After leaving Manzanita Campground, we drove to Flagstaff for a quick look and some lunch. We went to a place called Cracker Barrell as Andy's Aunty Clare & Uncle John had given us a voucher for Christmas. The portions were incredible and the food very traditional and tasty - thanks C&J!
It didn't take us long to get to the Grand Canyon and I was so excited to be there! We had to queue for a while to get into the park as it was Sunday but then it wasn't far to Mather Campground, our home for the next two nights. Unbeknownst to me, I'd managed to pick a really good campsite on one of the quiet loops and not too close to the other sites. We had some elk nearby though!
After setting up camp, we went exploring. We had our first glimpse of the Canyon which was quite breathtaking.
After a freezing cold night, it was -1 and we both had cold feet all night and barely slept, we got up just after 5am so that we could catch the bus to the South Kaibab trailhead before sunrise. We descended below the rim to the aptly named Ooh Aah Point and saw the sun come up and enter into the clouds!
We continued walking along the trail, all down hill, for another couple of miles to Skeleton Point. We managed to get a glimpse of the Colorado River!
We had descended about 900m over three miles and although it was only 8am, we thought that it was best to turn back as we knew it would take longer going back up. The views were quite spectacular for the whole walk and I'm so glad we did it early as we managed to avoid most of the crowds! Everytime I turned around the rocks looked different because we had changed direction slightly or the light had changed.
At one point we were overtaken by a mule-train which was fun to see. They were carrying supplies to Phantom Ranch, which is a stopover on the other side of the river that you can book to stay at.
We were back at the bus stop at 10am in the end so we needn't have worried about the walk taking all day! We went to the Visitors' Centre and had a look round, and then we went back to the campsite to have a bite to eat, a coffee and a shower. We then got the bus to the Geology Museum and then walked to Grand Canyon Village along the rim. They run free environmentally friendly buses all around the park which is really good - you can just hop on and off the different routes and one went from right outside our campsite.
Just looking at the Canyon again was fantastic!
After another freezing cold night without much sleep we hit the road to get our kicks on Route 66!
The old route weaves on and off the freeway and so some of the towns are still fully functioning and/or very touristy whereas some that are further away are completely deserted, or just have a couple of residents living in caravans. The road was really quiet and we could see for miles. Route 66 also runs alongside the railroad for most of the way so we saw loads of freight trains as we were criss-crossing along. I loved seeing some of the architecture from the Route's heyday, but it was also quite sad to see some of the dilapidated old buildings.
We drove through the Black Mountains (who knew we had our own range!) which was quite a drive. This part of the road was abandoned in the '50s and I can see why as it was barely wide enough for two cars at some points. We went through a town called Oatman in the mountains which was really busy and full of wondering donkeys (the Americans call them burros).
We stopped for the night in Barstow as it was about half way between the Grand Canyon and Santa Barbara. Route 66 goes straight through the city so there were lots of motels. Ours had loads of old cars and memorabilia, as well as round beds!
The next day after a good and warm night of sleep, we followed a bit more of the old Route. We drove past Elmer's Place, which is a garden full of bottle art which was fun.
We then hit the highway towards Santa Barbara with the sun shining.
No comments:
Post a Comment