A Silly Grin In Page - #13

Monday 16 April

Up early and off. Cold start to day, 8C no less. But nice and sunny with clear blue skie. Full 'warm' kit less leggings.

Such a lovely ride up the canyon now and yet it all looks vaugly familiar somehow. We found the damming corner and stopped to say how innocent it all looks now. Found some wreckage confirming it was the right site. We are officially now calling this spot "Nev's Corner"!

Nev's corner - famous in NZ!

Onward - climb, climb, climb! Eventually getting to 7,000-ish feet! Clear safe road now but still big piles of snow on side of road and lots in the trees. Looked so beautiful now.

Next drama, perhaps I should have got some petrol before we left Sedona. Little light says "haha, you're a moron"! Just how far is Flagstaff?  Mr GPS guides us flawlessly onto the 17 & much to my relief into a K garage where I put in my biggest amount of gas. One horrible cup of coffee later and we're off, Mr GPS flawlessly executing his obligations. We sat at a steady 75mph (120k) to Williams and turned right to head up to the Grand Canyon, today is my turn to dribble? I can't believe I'm getting to see the biggest hole in the whole world!

Quite a drive up though?

Got there on a still and sunny morning. Cheekily parked the bikes and walked up the paths to the viewing areas.

OMG! What an awe inspiring site. No words or even photos can ever really do justice to the site of the Grand Canyon. The sheer scale of this place is beyond anything I could have imagined. It goes down so far and is so far across that you can't even see the ends. We caught a glimpse of the green Colorado River at the bottom, it seemed so small but in reality has grade 5 white water and runs 53ft deep in places. The top strata of the canyon is over 250 million years old. I can't get my head around that!

Although there were a lot of tourists around I was possible to separate them and just feel and absorb the serenity of the place. There would be a kazillion places down there that no human being had ever been to or touched. Without those peskie tourists, (hehe), the silence here would be complete. Very much like the Mojave Desert when we were there.

I had this vision of a cowboy in a bygone era riding along on his horse on his way to somewhere, and coming across the Grand Canyon. He just sat there looking at the other side and said 'bugger"!

Reluctantly I left and walked to the Park HQ to buy my pins. There were signs not to feed the squirrels, how cool, where are they? None, drat!

We went to the south village to use the free WIFI to email a place to stay in Page. God bless TripAdvisor, an amazing App on iPhone or iPad.

Off we go, the east route out of the park runs along the south ridge of the canyon so you get fantastic views at quite a few places. It only follows the canyon for a short 25 MILES, (40 Ks). We stopped at one view place and saw an amazing thing. Some guys were flying a model glider plane by remote control, and an eagle was soaring after it! A big eagle. Not the rare bald eagle but still pretty impressive. It wasn't really trying to catch the glider which I'm sure it could have. Just sort of flying with it. A huge wing span just using the wind. Fantastic!

We dropped down the east route to the 89 highway and headed to Page, stopping at The Trading Post at Cameron for fuel. 

An old bridge - Cameron Arizona

Although the road anywhere around here at first glance looks the same, there are in fact quite different. Each plain and rock escapement have different types of rock structure and the colors, well they are just something else. I never get bored riding through this country, this big, big country! We crossed the border into Utah and eventually got to Page. Mr GPS behaved and feeling a bit hot and tired we pulled in the pink walled units of Debbie's Hidaway. A quirky little place on a street called The Street of Motels?

We were going to get a double bed with a pull-out for me but they gave us a two bedroom unit for the same price. Excellent. This town is the same age as me. It was created while the dam was being built and has kind of just stayed. A bit like Turangi. Quite a pretty town in a non-descript sort of way. When they built the dam it created the 2nd largest man made lake in the USA, (I wonder where the biggest one is?). When it's full the shoreline runs the length of the Californian coast. It is a big summer place when the tourists come to enjoy the water, with all the usual water sports being enjoyed. It has some marinas around the shoreline.The dam also controls the water that goes through the Grand Canyon, the Colorado River.

We went to the Dam Bar & Grill for something to eat. A family run bar where the locals come and watch the sports on the big screens that surround the 'island' bar. Can't remember what I ate but it was big.  I didn't finish it.

Small walk around town and back to our pink cabin. I hid my bad-boy bike around the back so my image wouldn'd be tarnished!

Nev's eye was playing up and we were hoping it wasn't infected. Maybe a trip to the doctor in the morning? We could just be yet another victim of this big dry air country being to much for two little kiwi boys from a small land that are used to humidity.

Nighty nite nite!