Day 9 - Livin' Large In The Grand Canyon

All -

Yes, I have not seen my place for eight days. And hell is freezing over as there is snow in New Orleans. Looks like more snow there than in Tahoe.

The EconoLodge was really not so bad. Good night sleep, free cable, a muffin and the USA Today in the morning... But I did not see much of Flagstaff outside of the Walmart and Taco Bell. The Walmart has anything you need (and some things you don't); Taco Bell does not have a breakfast burrito. Doesn't McDonald's even have a breakfast burrito??

So today I took the long way to the Grand Canyon and saw Sunset Crater and the Wupatki Ruins. Sunset Crater is wild. It's like landing on a black Mars. Trees look like they are planted in loose pavement. If the volcano had been in a more hospitable environment, there would be a rain forest here. Instead, it's like being on an empty planet.

Moved from Sunset Crater to the Wupatki Ruins. Which are even in a more inhospitable place. I did a little off roading in between. On purpose. It was a good idea until all my stuff started sliding around.

The transition from Sunset to Wupatki was going from black to red-brown. The Ruins had a good museum and a good self-guided tour around the ruins. Every seems a little baffled about why the Indians would have abandoned this types of dwellings. For the most part, they left for two reasons - bad harvest or too many dead people. Kind of like the reason people leave Detroit.

To get to the Grand Canyon via 89 you pass through the Historic Cameron Trading Post and Lodge. Um,... yeah. From there you take 64 to the East Gate. On the way you sweep past the Little Colorado River Gorge. Which you think is incredibly impressive. Until you get to the Canyon. The Ranger at Wupatki told me to skip the first Scenic outlook and just go to the second. Should have listened. At the first Scenic, the Navajo salespeople there have carefully constructed a chicken wire fence so the only way to get to the overlook is to pass through all the vending stands. I hope my family likes authentic Navajo because that is what they are getting for Christmas.

The second Scenic overlook has a much smaller Navajo sales stand. Apparently, this group did not get the smoke signals about how to funnel people in to buy your stuff using chick wire. I was able to sneak by. As the Ranger warned, and unlike the first overlook, there are no guard rails here. Numerous hand-painted signs on the way to the edge warn you to keep your children and pets in check as there is a 3,000 foot sheer cliff at the end. And there is. But, wow. Again, this is a wow until you get to the real ditch.

So I came into the Grand Canyon through the East Gate and drove along Desert View Drive. There are too many outlooks (points) to be counted. The first one and first big 'wow' was at the Watchtower. You see a 180+ view into the Canyon. Big. BIG. Of course, being the first stop meant that it also had a wide variety of park souvenirs one could by. Since nothing could top the Dale, Jr. "88" Mountain Dew ball cap I had bought at the Flagstaff Walmart or the 24 dollars worth of beads I purchase for the price of Manhattan at the Navajo stands, I was able to avoid the temptation..

Each Point I popped into on the way to the South Gate just gave jaw-dropping views. The (almost) full moon started showing up in the sky when I got to the South Gate Visitor's Center. The Visitor's Center is obviously geared towards the large summer crowds. It is big and well laid out; however, it was like a ghost town with the winter crowd. Basically, I only saw four cars and a school bus for most of the day. And I saw two of the cars and the school bus multiple times before I turned up 64 to the East Gate.

I pulled into El Tovar, the hotel I am staying at on the Canyon Rim, just before sunset. This place ROCKS. Even though it does have a bit of The Shining going for it (and it being winter time does not help), I highly recommend this place. It is so choice. My bathroom is the size of the hotel room I had in Rome.

So I watched the sun go down over the Canyon; unloaded and unpacked; got a big meal in the old school log-cabin roofed dining room; and then stumbled into a heard of Elk in the dark outside the hotel door. I though they were moose (meece?), at first. These animals are HUGE. There were about eight of them and each one had to be at least 6-4 to the top of their head. I think Santa is missing some reindeer. And they were no more than ten feet away. Note to self: watch out for Elk poop when leaving the hotel in the morning.

Anyway, tomorrow I will try and get up to watch the sun rise on the canyon (5AM) and then hike down in. We'll see how far I get. The high today was, maybe, 47. It was usually around 43 most of the day. The low tonight is supposed to be 27 but it will probably be 19. I am already digging into my ski gear. There is snow/frost on the ground. On the flip side, it's been clear blue skies the last few days and that should continue until Sunday.

I wrote most of this in front of the fireplace, under the moose head, in the lodge entry. Did I tell you this place is awesome? At this point, room service has turned down my sheets so all I will have to do is remove the mint from my pillow, pull back the 800 thread sheets, and slip into bed. I may have to apply some of that high-end moisturizer from the gift basket as the sun and dry air seems to have damaged my skin a little bit. This sure beats the EconoLodge.

Hank