How Do You Spit a Mile

Spit in the Grand Canyon.  Ah, that joke was never funny, sorry.

Williams' Famous Steakhouse.  This is for you Rod

Since our last update we've come and gone from the Grand Canyon State, having seen the largest hole in the world.  We headed east across an unremarkable stretch of Arizona desert to the town of Williams.  Williams being famous of course for being where you hang a left to go to the canyon and doing whatever it takes to catch your eye to make you stop if just for a moment.

We stopped for a bite and some pie, but not at Rod's since the bikers and the size of the steaks scared us out of there.

As evening came on we arrived out the outskirts of the park and chose to stay just outside of its boundary in a National Forest campsite.  This was an excellent call since seemingly half of America is choosing to visit that park this summer and their campsites with names like "Trailer Village" were full and the rooms at the famous El Tovar were running around $300 a night.  Non-view.

Liz enjoying the view

Being the nomads we are, we only left ourselves with one full day in the park.  Since this was Liz's first time there, I decided we would do a walk I did last time I was there.  But since that was in 1991, a few things have changed.  We walked the rim of the canyon southward, which last time I was there quickly turned into a solitary venture.  Now, a paved road carries shuttle and tour buses literally feet from you, dropping of their load of rotund Americans, gruff Germans and photo-gear happy Asians every half mile or so.  Fortunately, it was a road and not a bridge and didn't effect the real view.

We saved some time for a short hike down into the canyon at the end of the day.  This is one sure fire way to get away from people.  Most see the signs that are posted every few yards warning about if you venture more than a few feet down into the canyon and you're not carrying a gallon of water and have gone through desert training with the Army Rangers, you will die.  This scares the masses away.  We knew better.

A few of the thousand steps back out

Well not really, but we did make it back out obviously.  We went down in for about an hour, which equated to about a 1000' elevation drop.  Coming back up we sounded like two steam locomotives about to blow.  The changes in the view and ways you see the canyon though make it all worth it.

Today, we've moved on from one canyon and gun crazy state to another.  We drove around the Grand Canyon, headed back west (yes the wrong direction) to Zion National Park in Utah.  We got here around 4PM to find all of the park campgrounds long filled.  And with this park not being surrounded by our stand-by option of National Forests, we were forced to fend for ourselves.  We're bedding down tonight in our first private campground of the trip.  On the plus side, it's right outside the park entrance and right behind a Quality Inn, so I can use their internet.  On the negative side, it's right behind a Quality Inn and in the space of say three acres, they've wedged in 200 campsites.  It's like being a refuge, if every refuge showed up to their tent city in a Suburban complete with travel trailer and six kids on bikes.  We explored the park some before dark though, and from what we've seen it's going to be worth the bad nights sleep.

We plan to be here all day tomorrow and then head off for Bryce Canyon and Arches National Parks.  If anyone has opinions or thoughts to add, let us know because we are both in undiscovered territory for the next week.

Oh and don't worry about dry counties Chapmans, I brought a bottle of bourbon with us.

Lastly, I'd be remissed if I didn't include this clip of the most famous thing ever filled at the Grand Canyon.