We happily left our ex-KOA campground, sadly waving goodbye to the poor guy trying to complete his move to Texas, who was stuck there when his truck threw a rod (no more working engine...). We first headed east on I-40 towards Williams, before going directly north up 64 towards the Grand Canyon.
We biked only 48 miles today, but they were very rough. The first 18 were up Williams mountain - we climbed more than 1500 feet on a snakey, wide-shouldered highway. But the scenery was beautiful, with thick, green forests. Everything smelled of pine and juniper.
We had our reward waiting at the top though! McDonald's :D (Chris is officially addicted/in love with the rolo mcflurry). We also stopped by a bike shop and ran into a young man, Andrew, who was touring from Southern California all the way to Portland, Maine (wow.... that is longer than our route....). We got to ride on the historic Route 66 before turning north and heading towards the Grand Canyon!
Little did we know, we had quite the ride ahead of us. The average terrain was downhill to Valle (our eventual camping spot for the evening), but there were rolling hills with 100+ ft ascents and descents. We'd fly down the hill and attempt to use our momentum and pedal to get us up the other side. We usually ended up in our lowest gears, huffing and puffing our way to the top of the hill - only to realize we had to do it again.
Everytime we got the top, we'd look out and see if we could spot the canyon. We just wanted to get there! But 6pm arrived as we pulled into Valle. It was only another 30 to the Grand Canyon, but it had taken us four hours to travel the last 30 miles. We decided sadly we had better just camp there for the night. Our campground was called Bedrock ;) And Fred, Bam-Bam, Barney, and crew all met us there. We ate an easy, cheap dinner in their restaurant (complete with 5 cent coffee) and fell fast asleep after enjoying a Fat Tire (our new favorite beer).
We said fairwell to our new buddy Fred, and headed out a little before 7am. We biked a rollercoaster 25 miles long (not quite as bad as the previous day), and arrived at another McDonald's early enough to get breakfast.
It was the most expensive McDonald's we had ever been to. We split an egg mcmuffin meal with coffee for $7.01. We saved the receipt :) Shortly after, we biked into the Grand Canyon National Park.
We arrived at the Grand Canyon Village, stopped by the Yavapai Lodge (we decided to spoil ourselves the first night), showered and headed out to see the canyon. There are no words, pictures, or paintings adequate to describe what lay before our eyes. We stared in a stunned silence for an unknown amount of time - eyes wide, unblinking, mouths slightly open and not a word to be said.
We spent the rest of the day exploring. Walking along the South Rim of the canyon, staring, photographing and enjoying the beautiful weather. It was really amazing to see how many people were there, and shocking to think there weren't more enjoying this wonder of the world. It was fun to listen to the different languages: German, English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and many dialects we couldn't name - everyone here to see the Canyon.
The canyon within the Grand Canyon that is seen in the above and below photos is Bright Angel Canyon. It falls on a fault line and one side of it is a few hundred feet higher than the other. It is responsible for the widest section of the Grand Canyon (18 miles). The average width of the Grand Canyon in the park is 10 miles wide, and 1 mile deep. The canyon is 277 river miles long, starting at Lee's Ferry and ending at the Grand Wash Cliffs. Though the Colorado River looked nearly insignificant, its average width is bigger than the highest point above sea level in the state of Florida (300ft). There were excellent descriptions and signs talking about the canyon and its geology. Nowhere else can you see history quite like this. The lowest visible layer of the canyon is approximately 1.6 - 1.8 billion years old. The youngest layer is 270 million years old.
It was an amazing sight, something everyone should see in their lifetime. Maybe we should plan a trip to see the seven wonders of the world? I wonder if they are all this unfathomable and incredible.
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