The Mighty Gorge

The Grand Canyon, a UNESCO world heritage. What is left to say about "one of the Earth's greatest ongoing geological spectacles"? Actually, overpriced hotels, crowded parking lots and too many people come to mind. It is the third time visiting for me, and if it weren't for the spousal unit I would have rather gone somewhere more peaceful. The scenery at the South Rim is spectacular nevertheless and usually a brisk ten minute walk will separate you quickly from the tourist hoards. I will let pictures do the talk.

I am sorry but after a while they look all somewhat the same. Sometimes photos can't do the live action justice.

I have to admit that we were really lucky with the weather conditions. It was afternoon and we still got a crisp view. No haze, and the clouds made it picture perfect.

 North Rim at the end of the rainbow.

 Golden sunset.

What goes down, must come up: 6:30 AM sunrise at the rim (we were the only people there...).

 Hence the somewhat crappy self portrait.

The air is not as clear as the day before, but it looks like another gorgeous day at the gorge.

You Can Drive...

... a mile a minute ...

... but there is no ...

... future in it.

WHAT? Turn around, let's read that again.

On a stretch of Route 66 we found a revival of the billboard campain by Burma-Shave, and we learned that their weird roadside verses boosted sales and entertained countless motorists over decades.

Another one: 

He tried to cross
As fast train neared
Death didn't draft him,
He volunteered

Burma-Shave

This one I like:

Car in ditch
Driver in tree
Moon was full
And so was he
Burma-Shave

Do it yourself:

Near Seligman we found

a revival of sort

little roadside verses

for sales to support
Burma-Shave

Now, enough with the commercials, and back to the program. Route 66 is fighting hard for survival. Seligman is one of the towns which try to keep the spirit of the Motherroad alive. We had planned on getting lunch here, but after we checked the menu of the local dive called Road-Kill we weren't hungry anymore...

On a previous stretch we drove through Holbrook to see that the Wigwam Motel is still alive and kicking. On my first journey on Route 66 I had booked a night in one of the concrete First Nations habitats. It was cheap, and old, and cold, and loud with freight trains going by all night, such great memories.

Everybody should travel the Route 66 at least once in their life, and keep the legend alive!

Because otherwise there won't be much left of it as seen here at the Twin Arrows Trading Post.

We had a reasonable short trip ahead of us today, and relaxed in Sedona, a lovely little city in the heart of Red Rock Country.

Another biker coming in the way of a good snapshot... not that I mind.

Little discoveries during window shopping:

 

What a great area, we love it here. Thanks to the lovely couple we met in the spa at the hotel in Moab who recommended the place.

And we had wonderful Mediterranean style DIY food tonight, crowned by wine from Arizona.

I tell you, life is so good!

Arching four Corners was quite a Stretch

Our personal favourite national park out of the nine we had the chance to get a foot in was definitely the Arches.

The early light was perfect, the morning temperatures still bearable, and so we gathered all our enthusiasm (not a morning person per say...) , and hiked to the Delicate Arch view point. Our legs felt like filled with lead, and we quickly became short of breath. We blamed it on the altitude, and lack of coffeine, not on our fitness. Again it was well worth the effort as we had nature's wonders all to ourselves.

As we had spent more time than planned at Arches, we could only make it a quick excursion to get a glimpse of the most accessible area of Canyonlands. Moab, we will return one day!

Although running behind already we made a detour through Monument Valley, which was nice but after all the previous impressions we felt a bit jaded.

Another Harley rider caught in the middle of the scenery... happened quite a bit while taking pictures.

As we were pretty close to Four Corners, what's another stretch of a couple of 100 miles, eh?

There we met a group of Dutch tourists on... bikes.

Now, been there, done that, moving on...

We went through the Southwest corner of Colorado, only because it was there... and didn't expect that this state would actually look like this:

Not much different from New Mexico:

Dead tired from today's impressions we picked one of the usual suspects of hotel chains in Farmington, New Mexico and called it a day.

So far it has been a hell of a trip!