Day 55-57 - Grand Canyon & Route 66

The Grand Canyon was just that - Grand.  We didn't expect the terrain to be so green.  There are lots of trees in the areas surrounding the canyon.  The view is absolutely incredible.  Even Gus enjoyed the view.  We were also able to see it as the sun set and a full moon to boot!  It is too bad it is so busy with people.  There are a couple old hotels on the rim...one of which is so ugly - it looks like a 2 storey government building.  You can only get down to the bottom by hiking (it takes a full day - and you have to register over a year in advance to camp at the bottom) or by mule which Jack couldn't do - and this option is also a few month wait.  

We saw hikers come up at the trailhead who had just stayed at the primitive lodge at the bottom the night prior and hiked up - I was more than jealous.  I felt like one of those tourists... drive up to the canyon, take a picture and then we're off.  One day we want to hike down (or I do anyway) and we'd like to raft the Colorado.  Much more planning and older kidlets required for that.  Ah well.  Still great to see.  The campground we stayed at was just outside the park gates and was so ugly in such wonderful surroundings.  John and I had many conversations about what we would do to make it a great campground...hmmm...there's a job we'd both like! 

In keeping with our Tourist Trap day, we went to Bedrock City.  Home of the Flintstones of Grand Canyon, Arizona.  It was on Native Lands and homemade.  But it was only $4 to get in and we had to introduce Jack to Fred, Barney, Pebbles and of course, Bam Bam.  The picture is for Auntie Kathy who has fondly nicknamed Jack  "Bam Bam".  By the way Kathy, he is still living up to this nickname!   Nice parents, we even woke him up to go to the park.  It's all about us anyway, isn't it?

Yesterday we took our happy Jack to Happy Jack, Arizona which consists of a Ranger Station on a forestry road and apparently a campground/post office which we couldn't find unfortunately.  So we headed off along historic Route 66 to our next destination (or at least we tried to).  About 4 miles out of Flagstaff, the Jeep was billowing smoke.  After John calmly says as we look at it in the rearview mirror, "I wonder if its on fire" (it wasn't), we called AAA got it towed into town and are currently awaiting the repair and the bill.  If you don't have AMA, get it.  Great service - the tow truck was there in half an hour. 

Hopefully we will be again on our way to Sante Fe, New Mexico today.

On a personal/political note, it is national Infertility Awareness week.  You all know what we had to go through to be able to bring Jack into our lives.  Please take a minute to sign the petition to get the government to fund fertility treatment and realize what a problem this is for so many. 

http://www.regionalfertilityprogram.ca/fertilityfund6.php