The big dip

One of the big ones. One of the most commonly pictured and referred to sights in America. It is the Grand Canyon.
A couple of hours north of Flagstaff is the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, the North Rim is not accessible in Winter. We pass a couple of view points along the way that have Indian stalls set up hawking jewellery. This is indeed Indian land and it almost has a South American quality to it, run down shacks selling rubbish near amazing scenery. The Grand Canyon National Park does not allow such sales so at least you're spared any hassles here like you possibly would be at other major world sights.
We arrive into the park and walk to the first view point of many throughout the day. To be honest it wasn't that impressive at first glance. Many people have said they were awestruck and the like but I felt a bit 'blah' about it. There's a watchtower built next to the lookout and we climb it in hope of a better view and it is slightly. It all seems a bit unreal. Luckily along the scenic rim drive the many lookout points get better and better to become spectacular views over differing parts of the vast canyon.


It's a wide canyon for sure and the river that caused most of the carving, the Colorado, seems but a thin brown line at the canyon's floor. It's a bit messy at points meaning that getting a good photo is difficult in that the whole thing is just too vast and has too much things going on for the camera to capture.
You can see the lines of rock in distinct colours along the canyon's face and pillars not yet eroded fully by wind and time. Some parts of the canyon have eroded faster than others creating many 'islands' of rock that seem to jut out from the ground. It seems strange that the top layer of land is completely flat all the way across the canyon. Yet the floor seems to just drop away at given points uncovering layers of rock beneath that are all in a perfect line also.
The whole place seems like someone has put a huge photograph in front of you. Walking into the canyon would probably give a more real perspective to this huge place.


Snow lies around the start of most trails into the canyon itself and it's a long hike, not that we're going to attempt it in these conditions. Besides it's a much longer hike back up than down and camping in these cold temperatures didn't appeal. People are doing it though and you can see the donkey trains carrying the baggage down below, from the cliff edge they look like ants.
We stop at a variety of lookout points with a variety of idiots from around the world, one guy climbing over a wall next to me slips on ice and staggers towards the edge of the canyon. I felt a cold chill pass over me at what I thought I might see next but the guy regained his balance in time. At another lookout a group of American Pensioners are feeding a crow cheesy wotsit-type crisps and gasping with delight, the bird has probably since fallen to the floor of the canyon from gastrointestinal disease. After a few hours I've seen enough.


We do stick around for the sunset and although it is decent enough I've yet to see any sunset in the world to rival that of the stunning sights over the Lake District.
We try and stop overnight in the park but the lodgings are just too expensive and we get a much cheaper deal just on the edge of the park in a small town.
The next morning we head back into the park for some breakfast over looking the canyon. It is an awesome sight, of that there is no doubt, but I'm not wholly sure it ranks up there on a world scale of amazing sights.


I've started to think that the Colorado River may have carved this huge canyon but it was the American hype machine that made it.
Thankfully the great American hype can't ruin everything and we head North over the border of Arizona into some of the strangest and most stunning landscapes I've ever seen. All this in a state I know only a couple of things about, and one of them is that it was set up and run by Mormons. Hello Utah!

Not that canyon, yet

Surrounding Flagstaff, Arizona, is a couple of decent national parks and monuments, the monuments being not big enough to qualify for national park status ,probably.
Anyway, Walnut Canyon is a place where native American people once resided in houses cut into caves on the canyon face. Native American may not be the right term as they're not quite the same as the Indians most of us think of but they're said to be related and they did live here before Europeans so it's fair enough. The name of these peoples is 'Sinagua' which was given to them by Spanish explorers meaning 'no water', which explains their surroundings.


Unfortunately due to a rock slide the main path is closed therefore we can't walk down to the cave dwellings. We can see them from a lookout enough to realise that life here must've been very hard. Living on the cliff face in a cave can be treacherous and the weather conditions in winter could be harsh. The people most likely left the area due to lack of food and water rather than being attacked by another tribe. The homes they left behind in the cliff have lasted for hundreds of years in the natural shelter of the caves and must've been a tough task to construct on the cliff edge.
They're not the most advance of structures although from the canyons edge we can't really tell, but the surroundings are OK so I don't begrudge the visit.
From here we drive north to Sunset Crater and Wupatki National Monument. This is a sort of joint park that includes nature and old civilisations rolled into one. First up is the volcanic activity. All of a sudden we're driving alongside ancient black lava flows that have long since turned to ragged rock.

The landscape varies from black, red, dots of green and sprinklings of white snow amongst the trees and shrubs trying their best to survive. The main feature is Sunset Crater which is a volcanic cinder cone created from violent eruptions that deposit black and red ash in a cone formation. There are many in the area but Sunset is the most impressive. The wind really pounds us as we try and walk to the foot of the crater but it's just too icy to continue. The volcanic rock covers the floor like giant black pumice stones and is warm to the touch from soaking in the sun's rays.


Doney Mountain is another such cone, in fact two cones, that are similar and thankfully less chilly to climb up. Sunset Crater is out of bounds to climbing to preserve it but Doney isn't.

Once at the top you can see the lay of the land and the distant volcanic San Francisco(named after a guy not the city) peaks.


Further up the road is the houses of an Indian civilisation called the Wupatki. In the flat land a red bricked house built onto rock stands out. Due to it's position it was thought this was a look out post for the natives but it is a three storey construction which suggests it was more than that.


Behind the visitors centre is a larger living area and more signs of a community of people including a ball court and meeting place. The multi-room building which makes up the main building was also inhabited by U.S. Park Rangers in the 1950s to look after the site. Oddly enough they lived inside the structure and even fitted gas and installed a fridge. They've definitely made some odd decisions over the years.
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It's too cold to stick around any longer and we head back to Flagstaff all in a days work. On the way we pass the Ski Bowl where skiing and snowboarding take place. I never once imagined that the state of Arizona, which has a desert scene complete with cactus on it's car registration plates, had a ski area. But now I'm here I can believe it. The sun may be strong but the ice cold wind is stronger.
This is the start of nearly a month of spending every single day in a national park of some description. That goes to show just how amazing the land of western America really is. One of those amazing features is world famous and our next destination.