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Published: September 16th 2011
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What can I say? Absolutely fantastic! You are driving along another one of those roads that go on for ever and all of a sudden you glimpse these shapes in the distance and you just want to start singing western movie theme tunes!
Again the sheer size and scale of the rock formations is hard to describe or get an accurate feel for in a photo, but they are amazing.
We pulled up at the visitor centre and had a look at the drive it yourself road and could soon see why they advised you to only attempt it in a 4x4! Rough it was! Unfortunately the tours were very expensive - $75 each so we hummed and haaahhhed and ate our sarnies while hoping someone would sidle up to us and offer to take us out for a fraction of the price – well if it happened to Abi so we hoped it would happen to us! Unfortuately not and as the $150 dollars would probably pay for our biking trip in Thailand and we were pushed for time we decided against it.
The views from the visitor centre were staggering enough so we had a good
look round, took pictures and then spotted a group of 6 bikers one of who had a Yorkshire Dragoon back patch, Howard made some comment about taking me there once and one said I doubt it, it doesn’t exist now and it’s in Teesside!!!! Ha ha they were from Hartburn, Thornaby and Ingleby Barwick!!!!!! Small world or what?! Had a good chat with them and then it was time to move on.
On the way to the Grand Canyon we spotted a sign for a scenic overlook, with a few cars and some Indian jewellery stalls so we decided to pull in and have a look. We walked along a really rough uneven track and suddenly we were at the edge of a very narrow but very very deep canyon. I looked down and instantly started to feel weird, this little voice in my head said get back and my body was already moving before I realised it, I was staggering backwards and absolutely terrified! Vertigo or what? That was it I was back up that track as fast as possible, it left we feeling weird and slightly sick for about 10 minutes. YUKKKKK!
We got to the
Grand Canyon in the late afternoon and already the sky was really grey and gloomy. By the time we walked to the look out (me with a great deal of trepidation) the view was already starting to be obscured by massive rain clouds. It was such a shame and not the first glimpse I expected! The rain was moving along the canyon really rapidly so we decided to cut our losses and drive onto the Lodge we were staying at. Of course being Howard we stopped at every view point on the way – just incase it had cleared! We did actually manage a few good views to be fair. I was just amazed at the sheer size of the place – how wide the canyon was.
We found our accommodation and as there was supposed to be a sports bar there we decided to check it out and have a couple of beers (to dark and cold and wet to do anything else), the bar turned out to be the pizza restaurant with a couple of screens showing baseball. Why is it America does not have bars as we know them? On all our travels apart from in
Deadwood we haven’t found a single proper bar, most strange!! Anyway had a beer and then back to bed, hoping for good weather in the morning.
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