Grand Canyon. 23rd September.
The rain finally stopped some time during the early morning leaving behind a day of cold, fresh and broken cloud. We had packed up by o8-00 and were on the way to Grand Canyon. This was a added bonus as yesterday we had thought of missing it out due to the bad weather. About thirty miles down the road we stopped for a bite of breakfast just before we entered the Grand Canyon National Forest area. The riding had been really cold so we put more clothes on under our riding suits before setting off for the actual entrance to the Canyon. It’s quite staggering how popular these places are there were scores of travellers at our breakfast stop, many of them on motor bikes, usually the cruiser type. The road to the entrance was superb, though lovely forested areas and meadows and, wait for it, bags of bends. Not real bends but good enough to make the ride interesting (and fast).
We eventually arrived at the parking area where there were hundreds of cars parked up. There is a large timber hotel and scores of log cabins, all of which are for accommodation, but listen to this! If you want to stay in the hotel you have to book nearly 12 MONTHS in advance, the same for the cabins, and to take a mule ride down into the canyon you have to book 13 months ahead. The walk down into the bottom is 7 miles and about 4000 ft deep and 10 miles across. Walking around the various paths which surround the parking area you get great views of the whole length. It’s far more impressive than we had first imagined. We were so glad that we hadn’t missed it. We are now in a small log cabin motel just before the entrance of Bryce Canyon. It’s still very cold with a strong cold wind blowing so camping is out of the question. We are nicely positioned to visit both Bryce Canyon and the ZION Park. This we mustn’t miss as it is one that Mark said I must inspect for future climbing. We were told to-day that it is very impressive. We have now visited 11 states plus Wyoming twice. This country seems to just get bigger and bigger.
The rain finally stopped some time during the early morning leaving behind a day of cold, fresh and broken cloud. We had packed up by o8-00 and were on the way to Grand Canyon. This was a added bonus as yesterday we had thought of missing it out due to the bad weather. About thirty miles down the road we stopped for a bite of breakfast just before we entered the Grand Canyon National Forest area. The riding had been really cold so we put more clothes on under our riding suits before setting off for the actual entrance to the Canyon. It’s quite staggering how popular these places are there were scores of travellers at our breakfast stop, many of them on motor bikes, usually the cruiser type. The road to the entrance was superb, though lovely forested areas and meadows and, wait for it, bags of bends. Not real bends but good enough to make the ride interesting (and fast).
We eventually arrived at the parking area where there were hundreds of cars parked up. There is a large timber hotel and scores of log cabins, all of which are for accommodation, but listen to this! If you want to stay in the hotel you have to book nearly 12 MONTHS in advance, the same for the cabins, and to take a mule ride down into the canyon you have to book 13 months ahead. The walk down into the bottom is 7 miles and about 4000 ft deep and 10 miles across. Walking around the various paths which surround the parking area you get great views of the whole length. It’s far more impressive than we had first imagined. We were so glad that we hadn’t missed it. We are now in a small log cabin motel just before the entrance of Bryce Canyon. It’s still very cold with a strong cold wind blowing so camping is out of the question. We are nicely positioned to visit both Bryce Canyon and the ZION Park. This we mustn’t miss as it is one that Mark said I must inspect for future climbing. We were told to-day that it is very impressive. We have now visited 11 states plus Wyoming twice. This country seems to just get bigger and bigger.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home