Tusayan to Kanab

We checked out of the hotel in Tusayan after availing ourselves yet again of the buffet breakfast. The route took us east along the south rim of the Grand Canyon passing scenic view after scenic view. Obviously, we needed to get out at every single one of them, worried that perhaps if we missed one, it would turn out to be The Best View. I think we were still struggling to come to terms with the Grand Canyon and wanting to give it every chance to truly impress us.

The view we subconsciously wanted was Grandview. It truly was. I am not sure how this view distinguished itself against all the others but somehow it was the perfect balance of colours and arrangement of peaks. Perhaps a big part of the allure was the fact that a little scurrying brought us to a ledge with huge falls into the canyon as opposed to raggedy slopes. Sometimes the frisson of death lends to the majesty.

There was a board with some human history of the Grand Canyon on it. Spanish explorers "discovered" (from the European perspective) the Grand Canyon in the 16th century and described the hills in the canyon as "bigger than the great tower of Seville" (104.5 m/343 ft). Which is true... And we were amused at the understatement without being critical of it because what else was to be their yardstick? But it does go to show how tough the perspective of the canyon makes it and how much of a struggle it is to put it into terms a human can understand. Another point that amused us was that they thought they could just nip down to the Colorado river to bring back desperately needed water- a quest doomed for failure.

We drove on and detoured to the Tusayan Ruin and museum on the basis of "might as well, we're only here once" (though that is a bit pessimistic). The small museum set the scene for the ruins which date back to the twelfth century. We viewed the ruins and discussed the pros and cons of having your kiva entrance directly above the fire pit and moved on.

Our final viewpoint, the end of this scenic drive, was Desert View. The Desert View Watchtower, shorter than the great tower of Seville, was built in the early thirties and designed by someone called Mary Colter. According to information boards, she was a stickler for details and put a lot of effort into making the watchtower rugged and fairly ruinous looking to make it match the landscape. Personally, I don't think it particularly nice. She achieved what she wanted it seems but I thought it ugly and not worthy of its amazing location. Plus I was nervous about climbing what looked like a tower on the verge of collapse.

The views from the Watchtower included the Colorado Plateau to the east, the Colorado river in the depths of the canyon and of course the usual mind boggling canyon cliffs and hills. It's essentially the end of the Grand Canyon. We toured the gift shop and climbed the watch tower inside which were reproductions of native art. It was nice but there is only so much time you can give to reproductions.

By this point, it was lunchtime, and we went to the little cafe at this location where the server was the moodiest and most unhappy to serve I have ever met in America. As if it was a huge inconvenience to him, he gave us our requested meals. Skit had "desert tea", a spiced herbal drink and I stuck to the normal caffeinated variety. We took our drinks outside and sat on a bench by the edge of the Grand Canyon with a view of the Watchtower to the east. Possibly the best bench in the world (if Carlsberg made benches...). As soon as the drinks were gone, so were we, out of the cold and into the car.

Our journey was full of ups and downs. Grandview was the highest we went at the Grand Canyon (7,400 ft/2,255 m) and was suitably cold so I was wrapped in jumpers, a coat, gloves and a scarf. After that, our elevation dropped until Little Colorado Canyon where we stopped and discovered that it was back to t-shirt weather. Little Colorado Canyon is just east of the Grand Canyon and feeds into the Colorado, as the name strongly implies. The canyon this river carves looks normal. We looked down at its depth and shrugged it off saying, "we could do that in half an hour". We appreciated its normality though and weren't at all heartbroken to leave the monstrous assault to the senses that is the Grand Canyon behind.

Our next stop was a Navajo trading post. There was a scenic point that interested us but to get to it we needed to go through a road-side market place. Being November, it was rather quiet but there were still about twenty stalls open each with a minder that seemed eager for our custom. After walking through the market to the view, taking the required number of photos and then some, we spent some time browsing the stalls and engaging in polite conversation with the people there. The goods on sale were Native American crafts (apparently- I don't know how many were developed just to sell to tourists like us). It was mainly jewelery with a few other trinkets such as bows and arrows, axes, Christmas baubles...

I bought a bauble and a necklace for myself and a Christmas gift for someone else. Skit bought about half a dozen necklaces (give or take) both as gifts for others and herself. I am not sure what drove this sudden need to shop but it satisfied some capitalist urge.

And so on the road again we were, blasting through the Arizona desert to the dulcet sounds of the Now Show. The landscape was abruptly flat, extending off into the distance where peaks brought an edge to the world. Everything was red and orange rock with landscapes of dry matted grasses stretching for miles.

We had a choice of destination as nowhere had been booked for that night. Kanab and Page were equal distances away but the route to Kanab was classed as "scenic" so we took that through the Vermilion Cliffs area. Since our success timing the sunset at the Grand Canyon with our arrival at the perfect point to witness a sunset, we were keen to have a repeat event and time today's sunset with a view of the famous red cliffs of the area. The issue with this was that we were driving west late in a wintry afternoon directly into the low sun.

We paused to switch driving/being-blinded-by-the-sun responsibilities at a place called "Cliff Dwellers" where large and oddly shaped rocks were randomly scattered in a small area. One looked like a mushroom the size of a shed and others had hollows that provided shelter. According to an information board, a woman got caught out in the area overnight and sheltered there. She decided to stay and build a home there. The ramshackle home still stands or rather slumps. I think she must have been mad.

The sunsets in November are pretty long and for this one, we were mainly on the road so we got to view it from a couple of locations. The first was a view point onto the Vermilion Cliffs which were red to begin with and reddened by the setting sun. We were back up at a high elevation so I only darted out of the car briefly to view this one, letting skit grab all the snaps. The route took us higher and higher up to the Kaibab plateau and the National Forest. This took us to the highest point we reached- 9,000 ft/2,700 m. The forest was dark and snow-laden and understandably deserted.

Our second viewpoint of the extended sunset came just as the last light lay on the horizon which would not have been notable except that the horizon was the Grand Staircase-Escalante. This is a series of different coloured rock layers that through a combination of erosion and uplift form a vast staircase. From our vantage point just out of the forest, the profile of the Grand Staircase was illuminated by the last light of the sun.

Again, cold and complaining, I hurried back to the car with skit in tow and we went on, with Mykey helpfully telling us exactly how many miles we had left in the tank. the next town was Fredonia and the name appealed to us so much we decided to find accommodation there. We failed. It was a small town with one nasty looking motel so instead we kept on the road and went through the border into Utah.

On the outskirts of Kanab, we saw a sign for the "Comfort Inn" with directions "right at the traffic light". We joked that perhaps Kanab only had the one traffic light... It did. As we entered the town, it grew apparently that it wasn't much bigger than Fredonia and comprised mainly of petrol stations. Having seen the sign first, we shunned the Best Western in town for the Comfort Inn.

By looking in the directory in the room, we discovered that there were far more churches than restaurants in town. Not really having much choice, we ended up in a kind-of Mexican food place and yet again I had fajitas (but they were actually better here). Notably, there was actually a vegetarian menu here. In the Bay Area, vegetarianism is not uncommon and yet still finding vegetarian options in a normal restaurant isn't easy and yet here on the border between Arizona and Utah, there was a selection of dishes.

The only other notable thing about this restaurant was that there was deep fried ice-cream for dessert. Yes, we indulged.