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Hoover Dam
Always remember when we had to study it during our GCSE's now got to drive over it! On 27th we left vegas with Gary and Nic in their huge rental SUV heading for Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. The drive was fairly straightforward but held many suprises we did not expect. I was riding shotgun and giving directions from our pretty basic map. However looking closer at the map I realised that the road to flagstaff through Arizona took us directly past the Hoover Dam. I didn't realise that route 93 actualy also took us over the damn as it was passable to cars. On approaching the damn we decided to pull over ending up in a restricted area. As soon as we got out of the car a loud yank shouted at the top of his lung "your in a restricted area!" so we hightailed it and managed to find another spot from which to take some snapshots of the dam.
The drive is exactly what you expect driving through a desert to be like, very empty with the scenery sweeping out for miles, hardly a car in sight and straight roads that seem to have no end (definate serial killer country). We reached route 40 and after looking at the map again we found out
Route 66
We had to get a picture of us near a sign in the middle of no where. We didn't hang about for long, worried about the local rednecks! that if we took the scenic route we would actualy drive through a bit of the old fabled 'route 66' a historic stretch of road which used to stretch all the way from LA to Chicago. Most of route 66 no longer exists but we thought it would be an interesting drive the as the route attracts lots of old bikers on Harley's and is supposed to have some amazing views of the deserts of Arizona. It turned out to be pretty amazing, even though the road was pretty straight the countryside stretched as far as the eye could see, lots os desert bush and mountain ranges. Parrell with the road also ran the railway and trains regulary past buy along side our truck, it was like being in some old wild west film (obviously apart from the cars and mordern trains you know i what mean). During the drive we passed some of the most hillbilly towns I have ever seen, on the map there was noted a town called Hackberry. By the time we had realised that were entering the town we had already come out the other side, the only noticable sign civilization was the general store
First view of the Canyon
Pretty amazing sight will perhaps put this under our gallery section of the website so it looks clearer. which was actualy a large caravan! Apart from that we saw no people and just a few dellapedated buildings (glad we didn't stop there for a rest stop!)
We arrived at flagstaff in the evening and we all immediatly knew we would like the town. It was the steriotypical mountainside town you would see in films on TV. The hostel we stayed at was warm and friendly and we got free breakfast plus they had real milk to put in your tea instead of powered milk which we had suffered everywhere else( can't get a good cup of tea out here)! We went out for a few drinks that night, due to the fact we were 7000ft up it didn't take long for the alcohol to have its effect, saved us money though!
The next morning we got up and drove to the Grand Canyon. It didn't take to long to get there however we didn't realise that the car park itself borders the very edge of the canyon, as we pulled in we all rushed out to take in the view.....absolutley spectacular!!! It was by no doubt that most amazing view so far on our travels and
Our travel buddies and us at the canyon
All 4 of us standing at the edge of a mile hole... by this time we have seen a fair few. From the southern rim you can make out the north rim a whopping 11 miles away!! Looking down over the side with just a small railing stopping you going over the edge you could see a mile down! At the bottom you can just make out the large colorado river meandering it with through the canyon. The weaher was good and there were few clouds in the sky so we made sure we took as many pictures as we could. We walked along the rim, the canyon actualy stretches over 200 miles, we didn't have the time or energy to cover that whole walk! Though a lot of people spend weeks hiking up and down along the rim (crazy)! On the walk along rim there were many very precarious rock faces in which you could take a look over the edge without any barriers there to stop you falling. None of us are scared of heights but it made you feel very dizzy and disorientated when you peered over side. All the way along the canyon you could see eagles and condors flying on the thermals comming up form the canyon
Trev crapping himself
Me sh*ting it over a ledge, didn't want to stay there to long, after I moved a crazy yank came down and actualy hung himself over the edge!! Dont worry mum I was never in danger of falling...really floor. The canyon itself is over 1.5billion years old which is pretty amazing. Being sad that I am I had to take a piece for myself (hopfully its arrived home already mum?).
After walking east for a while we decided to walk down one of the routes into the Canyon named 'Bright Angel' it usualy takes a whole day to do and that takes you down to the river. Sadly we didn't have that length of time so we thought we'd walk down for an hour or so and see how we did. Well after an hour of walking we covered a fair amount of ground though had barely reached even a 10th of the way down. (people have been known to die from doing that walk in one day). Lots of people were hiking some had spent a week camping at the bottom others just on day walks, there were people in their 70's hiking which made us feel rather pathetic as we only went a tiny part of the way down and as light would be fading soon we had to stop going down and walk back. Well that was harder than it looks, poor old kim
Kim getting her currage up
There was actualy a ledge underneath, cheater!! was not used to walking up such steep terrain and we had to take several stops before reaching the top (to much used to living on the flat all your life you old Marsh girl :-p).
On returning to the top we got back to the car and drove to another point named 'desert view', it was about 25miles drive along the south rim. Desert view was pretty impressive, we could see alot more of the river down below and in the distance over the north rim you could see the desert and mountains sweeping back for miles, as the sun was setting it cast amazing shadows down the canyon walls.
Thanx Nic and Garry for a wicked time and a fantastic dinner (sure the rest of the hostel didn't mind the garlic smell!). We headed out of Flagstaff the next evening with a 3 day train journey ahead of use to Austin, Texas.
Kim- "Bring on the Cowboys..................."
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