We kept following Route 66 into Arizona where the landscape started to change again, very rocky, every shade of rust you can imagine and the buttes seem to rise up out of nothing. It’s a 4.5 hour drive to Williams (just west of Flagstaff) but the drive took us about 10 hours.
We stopped off at the Petrified Forest National Park for lunch and this was brilliant. Being kiwi’s we were expecting an actual stone forest of trees but these trees are all lying on the ground and are 2.5 million years old, frozen in place by an eruption all those years ago. Back in the day they sold the tree parts as souvineers but Roosevelt made it a national park during his presidency and now they are very strict as you can imagine. They actually search cars as you leave to make sure you haven’t removed anything. They found Gertie the dinosaur at this park and it’s right in the painted desert too which is a terrain that looks like mars…..just gorgeous. We saw a mini tornado rip through here and although it was tiny it was really loud, makes me wonder (and definitely not want to experience) how loud a real one must be.
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| Painted Desert, Arizona |
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| Those bits you see at the bottom are 2.5 million yr old trees |
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| Louie and camper at Painted Desert |
On the road again……we wanted to see the Meteorite Site which is not far before you hit Flagstaff but the weather was a bit dubious. Thunderstorms with forked lightening that you can actually see hit the ground! You leave the I40 to drive out to the site and it’s a long dusty road to nowhere. The meteor hit 50,000 years ago and the crater it left was huge. Apparently the impact would have caused hurricane winds up to 300 kilometers away from the site, crazy. There was a piece of the meteorite that we could touch (about the size of Spencer) which was pretty cool. There was also a Ground Zero exhibit where you could stand in the middle and listen and see what must have happened on impact. Leo was spellbound “the rock that fell from space”….”was it a piece of the moon Daddy?”…
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| Meteor Crater |
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| Touching a piece of the meteorite |
The drive out to the South Rim of the canyon takes about 1 hour. You can catch a train from town but it takes almost 3 hours to get there and it costs $75 per adult. The drive itself is very much like driving through National Park, lots of trees and hills. It costs $25 per vehicle to enter the park and the pass is valid for 7 days. Nothing can prepare you for seeing the Grand Canyon. I have seen photos of it and seen it on TV but man…it is beyond words to see it in person. What a magnificent view from Mathers Point. We took a long walk on the South rim and took it all in. Apparently they lost 8-10 people over the side each year and I’m not surprised. Although a lot of it has a fence, there are places you can climb out on rocks over major drops for photo opportunities and people were doing it!
The rock at the bottom of the canyon is nearly 2 billion years old and the canyon has been created by land masses colliding and drifting apart, mountains forming and eroding, sea levels rising and falling and relentless forces of moving water. It’s all set in the Colorado Plateau which rose about 70 million years ago.
We have been itching to see condors and apparently there were 8 pairs (they mate for life) nesting just under the rim at Mathers Point, unfortunately tourists started throwing coins over the side of the canyon and all but one condor succumbed to zinc poisoning. I mean really.
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| Leo and watch tower |
We then did the Desert View drive along the rim to the East entrance of the park, gorgeous views all the way along and we stopped for a bit of a picnic with the kids. The weather was starting to close in as we reached Desert View with the Watch Tower (built in 1932) and it was great to take a bit of shelter in the tower. You can climb right to the top and get views of the Colorado River winding through the canyon. We left via the East entrance, it meant a longer drive home but man, what scenery! Deep crevasses through the earth where the Colorado River weaves, wide plains with Navajo settlements, plenty of arts and crafts on the side of the road (if you buy from here you know your money goes straight to the tribe) and beautiful mountains as you head towards Flagstaff.
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| Colorado River winding down Canyon |
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| Indian artwork spiral to top of tower |
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| Terrain on way home |
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| Heading South to Flagstaff |
We headed into town in Williams to have a mooch around the shops and it was fabulous. We ended up in a diner for dinner with live music, it was great. Leo and Spencer had a good dance and Justin and I had a good drink! There is a Canyon Pale Ale that Justin as fallen in love with.We have been warned several times not to travel along the Mexican border. It was never in our plan anyway but it was quite shocking to find out that Phoenix, Arizona is second only to Mexico City when it comes to kidnapping and hijacking. All of that seems so far away when you are in a little town like Williams, one main street and lots of friendly people.
It is really cold now that we are up so high but with our thermals and our fan heater we seem to be managing quite well. The problem is showering the kids and getting them back to the camper before they catch hypothermia. The days are t-shirt weather days but as soon as the sun goes down the temperature drops quickly.
There is a drive through safari in Williams called Bearizona (www.bearizona.com ) , it is well worth a visit. It’s only $16 per adult and under 5’s are free. The park consists of a 3 km drive through woods and park areas with animals such as bears, arctic wolves, Rocky Mountain big horned sheep, American burro and brown and white bison. It also has a petting zoo and walking through area about 20 acres and you get to meet the bear cubs, wolf pups, foxes, lynx, bobcat and racoons of all things.
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| Brown bison |
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| Alaskan Wolves |
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| Excited Spence |
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| White bison |
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| Big horned goats |
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| Hunting for bears |
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| Buddah! |
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| A bear's view of the world |
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| Swiper the fox |
This time zone thing is very confusing, we lost another hour when we arrived in Arizona because Arizona doesn’t observe daylight savings. Therefore the kids are getting up at their 6am, which is now 4am so we are having some really long days!
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