Williams is a nice place. It calls itself The Gateway to The Grand Canyon. We stayed near the Historic Old Downtow. There are buildings there dating back to the late 1800s. The town also takes pride in being located on Old Route 66. Many businesses sell memorabilia and have Route 66 in their names.
We left Williams for the South Rim of the Grand Canyon at 9:35 am in 43 degree cloudy weather. Soon we were into some rain which meant the possibility of some great cloud shots. We had virtually NO clouds in Utah so we are enjoying having clouds in our photos in Arizona.
One of our first stops at the Canyon was the Tusayan Ruin. It is one of more than 4000 archaeological sites recorded within Grand Canyon National Park. Tree ring dates indicate that people began construction of the Tusayan Pueblo around A.D. 1185. You can see where the actual rooms and storage rooms and religious ceremony round structures (kivas) were. There were probably 16 to 20 people living in the community.
We stopped at many vistas along the desert route and the photo opportunities just seemed to get better and better, especially as the sun came out. The Two Old Buzzards haven't yet gotten tired of looking at rocks and canyons. There were some nice views of the Colorado River (the river responsible for carving out the canyon a few million years ago...and it's still carving!).
At one of the vista points Linda spotted a structure that looked like a stone tower in the distance. Sure enough, it was something we got to that could be explored inside and out at the next vista point. We hope you will enjoy the photos of the tower and the photos taken from the tower.
There were 3 or 4 levels to the tower and Linda was able to huff and puff her way to the top. It was built in the 1920s and finished in 1930 something. A famous lady (Mary Colter) designed it to fit in with the Grand Canyon and she did a terrific job. It is now undergoing a renovation but that did not detract from the thrill of seeing it inside and out today. There is also an outside observation deck on one of the levels where Linda was photographed in the grotto.
On our way out of the park we noticed about 10 cars parked on both sides of the road. We slowed down and saw that there was a herd of elk about 50 feet from the road. Monkey see, monkey do. We also stopped to take photos.
We left the park around 3:00 so we drove through the Grand Canyon Golden Arches for a late lunch. John had a Grand View Quarter Pounder with Cheese, a Navaho Point Chocolate Malt & some Grandview Point View Fries and Linda had a Moran Point Yogert with Real Fruit & a Senior Dekaf Coffee.
MILEAGE MADNESS BULLETIN: we have our first entry in the Mileage Madness Contest: Rusty Jones of Lubbock, Texas has submitted his entry. So far, RUSTY is our winner. You too (or instead, rather) could be a winner of a very nice prize. You have until October 31st to submit your entry...
Dinner again at the PCR (Pine Country Restaurant). Linda had their fresh veggie sandwich: La Bacca bread with a layer of basil pesto, packed with zucchini, carrots, green leaf lettuce, avocado, celery & tomato with a fruit bowl & dill pickle slices on the side. Delicious! John had BFD (Breakfast for Dinner) – the meat lover's omelet – bacon, sausage & ham with Cheddar cheese, potatoes & toast. Then we shared a piece of coconut cream pie.
They left the light on for us at Motel 6 so it was back to our home away from home to bed. We have 2 long days of driving ahead before getting back to good ole Morgan Hill on Sunday.
Today's photo gallery is rather extensive (over 100 photos). You can view the gallery by clicking here.
Teabag philosophy today is from Good Earth cherry tea: “Why should I buy expensive art when I can make my own?” (Piero Milani 1964 - )
Yes, today's Pot-Shot was randomly chosen, though it is one that John could have selected!
No comments:
Post a Comment