Williams - Kanab Journey Day 14

Our lodge room in Williams was a nice change. Sort of themes with stone tiling and lots of dark wood. 50’s style pictures on the wall highlighting that Williams town is on the old Route 66. The town appears to live on the Route 66 connection and last night we walked the high street and explored gift and novelty shops still open at 10:00pm. Adverts for car meets all over the place.
Still, it’s our helicopter adventure this morning so we enjoy breakfast under a gazebo the other side of the road and then get going. We liked Williams.
We arrive at the heliport promptly at 9:30, check in and relax watching helicopter come and go. Joel, our pilot, shouts out our names and together with another English couple and a French family of four we walk out to the ‘copter. A safety briefing then onboard. Seating is allocated by the pilot so he can balance the aircraft and we were too lucky for words ending up in the front where we had unobstructed view forward and up and even down through the floor section of the globe. A gentle take off, slight tip forward and we were away. I was surprised and glad to have no feeling of vertigo and we glided slowly over the forest to the canyon. The contrast as you pass from flat forest to the sudden cut out drop into the canyon is stunning and the views down give a completely different perspective with surprising definition. We flew right across and up a side canyon returning on a parallel route which sounds a little restricted but it is not, it was worth every penny (cent) and I think I will always remember the point where the forest ended and the canyon dropped away. Everyone where headphones and voice activated mikes so self consciousness meant a rather quiet flight but that if anything enhanced as you looked around all the time. Joel gave us a non-invasive commentary and the quiet music in the background was just pleasant. I lifted my headphone at one point for a sneaky how load is it and those blades and the engine would certainly drive you mad pretty quickly.
We landed and bought the DVD of our individual flight before heading off.
After the high of the helicopter trip, I had a bit of a down period during the afternoon. We re-looked (enthusiastically) at a couple of the canyon views, checked out a few shops and ate before leaving the Grand Canyon. The Observatory has real time and daily displays of visibility and other data; today it is 65 miles. We also revisited Mather Point which was one of our favourite spots and finished at Desert View which is at the Eastern extreme of the park. Desert View was the destination we abandoned last night due to time; you can see the cliffs which would be lit up by a sunset the other end of the canyon. Here there is a watch tower lovingly designed with Native American decor inside. The views from here are excellent including an odd idea of inverting mirrors which you look down into and see an upside down reflected image. This sounds odd but if you are a driver you may have noticed how sometimes views behind look highlighted contained in your mirrors and this had that impact. Our visit has been limited to the South Rim.

The day was hot and we now hit the road later than intended. I seemed to be on a bit of a downer now, maybe after the high of the helicopter which I had had to psych myself up for. I felt, probably incorrectly, that time had been wasted re-looking at same views and around shops. Road signs mentioning LA, our ultimate destination, confuse; having seen the Grand Canyon it seems that we have achieved all targets.
East of G Canyon we drop down to under 4000 ft to cross the Colorado River on a wide steel framed bridge where we stop and walk out half way. This river has narrowed, in the Grand Canyon it is 300ft wide though it doesn’t look it from the rim.
The temperature in back to uncomfortably hot though humidity seems to have finally passed – no rain all day which is a first for a while.
My downer is exacerbated when we travel 10 miles of same road we were on 2 days ago albeit in a different direction. We are heading North and East when we our destination is West. Over the last few days we have gorged on extraordinary views and features and are feeling a little scenery fatigue. We realise this and it helps to acknowledge it.
Near Vermilion Cliffs (town not description), open desert and high red cliffs climb and suddenly turn into soft green forest.
Kanab is the first real town we have seen for a while and feels pleasant and mature. Apart from Flagstaff and Williams, everything we have seen recently has been isolated homesteads with a feeling of poverty and neglect. The main brands we have used; Holiday Inn Express, Comfort and Best Western are all full but we are diverted to Older Lodge which is nice, characterful, clean and cheap.
There is no Internet access though it is advertised. I asked in the morning but girl on reception had little English and “Wi-Fi” and “Internet Access” meant nothing to her.
Back in Utah and Mountain Time for this evening and tomorrow morning then we’re back into Arizona and Pacific time so we are sticking to Arizona time and ignoring the clocks and TV for the evening.

Statistics: Miles today: 269 miles; Miles so far: 4,085; Fuel added so far: 202 gals; States: Arizona, Utah ; Time Zone: Pacific (UK-8) to Mountain (UK -7)