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Posted
By: Ricky
Lee McBroom
Date: Friday, 24 June 2005, at 4:28 a.m.
Day 5 (June 22): Cedar City, UT > Williams, AZ
We'd planned on making it to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon the previous afternoon. But the rain slowed us down and, after a tip from a friendly local that there was no lodging at the North Rim, we'd decided on Cedar City. But that put us close. We hit the road at 07:30 and, after a liesurely ride of approx. 2 hours we arrived at our first destination;
Grand Canyon, North Rim In a word.. awesome. Bear in mind that the canyon directly in front of you here is not even the Grand Canyon proper, but a side canyon - Bright Angel Canyon.
We made the trek out to Bright Angel point, something that only 20% of the visitors to the North Rim do, we were told (and more than half of Grand Canyon visitors skip the North Rim altogether). Understandable, I suppose, as it's a moderately strenuous hike. But it was well worth it. Side canyon or no, the view is stupendous! And you can see the Grand Canyon proper in the medium distance, of course.
But the view of the canyon was, for us, rivalled by the show put on by a clan of these fellows:
Condor @ Grand Canyon North Rim There were 5 of them in total, and the air show they put on was just amazing.. 'twas worth the trip for it alone!
We departed for the South Rim at 13:30, and were told that it was a 3 to 4 hour journey, depending. We soon learned that 'depending' is the key word there;
Impending storm near Lee's Way, AZ Yup, we hit some weather. No, that doesn't do it justice. We hit some downright nasty sphincter-puckering weather. Minutes after that shot was taken, we encountered a dust storm that felt like someone had turned a sandblaster loose on us. The good news is that it lasted only a minute or two.
The bad news is that it was followed by sideways rain and wind gusts that I estimate were in the 60 to 70 MPH range. Maybe more. Put it this way - several of the gusts were extreme to the degree that I had to countersteer into 'em so hard that, on the wet road, I could feel the front tire slipping. You have to ride to fully understand that, I think. But, trust me, it is Not A Good Thing. In the immortal words of Chuck Yaeger "Scared? No. I was, however, extremely apprehensive."
We rode through it, though, and soon emerged back into sunshine. Then more rain. Then more sun. We hit 4 storms in total though, thank heavens, none were of the magnitude of that first one. After emerging from #3, near Cameron, AZ, we stopped and did a little shopping at one of the Indian Jewelrey stands that are so thick on the ground in the area;
Indian Jewelrey shopping near Cameron, AZ From here 'twas 'only' another 1-1/2 hours to the South Rim. It took us a bit more than 5 hours total to go from the North to South Rim.. which, I suppose, is why so many skip the North Rim. In any case, we made it;
Pam & Ricky McBroom @ Grand Canyon South Rim As you can probably tell by our attire, we did indeed encounter storm #4 on the way in. Hey, nothing can put a damper on that view, though!
Though, again, the local wildlife tried to upstage the geology;
Yearling elk @ Grand Canyon South Rim This little fella just wandered right out in front of us, totally fearless, and proceeded to nibble at the foliage on the roadside. Just like he owned the road. Which, I suppose, he does. Hey, he lives there, we were just visiting.
Departed the South Rim at 17:30 bound for Williams, AZ, a 54 mile ride (the lodging at the Canyon was all booked and is too bloody expen$ive, in any case). More spotty weather, and we checked into the Super 8 at Williams at 20:00.
And don't get me started on that Super 8. Don't stay at that one ever, never, under any circumstances. The advertised 'Internet Access' turned out to be an extra RJ-11 'dataport' on the side of the room telephone. Totally worthless to me. Plus the room was small and shabby. Ah well, I was too exhausted to do anything on the 'net, anyway, much less care about the general substandard condition of the room. Isn't it funny how exhaustion can make you forget your finicky nature?
All in all, a
day!
-Ricky
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