June 19th, 20th Albuquerque to Flagstaff, Day trip from Flagstaff to Grand Canyon

June 19th, 20th Albuquerque to Flagstaff, Day trip from Flagstaff to Grand Canyon, 410 miles.

Ive already posted the links for the photos, but here they are again, Albuquerque and the Grand Canyon

On the 19th we headed from Albuquerque to Flagstaff, intending to use Flagstaff as our base for visiting the Grand Canyon. We decided to keep this night fairly quiet, partially this was the conspicuous hemorrhaging of dollars and partially this was 1. Mexican beer 2. Tequila 3. Repeat from 1. So, quietly skulking off to the local cinema we sat down to watch 'Batman returns'. There's a lot that could be said about the movie but I don't think I'll bother blogging it, in short its generally quite good but with some flaws.

The 20th seen us day tripping to the Grand Canyon. On first impressions it is quiet awesome, the shear scale doesn't quite compute and it takes a while to sink in. Once the novelty of the scale wears off some of the other sights start to register; the red and orange cliffs, the incredibly wide panorama and the green glints from the distant Colorado. Well worth seeing.

After an afternoon of wandering the rim and visiting various view points we ended up at 'Hermits point'. From here there is an unmaintained trail down into the canyon to where a hermit used to mine. The trail was described as 'for experienced desert hikers' and headed with a billboard informing us of the deaths of people, including various marathon runners, who had died here whilst insufficiently prepared. The guide book recommends 8 liters of water per person per day and to not hike between 10:00 and 16:00. Cool. None the less I did persuade Keith and, after some cajoling, Josh, to hike down for fifteen minutes or so just to get a different view of the Canyon. God it felt good to stretch out my legs and work my lungs for a bit! Such a shame we didn't come prepared for some proper hiking, and there was sooo much good climbing about as well, sigh. Next time more water and equipment!

In between all this we managed to catch some glimpses of a decent amount of wildlife, from numerous birds and lizards to scuttling little desert versions of mammals, which I found quiet cool. Actually from the 'DANGER DANGER' signs they had about the squirrels I was surprised to see anything else alive. The squirrels are reportedly rabid, bubonic plague bearing aggressive little sods, perhaps leaving nothing in their path but blood and nuts.

So that's about it for the Grand Canyon. The remaining night in Flagstaff we found a cool bar and had some beers, however the night was hampered by the fact that we needed a designated driver (Keith) and that we had to drive back and forth a few times picking up increasingly valid forms of ID to get into the pub in the first place. Hey ho. Anyway tomorrow we're off to Vegas! Cya.