Arizona - Day 4

Wow, what a day. Things started with us being awoken in the middle of the night by a alarm that was sounding in Grand Canyon Park. We were then re-awoken by a similar incident later in the night. It turned out that in both cases these were false alarms, though we didn't know it at the time.

In the morning, at 6:00 AM, when we eventually got up to prepare for our mule ride we learned that it was still raining and that there were tornado warnings. From this point on I didn't have a good feeling about our prospective mule ride.

After breakfast and a little messing about we made our way to the mule ride headquarters to begin the sign in process. After some more messing about we were all ready to go (we had to buy some straw hats and tie our other belongings down) we made our way to the stable. Within moments of arriving at the stable we were told that because of tornado warnings the mule ride would be cancelled. Despite my objections we re-scheduled the mule ride for the afternoon.

This meant that we had to hang around in the morning, even though it was rainy, cold, and wet. We eventually decided that driving to some of the lookouts might be the best use of our time. When we eventually made it to our final destination we discovered that parts of the park had recently been hit by a substantial hail storm (when we arrived many places had about an inch of hail on the ground). Obviously, the conditions convinced us that visiting the lookout wasn't as good an idea as visiting the canteen to pick up a warm beverage.

When we eventually made it back to the mule headquarters we learned that the afternoon trip had also been cancelled. After a little more Grand Canyon touring, which was occasionally made spectacular by clear skies, we moved one and started to head south.

While traveling south to Flagstaff we encountered the beautiful Painted Desert, a nearby canyon which was adjacent to the Little Colorado river, a trading post/community named Cameron, a volcano, and, finally, Flagstaff. As soon as we reached Flagstaff we continued on to Williams, which is where we are now.

Williams seems to be a strange combination of tourist shops, motels, and restaurants. They also have a train station and a grocery store. I am not sure if there is much else there (aside from Route 66).

Anyway, tomorrow should take us to Sedona and, eventually, Phoenix. Hopefully we will finally be able to shake the rain and grey skies.

Arizona - Day 3

What's the deal with all of this Arizona rain? Everywhere we have been (first Phoenix and now the Grand Canyon) we have been followed by heavy rain and lightening. It is a total bummer. Much of the scenery that we expected to see has been obscured by clouds and rain.

Though the rain has definitely been a bit annoying we were still able to see a few neat sites today. Our first stop was Montezuma's Castle, a cave-dwelling/castle. Eventually we also made our way through Jerome and Prescott and then up to the Grand Canyon, where we will be spending the night.

In the morning we are scheduled to go on a 3 hour mule ride. Hopefully this experienced isn't damped by more rain, that would be a real bummer. I don't think mules and rain really mix, and it would also likely mean that our view of the Grand Canyon would be obscured, thus undermining much of the justification for this trip north.

We will soon be heading back to our room and out of the lodge, so I will be internet free for a while. This state of affairs probably isn't actually so bad, though I might be nicing out from time to time.