USA Experience: Grand Canyon South Rim & Flagstaff

Lovely bright, sunny day and a bit cooler than we have been used to. Temperature was about 15 degrees C with an icy wind. After having a quick cup of coffee/orange juice and some cereal and fruit, we headed off to the shops to get our souvenirs and then we headed off at about 9:30am along Route 66 again to eventually get to Flagstaff.

We went through a little town called Ash Fork which is the flagstone capital of the USA (for slate as we would call it) and there were just loads and loads of places selling it, with it all neatly stacked. This is a town that has certainly been forgotten as it was rather derelict even though there were people living there! We got to a town called Williams where we stopped to take a picture of a diner and then carried on our way.

We also stopped at an aircraft museum which Doug and Dereck enjoyed looking at while Sue and I wondered around and looked at some classic cars we found in another building.

We finally reached our stop which was the south rim of the Grand Canyon and boy was it grand!! We went to various view points to take pictures and certainly had fun doing a bit of trick photography!! The view was absolutely spectacular and you just cannot imagine how huge these rocks are. They look so close, yet they are so far away. I know the pictures look great, but you actually have to be here to appreciate their size.

Saw this really fat, sluggish crow and couldn’t resist taking his picture!

Also spotted a little squirrel who just sat watching me while I was sitting on the wall and then he jumped onto a branch that was higher than it that had greener leaves, which promptly bended over and he fell off – no not to the bottom of the canyon!!!!

We found a restaurant and bought some sandwiches and a salad for lunch and then found a spot in the park to sit and eat. The difference with this part of the Canyon is that there are loads of Ponderosa Pine Trees, compared to the west rim that we did on the plane, was just a desert.

Once we came out of the Canyon area, we headed off to a town called Cameron which we had been recommended to go and see by a very friendly lady at one of the shops we went into in Seligman. There was a huge shop with all sorts of handcrafted goodies. It was tempting, but space in the suitcase is limited!!!

We continued on our way, but not before stopping to take a few pictures of the Sunset Crater. We eventually arrived at Flagstaff and found our motel – Super 8. Again very nice a clean. After unpacking we went across the road the “Great Outback” for supper. I had shrimp with crabmeat and fillet, Dereck & Doug had pepper Steak and Sue had pork. All very yummy. Sue and I had milkshakes which weren’t on the menu, but they were very obliging and made them especially for us – well worth it! Our waiter actually played rugby and was going to South African in December to visit a friend.

Headed off back to our hotel for a good night’s sleep.