Advertisement
Published: April 21st 2006
Edit Blog Post
The Hoover Dam
From the Arizona side, looking back to Nevada. Well, it was easier said than done. Despite the strange sacharrin-sweet superficial commerciality of Las Vegas, the town was really quite more-ish. And yet the excitement must pall very quickly - when all's said and done there is not a lot more than gambling and drinking to do there. The general consensus was that it's a fantastic place to visit....but to live there full time you'd have to be marginally psycho (or end up that way at least). So we somewhat unwillingly wound it up, and after a rather sugary but extremely satisfying pancake breakfast courtsey of the Hostel, we set out for our first real supermarket shop! Eating out all the time, while cheap in the right places, is not always hugely wholesome and can still chew through the cash, so fruit, veggies and pasta featured on our list. Then we pointed ourselves... east north east, I guess! Bound for Flagstaff, Arizona - via the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead.
The Dam is just past the kitsch wee desert town of Boulder. Built in the 30s, it provides most of the electricity for the desert - including Vegas, and Lake Mead is a major recreation area. Ju was charmed
Jenny and the Dam
The amount of concrete used is mind boggling - enough to make a highway halfway across the States by the clock towers on the Dam - the one on the near side showing 2pm and marked 'Nevada Time' and on the far side marked 'Arizona Time' - also showing 2pm strangely enough. There were a lot of roading improvements going on on the Nevada side, which meant the traffic was backed up quite some way and we got extremely hot. We also made it through a couple of security checkpoints to Jenny's chagrin...her lifelong dream to have her picture taken with a sheriff was not to be fulfilled today. However, we decided, seeing as we were there, we should take a walk on the Dam thing (hehe) so we joined the throngs - it's obviously quite an attraction for tourists, I guess because it is a handy waypoint for Grand Canyon visitors - lots of Vegas to Canyon tours include the Dam, and so did we happily clove to convention and did the same.
From there it was a pleasant drive though the warm desert, which gradually changed to expanses of forest with melting patches of snow as we climbed higher through the hills to Flagstaff, which gradually materialised around us in the form of glimpses of
Arizona Time
You can see how low the lake is by the bleaching of the rocks in the background! houses through the trees. We were very careful to watch for elk as the road signs warned us. We arrived at the DuBeau Hostel just on dinner time, and having had our fill of dorms over the last weeks, and finding private rooms were just as cheap, we sprang for our own space, and it was nice to be able to spread our things out a bit. After a sustaining dinner of pasta, we indulged in a game of foosball (hilarity ensued of course), followed by an email session, and rounding out the day chatting with the friendly and helpful guy on the front desk, we retired full of enthusiasm for the day ahead.
The Grand Canyon Driving in to the Canyon you can't see anything - the rims are elevated and covered in trees, so the place itself is completely hidden right up til you're at the edge. It was an exciting suspense filled drive though - Jenny driving and me reading out random facts from the guide book, and we knew that just ahead of us the Canyon was there! We came in to the Mather's Point overlook, parked the car - and suddenly this amazing vista
Jenny in Flagstaff
Making new friends again! I figured this guy would be pretty handy in a fight and didn't want to get on his bad side ;) opened up in front of us. The scale was just mind boggling, the Grand Canyon really is the original 'you had to be there' experience. Words really can't describe it, and neither can our photographs. Suffice it to say we loved it and kept a respectful distance from the edge (unlike some nutters who were indulging in amateur rock climbing). Even being there I think it takes a long time to sink in fully.
Amazing textures and colours of rock, stacked and turreted and scraped away, for mile upon mile across and along and opening out in all directions. And far below, the cause of it all, the tiny little wriggle of blue that is the Colorado River. A quick stop by the Visitor's Centre for info and more postcards, and we were back at the rim for more gazing at the view while eating the ubiquitous marmite sandwich, washed down with hard won avocado scraped out of its shell by Doritos. Finally the rock we were sititng on began to argue its rockness, and we made the move back to the car, going a little further along to the Yavapai observation station.
Unfortunately the observation station is
Mathers Point overlook
Our first view of the Grand Canyon... currently closed - there is road work and impovement all around that area - but from the overlook we had a fantastic view of the rain heavy skies closing in, and attempted to capture the play of the distant light, cloud and rain playing on the rock, until the rain became not very distant at all and we again took refuge in the car, heading to the Grand Canyon Post Office where we confirmed the price of postage and sent some of our epistles on their way home (check your postmarks, folks.)
Being as the Canyon is huge, the weather was iffy, and it was getting late, we regretfully decided we couldn't head further west into the park, and we set off east along Highway 64, or as the segment in the Park is known, 'Desert View Drive'. There are numerous named overlooks and rest areas, and we stopped to photograph all of them, lamenting the insipidness of the resulting images compared to the real thing. It's just impossible to capture. Definitely another place for Ju to come back to, to spend a couple of weeks - it would be the experience of a lifetime to raft down the
Clouds closing in over the Grand Canyon
Sadly the cloud cover didn't make for the best photos but it didn't stop us from stopping every few feet to snap away. river.
Ending up at Desert View Tower, built Indian style in the 1930s from rock chosen to blend with the surroundings, filled with Native American paintings and influences, we could see east to the Arizona desert, in the north east the canyon turned away and dwindled to its beginnings, and the great scar to the west overwhelmed with its - can I say it - Grandness.
Awe-struck and subdued, we allowed the highway to turn us away into the desert - a desert quite different from the Californian desert - pinker and redder - intensified by the incredible sunset. Heading up Highway 160 we were in a hostel-free zone, so we drove until we reached Tuba City, in the Navajo Nation, and checked ourselves into the Greyhills Inn, where we found true American style bliss sitting with sodas in our twin queen beds, watching Scrubs and polishing off the Doritos.
Four Corners Not far from Tuba City there is a rather special place - Four Corners State Park, which is the only place in the United States where you can literally be in four places at once. The corners of Utah to the north west, Arizona to
Jenny admires the view
This was actually the start of a hiking trail so we went a little way down into the Canyon. Enough to know they are not kidding when they say how much water you should carry there! the south west, New Mexico to the south east and Colorado to the noth east all come together here, and there is a monument to mark the exact spot. Braving the increasingly cold and windy weather, naturally we each had to place hands and feet one in each state, and run around the metal platform like children to get the full experience. Being on a Native American reservation, the entry fee included visits to many craft and jewelery stalls placed in a wide circle around the four corners, which we oohed and aahed about for some time, Jenny eventually purchasing a very cute small turquoise bear loaded with guardianship and symbolism.
Next up -
Colorado Entering Colorado again showed differences between the states - wide rocky desert landscapes eventually giving way to tree covered hillsides. After a quick food stocking visit to Cortez, we climbed briefly into Mesa Verde National Park, a huge outcrop rising far above the plain and giving outstanding views. Mesa Verde is known for its archaelogical sites, some pre historic and others dating mere centuries ago. Unfortunately they were all at the other end of the Park, and we felt the need to be somewhere
Stopping to enjoy the rocks
Ju and a bag of Doritos - we get down like that. warm by nightfall, so we pressed on to gorgeous Durango and the highly recommended and recomendable Siesta Motel.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.213s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 51; dbt: 0.104s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Kate Hildebrand
Kate Hildebrand
I love your blog- you guys sound like so much fun! re: Arizona time, I think its because Arizona does not observe daylight savings time- except for the Navajo Nation in Arizona- excluding the Hopi Nation within the Navajo Reservation.