Saturday 3/27/99
The Drive from Phoenix to the Grand Canyon
Since we decided to take an entire day to drive up to the Canyon itself, we had plenty of time to do some touring (the Canyon is about 4-5 hours from Phoenix if you drive straight through, but it took us a lot longer than that). After a good breakfast, we were on the road by about 9AM. It took us a couple of tries to get out of Phoenix (Phoenix is HUGE!), but we made it out fairly quickly and were on our way!
Our first stop was at a roadside turnout somewhere between Phoenix and Prescott. We stopped for a quick bio-break and found quite a nice view from the rest stop. A Gecko also obliged to be photographed (although we had to use the zoom lens at about 200mm to take it, and there was no time for the tripod, but a fast shutter speed made the picture come out pretty well).
When we got near the town of Prescott, there was a beautiful little turnout where they had placed their Welcome sign. Here are a few photos from that area.
We also stopped at another rest stop between Prescott and Jerome. There were a few beautiful views from here, but the restrooms were out of order, so we took our photos quickly from here and moved on. Merrill took a quick opportunity to examine a cactus in detail (not much like home, he concluded).
The drive to Jerome was a pretty one...
Jerome itself is situated rather precariously on the side of a steep mountain. None of these photos give a really good idea of how steep the mountain is, but it is a pretty town.
While at Jerome, Merrill decided to try and start an older vehicle for use as alternate transportation, but it wouldn't start (battery seemed to be dead for some reason).
Our next stop was the Tuzigoot National Monument. This is a ruin of a Sinaguan village built between 1125 and 1400 (according to the Park Service brochure). There were Geckos everywhere at Tuzigoot. We managed to get a picture of one of the more patient ones.
We also made a brief stop in Sedona. The views from this town are spectacular, but difficult to photograph from the main road. We were running a little behind schedule by this point, so we took a few photos from one of the side roads and moved on.
Our final stop before the Grand Canyon was in Oak Creek Canyon.
We arrived at the Yavapai Lodge at about 7:30PM and settled down for the night...