After spending the night at a run-of-the-mill hotel in Tusayan, a place build to cater for visitors to the Grand Canyon, we got off to an early start and drove the short distance up to the Canyon.
I guess almost everything has been said about the Grand Canyon. There is not much to add. Except that our experience of seeing it from the South Rim was a freezing cold one.
Though we come from a country of high mountains and a cold climate, we were not prepared for the freezing winds on the Rim. We just managed to shoot a few images and walk along the Rim for 10 minutes before hurrying back to the car and turn up the heater. The splendor and the sheer magnitude of the Grand Canyon was enough to take your breath away, but so did the cold wind.
- Stephen T. Mather
Close to the Rim there is a memorial to the founder of the Grand Canyon National Park, Stephen T. Mather. He was actually the man behind the very idea of national parks, and this idea of preserving certain areas for posterity has since his time spread all over the world.
As soon as we decended the high hills and was approaching Flagstaff, the temperatures reached a more pleasant level. As wee had cut short on our time at the Canyon Rim, we decided to make a short detour – me being an Eagles fan – to Winslow. The route was partially on the Historic 66 and partly on the Interstate. The sole purpose of the detour being to snap a picture of “Standing at the Corner in Winslow Arizona” Typically those images were lost so I had to find a substitute to make the point of the corner’s significance. (Photo by Mark Turner under the Creative Commons license)
As you can see; it’s complete, there is even a “girl, my lord, in a dark Bedford, slowing down to take a look at me!”
Returning to Flagstaff, we drove Highway 89A down Oak Creek Canyon which is also said to be one of the great scenic drives of the Southwest. It can be said,though, that after Grand Canyon it would take a lot to impress us. The road is both narrow and scenic, with hairpin turns and quite breathtakeing views. There are plenty of parking spaces and picnic areas as well as camp grounds, but we weere heading for Sedona and it was getting late.
Upon arriving in Sedona we did catch a few glimpses of the famous Red Rocks but as dusk was approaching we just settled for the night at the Matterhorn Inn (A strange name for an arizonian hotel?) leaving the exploration of this famous countryside untill the morning.
More Grand Canyon images
Tomorrow shal be more of Sedona and The Red Rocks
Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
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