San Diego, CA to Flagstaff, AZ via Phoenix
Our journey took us on I-8 to the lovely town of Gila Bend, AZ. The drive was quite dull. Yuma was nothing to speak of either. It was quite hot, around 100 degrees. We then shot over to the I-10 and went through Phoenix. This town really is impressive considering it's location. If I wanted to live in the desert, this would be a contender.
We then moved north on I-17 to Flagstaff, where we'd stay the night. Quite a nice drive. Very un-Arizona. San Diegans can relate to this thought: This part of the drive reminded me of the road to Julian from I-8.
We got to Flagstaff (very friendly people!) and spent the night there. No pictures were taken until....
Flagstaff and Grand Canyon NP
The drive to the park was only about 90 minutes. A pretty drive with lots of snow (off the road, thankfully). This was my first trip to the park (and to most of the places we visited), and I really had no idea what I'd be seeing except for a big hole in the ground. One thing I was expecting was the new higher price of $20 to enter (ouch!)
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As it turns out, it was more than I imagined, by far! I spent the first
10 minutes muttering to myself about how amazing the whole place was. Needless
to say, the pictures started snapping. It wasn't just the depth of the canyon,
but the overall area that it took up-- as far as the eye could see. We hiked
around on the rim that day (nothing more due to time constraints), to the
west of the village area. One thing that was pretty funny was the old Uranium
mine. Didn't surprise me -- got a good picture, too (but I won't post that
one).
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The day quickly neared its end. Sunset at 6:30 was approaching rapidly, so we headed back to Hopi Point to watch with about 50 others. It was very windy and freezing cold as a result. It was also pretty overcast, and we were frustrated until the sun did it's magic at the last minute.
We ended our day with the Grand Canyon IMAX movie-- not bad. Then back to the so-so Best Western GC Squire Inn.
