16th MAY

Left Las Vegas by the state road 93 reached negotiating the vast freeway system around LV which is itself being constantly enlarged and rebuilt. We heard someone say Las Vegas is expanding at the rate of one new full school, primary through secondary, a month probably not but it is growing that cannot be argued.

The 93 took us past the Hoover Dam but we somehow missed it! Lake Mead which it enlarged is gigantic and seems to spread all over the place filling many valleys and no doubt covering many peoples dwellings. The Hoover dam unmissable at 760 ft high, or it was until a new road swished us past it without a backwoods glance, provides significant resources and work for the whole of this area of the south west usa an area that is as dry as a bone and very much desert plateaux and landscape.

We toiled on to join the interstate highway 40 a road which replace part of the famed Highway 66 and you see references to it all the way along at least to Flagstaff where we stopped to spend the night at Fort Tuthill(Cononino Country Park) Pine Forest. Little difficult to find due to abysmal signposting around Flagstaff but we did and set up in a pine forest, many pitches but only six rv on the whole area. Quiet and pleasant disturbed only by the murmur of the trees which reacted to the slightest of breeze.

Centre of Flagstaff highlighted as a major route 66 highlight was only found by putting a hotel name in the sat nav as though the town and area are proud of route 66 no signs told us how to find it or how to find the town centre.

Nice little centre of two or three blocks square nothing really out of the ordinary. Coffee at the Hotel sitting on the main street was a good way of taking in the relaxed and slow pace of the area.

Onward now via the 180 and the 84 to The Grand Canyon South Rim Village. The approach the whole way from Flagstaff was slowly upward with the surroundings again being sagebush uninhabited and uncultivated desert. The final approach of some 30 odd miles is across a blank plateau rising gradually, it is all pretty flat, barren and featureless.

I don't really know what I expected but it was not this sort of drab monotonous landscape I suppose I expected some craggy stuff and a bit of drama- not so.

Entrance to the Grand Canyon National Park was via the usual payment booths and then some 15 mile to our Trailer RV Park near the centre of the "Village" via an outskirts close to the payment booths which included a small airport, various commercial outlets and Imax theatre which appeared to show nothing. Oh well I thought let's wait and see perhaps it is all over hyped. Parked up and vaguely sorted out the shuttlebus system, very good it was too, we strode off to the rim. Height at village and rim around 7500ft.

There it was or part of it. Pictures I have seen but the reality took my breath away it is incredible, a huge gap in the land which literally drops vertically away from you as you stand at a rail or close to the edge. The drop is over 3500ft or a mile and is staggering makes you feel quite weak even with railings in front of you.

The gap, chasm is a much better word at this point ranges from about 10 mile across to probably 20 miles and is filled with the most unearthly rock formations which are beyond imagination. The rock formations are all distinct, each layer of different rock being laid down parallel and horizontal so you can see rock form virtually the present day right down to the bottom layer 2 billion years old so old in act it contains no fossils as it dates back to a time before life which could be fossilised had started.

A wonderful, weird fascinating, rugged and dangerous place. The Colorado River is largely responsible for the depth of the Canyon but its width is caused by multiple streams and rivers flash floods and extremes of heat and cold. There are in this section of the canyon only two trails down which take one day to get to the bottom, the river and a minimum of two days to get back up, Crossing to the North rim would take about five days.

We had four night here so really thee and a half days to explore. The free shuttle buses took us to what ever place you wanted to star from and we then walked, looked sat drank coffee or whatever we felt like doing. Every few steps along the rim, and we must have covered about ten miles of it on foot and looked out from various fixed lookout point, gave you a different aspect and changing scene, a bit like a vast chameleon changing to adapt each view different both in texture and colour. Colours mainly reds and Amber's were ever changing and the best time to see this was at or just before sunset when the light did not drown out but high lighted the myriad hues within the rocks.

I cannot imagine the horror of early explores pushing inland northwards in this are suddenly finding the earth has dropped away from you and literally stopped you in your tracks. This is what the Canyon does one moment your fed up with plateau desert climbing slowly uphill next moment nothing but a mile deep and miles wide vertical hole. Around 300 mile long it certainly represented and still represents a huge barrier in this area of the SW. Later we travelled to the north rim 12 mile across the Canyon and it took a road trip of 238 miles. The earliest explorers estimated the Colorado River to be about 6mtrs wide, it averages 100mtrs wide and a good if difficult place to get water. An advance party sent down to get water arrived back four days later with no water not having reached the river nor being able to get anywhere near it.

The whole South Rim Village area is well controlled and has to be with the huge volume of visitors, Americas NO 1 Visitors attraction crawling with people all the time. It is still possible to find quite space and just look.

We even had an annular eclipse of the sun that is where the moon leaves a little ring of sun all the way round. This occurs about every 5 years.

I've missed a lot out but the size and complexity of the Canyon is really beyond description. We are glad we have seen it and experienced it, in younger days we would have tackled some or part of the trails down but at 7500ft even twenty stairs take the breath away.

Sorry I have gone on a bit about this and that but not said much, the history of the area , the Indian inhabitants over thousands of years has not been touched upon but this is not a history lesson or an all encompassing tome just a few notes as we pass through lucky as we are.