Driving to the Ditch

Exhaustion got the better of me last night and I didn't have the energy to write about our journey from Monument Valley to the Grand Canyon. The first 100 miles of it were pretty ugly as you'll have seen from the photos! Snow was forecast and boy, did we get it! It hadn't reached the valley when we set off, but it had hit a couple of miles away. A few miles further on and we couldn't see anything out of the side windows of the car. There could have been stunning scenery and we wouldn't have had a clue! We did see one unforgettable sight though... We were driving through a town when we saw three horses being herded across the main road by a dog. No sign of a human...but there was another dog watching to make sure they made it across okay!

We came out of the other end of the snow storm into clear blue skies and mercifully clear roads. The lack of caffeine was hitting hard and Stephen and I were niggling each other. I was being berated for making us set off from Monument Valley so early as we were going to get to the hotel before 12. Needless to say I wasn't amused. This was the freakin' Grand Canyon we were going to...surely there was enough to stop and stare at en route?! We came across a trading post in Cameron so we stopped, looked round the gigantic gift shop, marvelled at the Navajo rugs (and their very high price tag) then went in search of their restaurant for coffee. We had brunch as well. My goodness the portions were HUGE! Stephen had the Chili and Navajo Fry Bread - what a plateful! I'd had the Navajo Fry bread a couple of nights before. Its delicious drizzled with honey, but very greasy. I suspect that there may have been some Navajo/Scottish cross-breeding at some point in the past as deep fried sweet/savoury things seem to be popular in both cultures. I bet Fry bread and honey would go down a treat in Glasgow, and deep fried Mars bars could become a new Navajo staple!!

As suspected we didn't make it to the hotel until nearly 5pm as we stopped at nearly every viewing point to marvel and take another shed-load of photos. It was a cracking clear day. Visibility was around 130 miles. Its difficult to comprehend the sheer scale of the canyon. We were looking at peaks that seemed relatively close and were actually 20 miles away.

Sunset was spectacular. We went to Hopi point on the bus (along with many, many others!) and watched as the colours changed from pastel to vibrant reds and orange as the sun made its descent. It was a little bit Disney at the end through - very efficient - as a stream of buses came to pick people up, then there was a stream of headlights as people left the park.

And we're no longer dry! The restaurant makes cracking margaritas!!