Grand Canyon and beyond

The drive from Monument Valley to the Grand Canyon was memorable for the fog-like sandstorms and tumbleweed loping over the road. By the time we reached the Grand Canyon the sand and tumbleweed had gone, but the biting cold wind was still strong enough to knock the unwary elderly to the ground. We emerged from our car at the first viewing point along with all the other tourists for our first glimpse of the Canyon. It is incredibly vast, and you struggle to maintain any sense of scale it is so immense. The colours of the different geological strata are a visual treat, and you get glimpses of the architect of the Grand Canyon, the Colorado River. We continued on to our accomodation just outside the national park at Tusayan. We had booked this as we could not find many options left within the park, and the reasons why this hotel still had space left soon became apparent - a toxic smelling room, raw hamburgers for dinner, no wifi "due to the effect of the Grand Canyon", and tasteful 70s decor.

Excited by the prospect of a ranger-led fossil walk of the Canyon, I got up early the next morning and drove into the park while Shelly and Jon opted for the quality of the hotel breakfast instead. This was the best thing I did as the Canyon was lovely first thing in the morning. The wind had gone, there were no crowds, the sun was shining and the birds and mammals were out. I got in early to get a car park and wandered around. I found an elk, squirrels, various birds including nuthatches at their nest, woodpeckers and juniper titmouse. The light over the Canyon was beautiful. All this magic vanished as a large crowd gathered for the fossil walk - at least 100 people. Everything after this point was marred by the sheer number of people in the park. I went back and collected Shelly and Jon and we returned to the park for the nature walk in the afternoon but soon gave up and did our own walk. It was at this point the highlight of my Grand Canyon experience appeared - a Californian condor soared through the Canyon! It was huge!

We had managed to book a table at El Tovar, a fancy Arts and Crafts hotel for dinner. Although nothing spectacular as an Arts and Crafts example, it did feature a stone exterior, exposed beams and a wooden balustrade inside. When we arrived, we pushed through the throng of people in the lobby to the bar to get a drink before dinner. Upon ordering, we were asked to show some identification. Nothing unusual there. Except that by identification, they meant they wanted to inspect our passports. Which we didn't have on us. We then found out that our dinner reservation had been delayed by at least half an hour to 9pm. So back to Tusayan it was, to a delicious, prompt non-hotel dinner of pizza.

After some of the disappointments of the Grand Canyon, our drive to Sedona was much better. We stopped at the Flagstaff Arboretum and met some captive Harris hawks, and came across bluebirds and a confiding golden-mantled ground squirrel eating new green plants poking through the snow. The drive into Sedona was impressive due to brilliant red rock formations and forest. We checked out the Red Rock State Park, which turned out to be fantastic birding - with the added bonus of hardly any people! Stacks of feisty hummingbirds, a great riparian walk with petroglyphs and butterflies, and our first reptiles of the trip due to some welcome warm weather. We also visited the Page Springs Hatchery, where we saw our first chooks of the trip happily scratching away in knee-high lush grass. I think I walked about 50m in total, and managed to see heaps of great bird species here, including cedar waxwings (I suspect these were migrating, as they were in groups passing through) and secretive spotted towhees, two species I really wanted to see. The town of Sedona itself had a definite hippie/New Age feel to it, and was relaxed and friendly.

After Sedona we ventured to Phoenix, where we visited the amazing Desert Botanical Park, which had a great layout of the local Sonoran Desert cacti, including the saguaro and cholla cactus we had begun to see from the road. Many of the desert plants were in colourful flower, and it was here that we learnt that the palo verde (green trees) had chlorophyll in their green trunks. It also proved to be a great wildlife watching venue, with cactus wrens, curve-billed thrashers, phainopeplas, gila woodpeckers, several species of hummingbirds, lizards, and mammals.


While Jon went off in search of an IPad, Shelly and I retreated to the air-conditioned Phoenix Art Museum for their supposed fashion collection, but all we could find was a single room of American WWII frocks, much to Shelly's dismay. It was interesting however to see jackets by Adrian, underwear made from parachute material, and detailed military maps made of fabric. The wall text was inadequate, and even with the exhibition booklet in hand, it was hard to make sense of the items on display - what was made clear was the donor from whom the item came from. There was also an Ansel Adams exhibition which was interesting, as it contained some of his urban architectural works I was unfamiliar with. We could not help but be reminded of Frank Hurley, Olive Cotton and Max Dupain.

Our next destinations will take us even further south in Arizona - to Tucson and beyond.

Photos to come when we are able to post them!