Flagstaff - Williams Journey Day 13

Flagstaff is a mature large town sited on the old Route 66.
We head off fairly early with our minds set on booking a helicopter trip across the Grand Canyon.
The road north to the Canyon starts pleasantly forested with grass growing under the fir trees where in the UK it would be baron. I guess the light from the intense sun gets through to the ground here. The forest gives way to open land, crossing open plains with isolated groups of buildings.
The homesteads are ramshackle, often decrepit caravans with wrecked cars around. A lot of the land outside the towns we have encountered in this part of the journey has shown signs of subsistence / poverty living and is seems to focus around Native American areas. Individual properties are maybe .25 miles apart, there is no feeling of neighbourhood and they could not be categorised as farms. This area is OK but some areas we have seen in the last couple of days were visually deserving of the description shanty town.
We reached Grand Canyon airport and pulled into Papillon helicopters were there were throngs of people. It is clearly a large operation with ‘copters landing and taking off continually. The news that met us (this being Sunday) was that they had no available slots until TUESDAY! Having psyched ourselves up we were very disappointed. However, we decided to drive to the southern airport entrance and try Maverick who are a little more expensive. We were really lucky, they had a slot at 10:00 am tomorrow and our itinerary was to still be in the area so we booked and headed off to the Canyon chuffed.
The time invested in planning before we left has worked out very well so far. We had 2 float days in the middle to manage disasters or changes of mind. One day we used to allow us to do the Arches Park and stopped at Blanding. As we are spot on time apart from that, we think we will use the second to split the journey to Las Vegas which is currently 360 miles and means we would arrive too late in the evening.
So, back to today, we head off to the Canyon stopping at the Visitor Centre outside the park. There is a popular IMAX theatre here but as we are going to spend the day seeing much of the Canyon and fly over it tomorrow we give it a miss. They actively encourage the use of shuttle buses rather than taking the car in but our strategy it to be at the fat (East) end for sunset.
We actually park easily and soon get our first view. It is odd; it is so vast that you cannot see it as anything other than a picture. When the sun is high there are few shadows to define the shapes and there is no way to scale. The first views don’t actually see to the bottom and I am keen to walk the western end where I have read that the views into and along the canyon are goo. Unfortunately, only the 1st point is reachable with works closing the rest.
We return to the car and move east checking out different viewpoints. It is awesome to use the appropriate Americanism.
We spend the whole day at the Canyon. There is food available, though the Ham and Cheese sandwich at lunch was basic – dry white bread with and handful of ham and a slice of processed cheese. For tea we picnicked out as sunset approached with salad and pizza slice.
Our favourite view point today was probably Mather Point though every stop has something. As the afternoon went on, shadows developed giving much more contrast and shape. A couple of times we walked too far when we could have used the free shuttles or in some cases moved the car. There are main car parks identified but there is also short term packing near most viewpoints though it is very busy and you may miss out if you try to move the car.
We were heading to Desert View for sunset which was due 19:25 but got caught out by the distances. It is 25 miles from the central area to Desert View and we stopped short and enjoyed our picnic sitting on a low wall watching the sun go down and the cliffs at the eastern end of the Canyon glowing red in the evening glow.
As the office at tonight’s accommodation closes at 10, we headed off to drive the 60 miles to Williams. Tusayan is the only closer accommodation and all beds here are said to be booked 3 months in advance.
Williams is a delightful little town which makes the most of its position on the old Route 66. It is full of old time shops and garages with ancient petrol pumps. We would have loved to have an amble around the next morning but we need to leave by 8:30 for our helicopter ride so instead we have a walk downtown in the evening then settle down in Route 66 Downtown Lodge to sleep.
Statistics: Miles today: 184 miles; Miles so far: 3,816; Fuel added so far: 186 gals; States: Arizona ; Time Zone: Pacific (UK-8)