Grand Canyon

---

After Yosemite we set about a road trip through California bringing us down the Interstates parallel to the Sierra Nevada´s and Pacific Ocean we got to the state of Arizona.

Our trip was a frustrating one - whilst America is supposedly one of the most developed nations on the planet - mobile phones don´t seem to work, there is no internet access anywhere unless you now have your own laptop with you constantly and are prepared to pay a fortune for wifi access, no one knows where anything is if you ask them a question in the street - and hardly anyone speaks English! Also the availability of good wholesome food is a joke. No wonder everyone we have seen looks so fat and unfit. All that you can get to eat is McD´s, Burger King, Wendy´s, Denny´s, Jack in a box, etc etc all serving the most plasticy burger based rubbish you have ever seen. We haven´t eaten vegetables or seen something as simple as milk for days.

Also everything is drive thru - the few times we parked up and walked people were nearly crashing their car´s in shock as they saw human beings on foot. Pharmacies, Banks, Libraries, Supermarkets etc etc are all drive thru - you never set foot out of your car here unless you are feeling unbelievably agile just for one day.

Our unorthodox trip took us over the San Andreas Fault, through San Bernadino, the Joshua Tree National Park and across the Southern reaches of the Mojave Desert. We toured the perimeter of the Edwards Air Force base and watched a really mad vertical take off and landing aircraft for a few minutes, as well as spotting the Airline grave yard in the Mojave.

It was a weird few days though - the utter annoyance we felt at so many simple things gave us the first feelings of homesickness. I guess we never expected America to be the place we´d feel so alien - we actually found it easier to communicate in places like Malaysia than the USA. We´ve been to America before, so we weren´t naive to the culture or people, but we did find it overwhelmingly dull, frustrating and unwelcoming this time. It is a huge generalisation to make I know, but we didn´t find hardly any polite or intelligent American people at all. Everyone is so bloody rude, completely thick and arrogant!

So after a bizarre night staying at a cheap Casino on the Arizona/Nevada border we put our clocks forward to Mountain time and undertook the drive up through parts of Route 66 to the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Rather than spoil the suprise, we didn´t go straight up top the Canyon Rim on our first night and instead stopped 6 miles south of the park in Tusayan. We spent the evening eating the most nutritional thing we could find - pot noodles and crisps and went to watch the excellent Imax movie, Secrets of the Canyon. Apparently this is the most watched of all of the Imax films.

The next morning we set off reasonably early and drove to the South Rim of the Canyon.

The Grand Canyon is another one of those places where it is genuinely hard to put into words the enormity and emotion of the place. Obviously it is vast - but it is also incredibly peaceful and awe inspiring.

We spent the entire day going on walks, catching Ranger walks, travelling from one viewing spot to the next and taking photo´s.

Clare is particularly proud that she can tell you many facts from the geology walk - including the core components of the Gran Canyon´s makeup - Sandstone, limestone, shiste and shale!

We watched a wonderful sunset stood on an unbelievably steep dropoff point (with no barrier Mum!!!!) and then finished the day with our best meal yet in America - a steak and vegetables at the Bright Angel Lodge!

As it was also a full moon the night before we headed back to the Canyon rim for one last eerie look at the place under star light, before calling it a day and heading back to Tusayan.

---