Trip to the Grand Canyon State

5 wonderful days in Arizona. What a place and not quite what I had expected. I thought it would be just one flat rolling expanse of desert and cacti but actually it is an incredibly mountainous landscape with great changes in vegetation as you travel up from Phoenix, leaving the saguaro cacti behind as you climb into Juniper bushes and then into pine forests and snow. There were some very obvious societal differences from Maine. First, when waiting by baggage reclaim, I was warned by official signs of Arizonan offences I might be about to commit - stealing other's luggage - or be about to aid - being solicited by illegal vehicles outside of the terminal. Then when we passed a large school building, I realised something was wrong and then it clicked...there were no windows. Can you imagine being taught/ teaching in a place with no windows? It would be like being in prison. The rationale is that with windows, the temperature in the buildings would be too difficult/ expensive to regulate. Some might even argue that school is training for incarceration. Arizona is one of the worst states for investing in schools and education and one of the best for investing in prisons. Gun laws are also interesting in Arizona, with it recenty having been argued that teachers should be allowed to carry guns into the classroom...for protection obviously. I didn't see any guns but then again, I wander round with my eyes shut half the time. I did see a distressing poster on the wall of a service station offering an $1100 reward to anyone who could offer information about who had gunned down a young pregnant girl. There were also more trailer parks and shabby houses than here in Maine. To finish on a more joyful note, place names such as Bloody Basin and Horsethief Basin were way more exciting and reminiscent of the wild wild west.

Anyway, I experienced nothing but the best bits of Arizona, staying out in the suburbs of Phoenix with Anne's lovely family. We spent Sunday taking it easy, sitting out on the back porch in PJs soaking up some sun whilst having coffee and later making our way up the trails in the North Arizona Mountain park. I was reassured that the rattle snakes would all be hibernating...phew! You can apparently walk and cycle for miles around Phoenix on the vast network of paths along the hills and you get amazing views of the city down below.

On Monday we were up well before dawn for our big trip to the Grand Canyon. Anne, Jeanne, Nancy and I drove up to Williams where we met route 66 and, after a little cowboy shootout, caught our train to take us into the National Park. It was a beautiful ride with lots of antelope sightings and a slightly irritating tour guide (Amber Knows). Once we arrived, it was just a hop up some steps and there was the view of all views...Pete would have been proud as I proclaimed "I don't get what all the fuss is about!" Words can't describe it and my eyes couldn't take it all in. We headed off down the Bright Angel Trail a little way which was covered in snow and very beautiful. It also had the advantage of leaving behind most of the day trippers, allowing the silence of the canyon to close in with just the crunching of snow beneath our feet. Lovely! I just wish I had had longer as you can hike all the way across in about 2 days and get to see the Colorado river which remains hidden from the top. It was a fantastic day and I was sad to leave, but we had a dinner date in Flagstaff on our way back with Anne's brother Doug and his family.

Girls road trip: Jeanne (Anne's older sister), myself, Nancy (Anne's younger sister) and Anne

Tuesday saw us heading to a Northern Phoenix neighbourhood to the Deer Valley Rock Art Center. In a small area, it is believed that there are over 1500 petroglyphs (pictures carved into rocks by Native Americans) on approximately 600 boulders over a period of about 1000 years. No one knows why the pictures were made - Were they messages to other tribes? Do they tell a story? - but they are fascinating to see. You have to get your eye in as the petroglyphs are made by scratching off the top surface layer of the rocks so the colour underneath is revealed. However, the older the rocks get, the more the top layer regenerates so the designs will eventually disappear. We also go to hear and then see a wild coyote barking and yapping up in the trees...quite a sound.

Because it was Shrove Tuesday and I couldn't not have pancakes, I had fun making some English/French style pancakes for everyone which we ate with lemon and sugar. Jeanne caught the pancake flipping bug and took over the mantle so I could scoff too. 

On Wednesday we paid a visit with Anne's mum to the Desert Botanical gardens in Phoenix which were full of amazing cacti of all varieties and desert wildflowers. We also saw beautiful hummingbirds and a road runner which I'm told is quite rare. 

My final day was spent taking another road trip north to Sedona and the red rocks. Another truly spectatular set of vistas to feast the eyes on. The roads weave through these incredible rock formations which just seem to have jumped out of the ground. Sadly, some of the buildings around the rocks are just ugly despite the designers having tried to make them blend in.

It was an amazing trip made all the better by the wonderful hospitality of Anne's family. I would love to go back some day and explore some more...but for now it's back to the real world, one filled with sleet and yucky rain at the moment. Sigh.