From Flagstaff Arizona
side trip to see the Grand Canyon – South Rim
to Tuba CityArizona
Distance traveled: 166
miles plus
I
woke up to sunshine! Delightful! The ground is covered in puddles and there
are water drops everywhere, but the sky is clear!
 |
| Flagstaff Arizona |
My
first stop was in down town Flagstaff where I parked in the Tourist information
centre that is located inside the historic train station. I walked around historic down town Flagstaff
and enjoyed the architecturally interesting details of the historic buildings.
 |
| Driving north on Hwy 64 |
Leaving
Flagstaff, I drove west on Interstate 40 to the town of Williams where Hwy 64
goes north to South Rim Grand Canyon. As
soon as the road goes north it starts to climb and climb up into the
hills. The further north I get the more
the clouds gather. I watch the clouds slowly
block out the sun and wonder what that will do for visibility at the canyon.
I
bought my park pass and entered the park.
By following the signs I made my way to the super huge and super full
parking lots. After making a mental note
of which parking lot and what area of the lot I was parked in I made my way to
the south rim for a hike along the edge.
 |
| View of the Canyon from the South Rim |
The
walk along the rim is well paved and manicured with safety rails (that some
people ignore). I enjoyed a long walk along
the South Rim in a soft drizzly kind of rain.
I sure am glad I packed my umbrella.
I tried to take pictures where there were items of interest in the
foreground because there was some mist in the distance making the long distance
shots a little hazy.
 |
| View of the Canyon Trail |
In
the afternoon I drove east on Hwy 64, along the rim and stopped at all the pull
outs and scenic over looks along the way.
It was fun to walk on the trails when the opportunity arose. One trail leads down into the canyon, but
since this is not one of those kinds of adventures, I only walked a short way
down just to be able to say that I did so.
 |
| Elk by the parking lot |
At
the final stop before the park exit I saw an elk eating grasses at the edge of
the parking lot. He (I presume as he had
lovely big antlers) seemed really calm and did not get bothered by the many
people standing around taking his picture.
Then,
driving on the road out of the park, I saw two more elk (mother and foal) in
the distance crossing the road. They ran
off into the brush as I got closer.
It
was after 5 pm when I left the park and now it was time to look for a place to
stay. Not many choices! When I did stop, there was no vacancy! It was getting darker and I headed for Tuba City
because the big hotel chain “Quality Inn” came up on the GPS. Since this was a bigger chain I was hopeful
that they would have something available.
I
was wrong, they had no rooms left! However, they also run an RV and camp ground
facility, and there I was able to get a tent site but only non-electric were
left. I had just enough light left to set
up camp. I did not put up the mosquito
tarp because it so looked like rain, and I did not feel like folding up a wet
net in the morning. It was already cool,
so I knew that I could open the car windows just a crack and not worry about it
getting too stuffy in the car. It was
dark as I ate dinner (tinned tuna sandwich and Guinness) and I needed my
lantern to see.
After
an action packed day I was pretty tired and I got into my car bed to settle in
for some reading, and then the rain came pouring down. I closed the windows to even tinier slits to
stay dry and got out both of my sleeping bags to get cozy and warm. I fell asleep to the patter of rain on the
car roof. Every time I woke up during the night it was to the sound of the
pitter patter of the rain drops. It rained all night, I know this because
every time I woke up, it was to the same sound of raindrops falling on the car
roof.
Renate Dundys Marrello
2014 – 08 – 12
Picture
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