload the best ones as soon as I get the camera-cable back, I left it in L.A.). I walked for about 7 miles round the rim and then headed down for about 30 minutes into the canyon itself, but got no where near the bottom (the top is 8000 feet above sea level and the bottom, at the colorado river, is 3000 feet). After that I scrambled back out and got the free shuttle there back to the car where we drove back to Flagstaff, exhausted. That night I went out for a drink and watched a live jam-band at a local bar, then headed to the greyhound station for an overnight bus to Vegas.

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