Grand Canyon....Day 1....

Grand Canyon National Park

No photo can do justice to this magnificent place.

A mile deep and ten miles wide, it simply awes everyone who sees it.

Nearly five million people come here every year....from all over the world.

Our first stop was Desert View.

In 1930, the Fred Harvey Company hired Mary Colter, 

to design gift shop and rest area here.

The result was the 

Watch Tower.

Built to resemble the towers of Southwestern Indians.

She used weathered stones, to make it look old.

But, the skeleton of this tower, is steel.

Inside, a spiral staircase takes you up to different levels.

The walls are decorated with Hopi paintings.

Even the ceiling...

And, the windows all around this circular building, let you have a 360 view.

And, down into the park services.

Looks like you can no longer go up to the roof.

Back outside to wider views...down to the river.

A little closer...

A rafting group.

Looks like they're coming in to shore.

Maybe stopping for a while.

We walked around outside, enjoying more of the view.

Then, we saw people gathering and pointing.  

A sure sign there's something to see.

A tree full of California Condors.

With a wing span of almost TEN feet, this is a BIG BIRD.

They were close to extinction.  But, most of the remaining birds were

captured and bred in captivity.  Their numbers grew enough to be 

released back into nature.

They are quite impressive birds.

The day is moving along.

Time to go check in to our room.

Tomorrow will be our busy day.

On the Road Again...Day 2...

I'm way behind on posting last year's trip.

Trying to catch up.

**************

Up early and on the road.

As you can see...it's a long road, entering Arizona.

We'd heard of a sight to see, in Winslow.

Remember the old Eagles song....

Standin' on the corner, in Winslow, Arizona...?

Well..Winslow put up a park, to celebrate it.

There's even a 'flat bed Ford', as part of the display.

It's just a wall, to represent a building....with reflections that remind you of the words of the song.

It's a quick stop, about two blocks off I-40, on the old

historic Route 66.

There's a gift shop there, just in case you need a t-shirt to remember your stop.

Next up...just a little west of Winslow...is the site of the Meteor Crater.

We were going to pass it by.  But, what the heck....

we're here..let's go.

It's a big hole!  It's almost a mile across.  And, it's deep enough for a 60 story building.

Pretty impressive, and worth the hour or so stop.

Heading back out on I-40, we're nearing Flagstaff.

We turned up Hwy. 89.

And then, onto Hwy 64,,,heading for the East entrance to the Grand Canyon.

There are little stalls along the highway, where the Native Americans sell souvenirs.

Another place we stopped along this highway, required a 'donation' to enter.

There are some good views of the east end of the Canyon.

Along this highway, you can see how flat it is, at the top of the Canyon.

The river eats it's way deeper and deeper.

We're almost at there....the Grand Canyon.

On the Road Again...

So, here we go again.

Headed out in September, 2012, for the 

Grand Canyon

and

Palm Springs.

It was really a Rock Tour.

Driving down I-10, through the Texas Hill Country.

We're on our way.

It's a long road.

Heading west, toward El Paso.  We saw many, many trains.

It's rugged, but beautiful country.

We crossed the state line, and stopped at the New Mexico Welcome Station.

Seems they like you to stay on the sidewalks.

We headed up I-25.  This is north of Las Cruces.  We're seeing more mountains in the distance.

At Los Lunas (yep..it's spelled that way...Os & As don't seem right) we turned up Hwy. 6.
This let us miss the traffic in Albuquerque.

And, to see some pretty terrific red hills.

Look at the two very different types of soil and rocks.

Hwy. 6 meets up with I-40, east of Grants, NM.

It gets a little steeper there.

This sign seems perfect for our trip.

We watched a rather spectacular sunset, and kept on going toward Gallup.

We didn't know that the town would be full.  Something going on at the local refinery.

We stopped at every motel (& there are quite a few), and were told they were booked up.

But, as luck would have it, there were a few rooms at this historic hotel.

The El Rancho Hotel was built in the 1930s.
Lots of old time screen stars stayed here, while they were filming
Westerns out in those red hills.
It's located on the old historic Route 66.

It's old and small, but very interesting.
We got what they call a 'single room'....that would be a room with one double bed.
At least we weren't sleeping in the car, for the night.

Each room is named after a movie star.
Ours was Zachary Scott.  Talk about a name from the past.

There is the old hotel and a newer motel.  We got a room in the historic hotel.

The room was small...the bathroom tiny.  
But, we were tired and slept pretty well.

When was the last time you saw one of these on a hotel toilet?
Historic, indeed.

The end of Day 1.