Arizona

Day 1
We flew into Phoenix, a good journey with a connection in Atlanta. We then got a free shuttle to a motel as it was quite late. The next day we went back to the airport to pick our rental car.
Mark soon got the hang of an automatic car, and driving on the wrong side of the road.

We drove to Flagstaff via Sedona. The view here was great when we went up the airport road, great colours and created some anticipation of what was to come at the National parks. However we found Sedona itself to be expensive and full of pushy tour companies. So we were happy to move on quickly.

We arrived in Flagstaff at teatime, and checked into the Dubeau hostel. Room was very basic but facilities were good in main building. The trains pass very close and as warned, were noisy throughout the night. Flagstaff gets approximately 80 freight trains a day, they are up to a mile long each. Thank goodness for earplugs!

Day 2
We set off mid morning to go to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. It was a nice day, and we enjoyed the views on the 1.5 hour journey. We got parked and got advice off a really helpful ranger, on walks and places to see the sunset and off we went. Two minutes in and we came across our first discovery, a big Mule Deer. Mark was the first to spot him, and until I saw the size of the fella I wondered why he stopped dead in his tracks. We were headed for the rim trail, and were suitably impressed when we reached it and saw our first view of the Canyon. It is BIG.

We walked for about a mile and reached the Bright Angel Trail. We were advised by the ranger not to attempt the whole journey in one go. After reading warning posters we saw why, as there have been fatalities due to the heat, exhaustion, and lack of fluids. So we walked far enough to get great views from halfway down. It felt as if we were right inside the canyon. We came across some more local residents; cliff chipmunks, rock squirrel, condors, ravens and a beautiful blue bird (we haven't found out what it was yet).

We walked back to Yavapai point for the sunset. This was amazing! The sun seemed to disappear in seconds leaving a rainbow of colours all around us. Reds, oranges, yellow, purple.... What a great day.

We headed back to Flagstaff, and crashed out.

Day 3
This was a more relaxing day. We did a bit of shopping. Then we drove down a section of Route 66. Mark was very excited, as he has wanted to do this for a long time. Along the way we stopped off at the Museum Club, a famous bar. Apparently Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson played there in the 60's. A man in the bar gave us a tour around, telling us stories about ghosts and gunfights. There were some real characters in there, but as we had found in Arizona, really friendly and pleasant.

In the evening, we treated ourselves to a few drinks in a bar near to the hostel. This was the first decent American beer we'd tasted. It was a micro brewery, and the beers tasted like those in the UK. We met a great bloke at the bar who bought us a drink, and gave us some tips for when we reached Las Vegas.

Next onto Page, heading north.