The Grand Canyon

Thursday.
Being in Flagstaff, we couldn't miss out on the Grand Canyon! But with all our morning routines and little delays like a broken waste water hose cap we only reached the National Park at 1pm.
There were quite a few people in the park already, but only little compared to the crowds during the summer months. We parked in lot E and walked over to take the red bus towards Hermit's Rest which, due to road construction only operates until Hopi Point. Already at the 1st of the 4 stops, the view is awesome!

A squirrel catches our attention, jumping up and down the rocks, getting as close to the rim as possible. We decide to walk the 1.1km over to the next bus stop that takes us along the rim with ever new views appearing in front of us. Of course, we're tempted to go closer to the rim than the trail suggests. And we try, but this tickeling feeling in my tummy keeps me from overdoing it. Sitting on a large stone at the rim, taking in this gigantic view - I have no words to describe that!

(more pictures at: http://galerie.photo-fisch.de)

Time is running, so we hop back on the bus towards the 4th and last stop, Hopi Point. Over here, you can even see the river down at the bottom of the canyon giving you an idea of its depth. Just incredible!
In the nearby IMAX theatre, we fly through the Canyon, take a rafting tour and learn some history about it. Pretty amazing!

But we have to leave, put a couple of miles on the meter. Williams' main street is kind of cute with at least some Route 66 flair.
Its RV park only offers Wifi in its laundry, but if the owner puts us 'really close to it, then we should get some signal'. No, thanks. This RV park doesn't look that nice anyway.
So we continue through Ash Fork (just as run down as most of the places along the route, and also no internet at the RV park) towards Seligman. On our way, we're waiting for the sunset at 6.58pm, but at 10 to 6, the sun's still quite high up in the sky. Strange. Did we miss a change in time zones? Or does Arizona boycott daylight savings time? We might have read something about that...
An hour later the sun sets beautifully in front of our cameras.

(more pictures at: http://galerie.photo-fisch.de)

Thanks to late registering we'll stay at the KOA campground in Seligman, but we'll only get the coupon for the wifi the next morning. Bad luck.
We walk over to the motel that has a pizza joint attached, but looks so shabby and empty that I first ask if there was any pizza left for us. And there was! 2 large spinach and 1 large hawaii pizza feed the 5 of us. We're stuffed! Giggeling and laughing we sign a souvenir dollar for the owner and crawl into our beds.

Miles travelled by RV: 197
Current location: Seligman, AZ
Next stops: Kingman and Bullhead City, AZ