Woken by a loud blast (well several very loud blasts really) from the Grand Canyon train, we had a nice breakfast at The Lodge in Williams before setting off for the Grand Canyon. We decided to go by way of Flagstaff, so out along the Interstate 40, up through yet another pass, The Arizona Divide at 7,335 feet, then down through gently wooded hills and took the first exit to Flagstaff which happened to be the old Route 66. No razzmatazz this time, Flagstaff was sprawled out along the old Route, not particularly attractive, a bit of a surprise after Williams. We stopped at a mall as Ruth wanted some shoes, which we found, before continuing to Route 86 which headed north. We turned off the highway to join a loop through Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument and Wupatki National Monument Parks, all part of the Kainab Forest Park. The volcano erupted only 900 years ago and the landscape still shows the effects - lava flows and black volcanic dust. The lava flows were surreal and vegetation was slowly colonising the volcanic fallout. There are a number of cinder cones in the area, of which Sunset was the largest. On through the desert/scrub to former Native American dwellings, the Wupatki NM, made of the local rock slabs, but abandoned after the volcanic eruption which produced so much dust their crops were smothered and died. The buildings, dating from 500B.C, were all set up on low cliffs, below which the people would have grown their crops. Great setting. A lovely diversion through stunning scenery of Ponderosa pine forests, then Juniper, then open scrubby desert; we especially liked one picnic area which overlooked the 'Painted Desert', way in the distance. Back to Route 89 across miles of prairie until we hit the Grand Canyon road. We were pretty high again, over 6,000 feet and climbing up to the rim of the Canyon through scrubby desert, still the Mojave Desert. On to our first sighting of the Little Colorado Canyon; an amazing sight in the late afternoon sun. The lookout was on Navajo land, so we paid a small donation to park there and be amazed. The canyon didn't seem that wide but was about 3,000 feet deep and all banded with yellow and red rocks; stunning! The Navajo had a few stalls selling hand made jewellery, so we had to buy some, didn't we!! The road continued to climb and offered great view of the canyon and the high prairie, we stopped a few times but needed to get on to get to our hotel. We entered the National Park and soon came to the first lookout over the Grand Canyon, called Desert View. The view was stupendous, you just cannot prepare yourself for the view, utterly amazing, especially in the late afternoon sun. The colours, the immensity of it all, fantastic. We drove on, conscious of the time, but stopped a couple more times as the views were just so amazing, eventually reaching our hotel just after dark. Pizza from a place nearby, bed. Absolutely wonderful day.
