Today we hit the road first thing. By 8am we were saying goodbye to the strip and were on our way South to Arizona.
After driving for just under an hour we stopped at Hoover Dam. The new bridge that has just been opened to minimize traffic over the dam was also quite spectacular. It bridged a huge height and distance, as well as the states of Nevada and Arizona. The dam itself shows it's age, but it's still a mega structure. It is quite cool too that you cab drive over the top of it.
Crossing the border on the dam meant we changed timezones too - so we lost an hour. We continued driving until we hit the town of Kingman. By now the red soil landscape was in abundance. Was quite something.
We turned off the Highway here and headed along the Historic Tourist Route 66. we drove for an hour or so along the stretch until we hit the turn off road to Grand Canyon just past the town of Williams. I must say I was a little underwhelmed by the whole Route 66 experience, although I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, after all it is just a road. Passing through the old towns was a brief thing - blink and you'll miss them - they're dead as! Sad I guess.
We did stop however in Selligmen for lunch at the Route 66 Roadkill Grill. Sim didn't really wanna eat there, but after I explained that it's not really roadkill, she was ok. (well I sure hope it ain't roadkill)
It wasn't. I had the burger and chips. Nothing short of amazing it was. Best burger I've had in the states I reckon. The cool thing at this roadside diner was they way they serve the soft drinks - in huge glass recycled jars! Random!
We got back in the road and headed north east, steadily ascending up into the mountains. We were now in snow landscape, quite high up and not far from the Grand Canyon. I had no idea that it snowed here. Quite surprising. It's actually really cold too. I guess we are up as high as Mt Kosciusko back home. Crazy!
We arrived at Grand Canyon village around 3:30ish, and headed for our lodge, the Bright Angel. It was located right on the rim of the canyon, our room was literally less then 50m away.
At first glimpse of the canyon the magnitude and depth is what overwhelms you. You kinda get lost and don't know where to look. It's such a huge and expansive landscape. The interesting thing is the layering and stratification of all the different kinds of rock in the canyons rockfaces. If i were a Geologist this would be where I'd come to get my rocks off.
We wandered some more along the rim, checking out the old stone studio building and the Lodge.
We then hopped in the car and headed for the Yavarapi lookout point to watch the sunset. The colors at this time of day were breathtaking. It was however quite difficult to get a good photo; very hard to capture the awesomeness of the place and the sense of scale and grandeur.
I still can't believe that it snows here too, there is literally a foot of snow right up to the rim edge of the canyon. The sun set on the canyon and on another day of our trip, but not before we headed out for dinner.
We booked a table at the lavish El Tovar Lodge, also located right on the rims edge but with better food.
Really good food actually! We really have eaten well on this trip- and drunk well too, the Pinot Noir at dinner was delicious!
I also can't believe how freezing cold it is here, crazy. Hopefully the bed is warm!!!
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