Hole-y sh!t

11th June.  Kingman, AZ to Tusayan, AZ

Grand Canyon, AZ

Warm day, again, today for the trip to Tusayan, which is a small village about 15 mins from the southern rim of the Grand Canyon.  Expecting 103 degF.  Thankfully it cooled down in the arvo for when I was wandering around the canyon.

Started off from Kingman on Route 66.  Saw a tonne of bikes on the road today - mostly Harley's, or cruisers.  Wasn't much of an interesting ride really.  Went through a few towns that are set up for tourists with kitschy attractions - well, I thought so anyway, and didn't bother stopping.

Wish I had've taken the time to take a photo of the sky - the clouds were amazing.  Hundreds of individual 'cotton bud' clouds.

Along the way, I came across a couple of series of signs.  In each series were 6 signs, each of which were spaced about 500m, or so.from each other.  They'd combine to make up a slogan on 5 of them, ending with a "Burma Shave" logo at the end.  An example was. "Don't Lose", "Your Head", "To Gain a Minute", "You Need Your Head", "Your Brains Are In It", "Burma Shave".  I reckon I saw about 4 or 5 of them.  Kept me entertained for a while.  I've since discovered that Burma Shave is an old company from the 40's or 50's that's been re-invigorated using the old slogans.

Burma Shave, Route 66

After Route 66, I hit the interstate, which was pretty boring.  The only good thing you can say about the interstates, is that they get you to where you're going - much like the Hume Hwy, only a bit quicker  - 75 mph, which means most people are doing 80+. (130 kmh)

Somewhere along the way I realised that I had moved from Pacific Standard time into Mountain time.  I think it must've been yesterday when I entered Arizona, but I only worked it out when I was checking into my hotel today.  So I've gained an hour - I think?

There's a shuttle bus that runs from Tusayan into the Grand Canyon village, so I jumped on to it to see what I could see.  They have a pretty good series of different shuttle buses that run different routes every 10-15 mins along the southern rim of the canyon.  According to a film I watched at the visitor centre, they get around 5 million visitors a year into the canyon.  From what I could see, they do it pretty well too.

Now, I've seen a stack of photo's and videos of the Grand Canyon, but it's one of those things you really have to see in order to gain any kind of appreciation for the sheer scale of the place - it's bloody huge.  Not only does this country have awesome mountains, they have bloody big holes as well.  My photographic skills don't do it any justice at all.

Grand Canyon, AZ

I couldn't help but think of the explorers who discovered this place.  Can you imagine coming across this on horseback, with wagons in tow?  I reckon I would've just sat down and cried.  It would've made for one helluva detour.  It's 277 miles long, 18 miles wide, and over a mile deep.  It's another one of those places where it would've been great to have at least 3 or 4 days, rather than one, to explore properly.  There's a stack of hikes, 4WD tours, flyovers, river trips - you name it, you can do it.

Miles today - 184
Total miles - 2273