Over the Hill and Far Away……….

Today we made (quite literally) a flying visit to the Grand Canyon. We booked a helicopter ride online yesterday and so set off early this morning to ensure we had plenty of time. We were on the road by just after 8 am and took Highway 180 out of Flagstaff to the airport at Tusayan which is just by the canyon some 75 miles away.

The ride itself would have been worth getting up for, never mind the big hole in the ground at the end. The 180 was a strip of smooth two-lane road which climbed out of Flagstaff, through the winter ski area, to reach 8000 feet through the Ponderosa pines of the San Francisco Peaks. With the bike panniers empty for once and the road almost deserted we were able to enjoy leaning into the long, sweeping curves of the road as it meandered through the forests. Beyond that was a wide area of grassland called the Colorado Plateau which stayed at about 8000 feet until it began to drop a bit as we approached the airport.

We were early for our flight and were offered an earlier one which had spare places. After a weigh-in to ensure that we did not top the scales at more than 21.5 stone each (apparently after 3 weeks of American food a visual inspection was not conclusive enough) and a quick safety video we were airborne. The ride was amazing and the views were absolutely spectacular as we cruised over and through the canyon. We were not prepared for the sheer size of it or the presence of the many tributary canyons that ran into it. The Colorado River thousands of feet below us seemed absolutely tiny by comparison.

After a flight of about 30 minutes we arrived back at the airport feeling absolutely stunned by the experience (and it was also the first time that either of us had flown in a helicopter). We had plenty of time on our hands but decided we might as well return to Flagstaff as we didn’t think anything else could match the experience we had just had. Short of spending a few days there and going to different viewpoints I don’t think there is a better way of seeing the canyon and getting an impression of its size and the variety of the landscape. Nor was the flight hugely expensive at £110 per person. The only drawback is that it is difficult to take good pictures through the perspex cabin window but that’s only a small disadvantage taken in the overall context of the experience.

After another lovely ride back along the 180 with the view of the still-snow-capped peaks ahead of us we were back in Flagstaff by 12.30. We decided to treat ourselves to a burger and went to an “ethical” burger joint called Diabolo which our waitress last night had recommended. The “ethical” bit refers to the meat being free-range and locally sourced but it did provoke us to debate about what a truly ethical burger might be. We finally concluded that it would have to involve a cow which had lived a rich and full life and had passed away leaving clear written instructions donating its body to the meat industry. Anyway, whatever it was, it was very tasty.

We stopped on the way back to the motel at a bar close to the railway track that bisects the town (and where occasionally you have to wait while a train passes through). As we sat outside in the sun Mark looked contentedly around him and uttered the immortal words: “This is just like Grimsby”. As I picked myself up off the floor he explained that there too a railway line had impeded his access to the pub.

After such an amazing morning (please note I have studiously avoided using the word “awesome” although for once I have been sorely tempted) the rest of the day is bound to feel like an anticlimax however I expect that we will shortly drag ourselves back into town for more food.

Tomorrow we are back on Interstate Highway 40 to Kingman, which will put us within a day’s ride of Las Vegas.

After realising that the Grand Canyon was a 160 mile round trip, we decided to rest up today and make a day of it tomorrow. We therefore opted to spend the day catching up on some “housekeeping” such as doing our laundry, charging all our electrical devices and continuing our exploration of the delightful town of Flagstaff.

After a night and early morning that was disturbed, variously, by a noisy fridge, freight trains hooting and a chap who decided to start loading his car up at 6am (and who locked his car after each of his several trips, causing his horn to sound every time!) we were glad to be able to have a lie-in.

Having gradually eased ourselves into the day we set off into downtown Flagstaff to buy some hand-wash soap and a hat for me (as, despite its high uv protection factor, a motorcycle helmet looks silly if worn when walking round town). We found a massive outdoor equipment shop which eventually yielded up the soap but the hat proved to be a more intractable problem. I had set some exacting expectations in that the headgear should not make me look either moronic or homicidal and should not cost $100 dollars or more. After about an hour of fruitless and increasingly irritable searching I finally agreed to abandon the first two stipulations and settled for something that would at least stop the top of my head looking like a char-grilled steak by the end of the day.

In the course of our travels we also visited a very large bookshop, which serves the university here, and various smaller shops. In a small second-hand bookshop we were able to help the proprietor out by swapping some of our loose change for his paper money. He said that sometimes, some people just make his day and today we were those people!

Having spread a little good will and bonhomie around the place we decided that we deserved some lunch and maybe a beer or two which we enjoyed out in the sun watching the world go by.

After a brief return to our grim and inhospitable motel to do the washing and generally faff about we headed back into town for our evening meal. We found a really nice restaurant where Mark feasted on endangered species (Bison meatloaf) and I ate a duck, while we speculated on the personal stories of the other diners. For once the food was neither deep-fried nor coated in industrial strength sauces, nor were the portions ridiculously huge so we might well eat there again tomorrow if they’ll let us back in.

Tomorrow we are definitely going to the Grand Canyon and plan to make an early start to beat the crowds. With luck we should have some interesting pictures to post next time.