Verse 9: Santa Barbara to the Grand Canyon - Part 2

So we crossed into Arizona and marveled at the epic landscape that unfolded around us and the manmade ephemera scattered by the roadside; a pick up truck balanced on a tall pole, dead motel signs, a large ball covered in peeling silver paint like a bad UFO special effect...

It's very hard to do it justice as the views are so huge - big sky, big landscapes, just breathtaking. As we headed north towards Kingman and our second meeting with old Route 66 we drove in awe past jagged mountains, crazily deformed yucca plants and chimneys of red rock.

 

  

  

We decided to detour north off the Interstate just after Kingman and drive part of the old Route 66 loop. In the low light of late afternoon we came across the dazzling sight of ranks of new, bright yellow and red DHL planes, lined up in precise formation awaiting their first carrier assignments. Elsewhere, dotted around the flat plain of the airport, the rusty hulks of decaying planes faded into their desert graveyard.

We saw another long train travelling across the flat desert, its heavy bulk snaking across the land into the distance.

We lost an hour as we crossed over our first time zone into Mountian Time. Desolate, stunning landscape.

Then we came across the Hackberry General Stores, another quirky old relic from the heyday of Route 66. We had the place to ourselves so we had a good old mooch around despite the fact the store itself was shut. 

 

  

 

 

 

We drove on through the dusk, zooming through the wide epic landscape of the Havasupai Indian Reservation.

Sometime after the Sun's light disappeared and the stars appeared in the clear night sky we rolled into the classic Route 66 town of Seligman, a small town lined up along the old road, all kitsch and neon signs glowing in the dark. We jumped out of the car for a quick wander, pulling on our warm winter coats against the bitter wind. Hard to believe that we had been basking in temperatures around 20 degrees C that same morning in Santa Barbara, it felt a world away.

 

Realising that we hadn't eaten for 10 hours (the landscape was seriously distracting) we decided to escape the biting cold and grab dinner in one of the warm and welcoming diners. Only two were open so we chose Westside Lilo's because it was on the right side of the road. 

 

The biggest Coke this side of the Colorado River!

 

Our starter paled in comparison to the table top.

 

But the burgers hold a place in our top 5 ever best burger list. Surely, for us they were the best tasting burgers on Route 66. And then the unspeakable happened.. The attack of the 20 ft. stag!!!

  

Luckily we made it out alive, jumped in the car, left some rubber on the track and headed for the final destiny of a long day: The Grand Canyon, where a cosy bed in the Bright Angel Lodge was waiting for us. The closer we got, the less we could see. It was cold, dark and snowy, and with our last ounce of energy we made it to the rim of the canyon. As our plan was to get up before sunrise, we went straight to bed, dreaming of giant burgers, coke and deer.

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Verse 10: The Grand Canyon

We woke up an hour before sunrise and headed out to the South Rim to watch the sun coming up over the canyon. When we got out of the door of our lodge, we were greeted by a whole doe eyed deer family, munching away at the shrubs right by the door. Good morning nature!!! 

Ta-Daaah! It was friggin cold and just as the sun started to come up in a very romantic way, a huge coach full of tourists arrived and parked directly next to us with the engine running o_0.

At least one of them took a proper tourist photo of us : )

Our growling bellies commanded a return to the lodge for a Grand Breakfast.

After our morning munch we headed out again to walk down into the canyon. Well.. not all the way down, that takes two days: One down, one up, but more like 3 hours down and 4 hours up again. Tip: Buy some Yak Tracks (those are the metal things you put under your foot so you don't fall flat on your face if it's icy) at the supermarket in Grand Canyon Village. Don't open them. If you need them on your walk, use them. If not, return them and get your money back. 

We tossed a coin to decide which trail to do: The South Kaibab or the Bright Angel. The coin said South Kaibab, so we decided to take the Bright Angel trail... probably because 'Angel' sounded better than 'Kebab'.  Another tip: Listen to the locals... we should have done and then we would have gone down the kebab route as that has far more sun on a Winter's day and we soon realised that the Angel trail was in shadow the whole way down, and it was VERY cold perched on the rocks eating lunch. So the tip is Bright Angel in summer and South Kaibab in winter.

Strange things that we saw in the Grand Canyon: 

An Italian guy in his 30s running down the trail in normal trainers, no Yak Tracks, wearing only a fleece and those outdoor trousers you can zip off at the knee, overtaking us and then some time later, still running, overtaking us again on our way up. When we asked him if he was an Olympic athlete, he just said "I have a bus to catch" and dashed passed us on his hurried ascent.

Two girls and a boy in clothes you'd wear on a night out in Newcastle, one of the girls  glammed up to the nines, teetering along the ice in very high wedges, the guy shouting nonstop in a Baltic sounding language into a mobile, the girls giggling. 

Respect!

Grand Canyon Fact: The most dangerous animal in the Grand Canyon is not a bear or a wild cat or a freaked out pony. It's the squirrel. Every year hundreds of tourists get their fingers ripped off while trying to feed them. Beware.

Back on the road we set the SatNav to Flagstaff and soaked in the endless highway, lit up in the evening sun.

In Flagstaff we booked ourself in the Grand Canyon Hostel and headed out to get FOOD!!! The guy at the hostel told us about a nearby Beaver Street Micro Brewery that was doing cheap but great food and even greater beers. 

..yum yum yum.. good night!