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Tucson

First thing for the 8th was to swap the car. Phoned up and quickly got something sorted out. Went off to the Tucson airport to swap the car. Had to fill up the tank and gave the foot wells a quick vacuum to remove the inches of dirt that have worked their way in there. Then off to the airport. Got given a red Suzuki Forenza which was intended to replace our midsize Hyundai Sonata. In theory the Suzuki is a midsize car too, but it wasn't any bigger than the compacts next to it, and it drove weird; almost like it had a delay. Plus it was scratched up something rotten, had a chip in the windscreen, and the interior was pretty rough. Asked for a different one; they had two whole rows of cars after all and it seemed we'd been given the worst of them all. Well, it turns out they could only give me the Forenza or one of the compacts, as all the American (read: real) cars are only for local use. Grrr. So I got a brand new blue 2010 Hyundai Accent… mmm nice. Until I drove it. No elec...

Flagstaff to Tucson

Yes I'm still alive :-) Had a lot of distance to cover on the 7th, but first had to do some stuff in Downtown Flagstaff. Went to the Downtown Diner for breakfast and naturally had chocolate chip pancakes (or hot cakes as they say). They were really nice, and very chocolately in the middle which was great, but filled me up and then some so didn't finish. Was amazed at how busy the diner was, considering it was about 11am on a perfectly ordinary Wednesday. Afterwards strolled down to the station and got a shot…

See, I said it was nice! On the way back I noticed Gene's Western Wear was open, so had to go have a look. The real deal folks… they have 3 isles of cowboy boots, an entire section on western saddles and paraphernalia, cowboy hats all over the place, and so on. You can even get your checked shirts there.

Then it was time to hop on I17 and head down for Phoenix. Roads a...

Flagstaff Railfanning

At last, a day of railfanning! Plan was to explore the BNSF Seligman Sub from Flagstaff down to Winslow as access here is much better than on the western side of the hill. So we set off towards Winslow, Arizona where we stood on a street corner, as per the Eagles song.

Oh and the building front is just painted on :-)

Had a bit of a look around Winslow; seems a lot like any South-Western town. The souvenirs on sale here were very uninspiring. Interestingly the scenery in the hour drive from Flagstaff to Winslow changed from rich Ponderosa Pine forest to never ending desert. For example here is the scenery on a short detour I took to try and find Canyon Diablo, but had to turn back because the roads were too bad.

Back towards Flagstaff and caught my first train, an interesting mix of paint schemes running the local shunt:

Santa Fe Warbonnet / Santa Fe blue...

Verde Canyon Railroad

Plan for the 5th was to go on the Verde (verr-dee) Canyon Railroad. So we woke up early and headed off for Sedona, the half way point. On the way we, quite unexpectedly, passed through the Oak Creek Canyon which was quite spectacular. Gigantic towering walls of red rock were all around us as we slowly zig zagged down the canyon. No photos as the only places to pull over were US Forestry Service picnic areas which were all fee areas :-(

We soon arrived in Sedona which is very touristy. After visiting such places as Tuba City and Helper which are definitely not on the average tourist's path, it was quite a shock to arrive in touristville. For example: the busses in Sedona are decorated like trams, with half-arch windows and clerestory roofs (fake naturally). Seriously; clerestory roofs on a bus?!?!??!!! At least here in Flagstaff the (somewhat stumpy) busses are normal looking!

Brought a tee shirt from Jake's Canyon House and made a phone call to clarify why the Verde...

Kingman to Flagstaff

October the 4th, 2009 was to be a big day of railfanning. But Mother Nature had other ideas. Day dawned with a howling wind, gusting very much like a full on nor'wester does back home. And we all know how much fun they can be. Drove out to the Kingman Canyon, just outside of Kingman and a famous location for railfanning. Here the BNSF transcon splits into two and so there are two very different main lines through the small but pretty canyon here, plus a massive Santa Fe bridge. So with high hopes I set out, but as soon as I got out of the car I realised it wasn't going to be so easy. The wind was tunnelling down the canyon and it was getting hard to stand. The wind also muffled any train noises so it was impossible to tell if one was near or not. The sun was also on the uphill side which meant for the shots I wanted I'd have to clamber up through rattle snake country; not something I was prepared to do just yet.

Sun on wrong side, hence washed out l...

Flagstaff to Kingman

Plan for the 3rd was to head to Kingman, see a zoo on the way, stay the night, see some trains in the famous Kingman Canyon, then head back. So we headed off on the 3rd. Encountered a wildfire along the way at Williams; turns out a controlled burn off had got a little out of control, hundred or so homes evacuated, etc. Oops!

Smoke on the highway

After Williams we turned off the Interstate and onto the old Route 66. Yes that Route 66. The Mother Road and all that. Stopped in at Seligman and had a look around; wow, what a weird town! I'd head the Snow-Cap store there was a must visit, so stopped in for a malt. Quite a shop! We went in and found ourselves in a tiny little hallway where we could place our order, but what really struck me were the thousands of things stuck to every available surface.

  Outside the Snow-Cap store / Inside, little business cards and stickers everywhere.

I ordered...

Flagstaff

After our amazing day at the canyon on the 1st, we spent the 2nd a bit slower. We packed up the tent and scratched our head on what to do next. Had a bit of fun by hiring a pair of Banana Bikes from the campground office. Their Banana Bikes are sort of the BMX version of a recumbent bike; fixed gearing, pedals out the front, wheels in a tricycle formation, lean your body left or right to steer. Very fun to scoot about in, and with the fixed gearing they're very good leg exercise too! While scooting around I saw a herd of squirrels feeding under a bird feeder so I went back with my camera and got a few (50+) photos of them. There was 5 of them, all busy nibbling away on the bird seed, then the wind would blow up their tails and they'd all simultaneously sprint off in different directions towards the same tree, then they'd all bound a few feet up the tree and hang there trying to see what had spooked them. Just like cats do!

Shutter speed: 1/4000th of...

Grand Canyon!

What visit to Arizona would be complete without visiting the Grand Canyon? So that's what we set off to do on the 1st. Woke up, made a quick phone call (no problems this time luckily for the pay phone) and headed off on the Interstates for the Grand Canyon. Fairly uneventful hour and a half drive (Flagstaff and Grand Canyon are right next to each other on the map). Paid the $25 entry fee and in we went. Parked, walked through the forest and emerged on the rim walkway, and here was the view:

Of course it's nearly impossible to capture the scale of the place; heck it's nearly impossible to comprehend it in person! Here are some more shots…

 

So while you can stand at the edge and peer in, it's pretty hard to comprehend the 4000 ft drop or the 13 mile width. So we drove back down the road a bit and hopped into one of these:

Out of Africa Zoo

While browsing the brochures at KOA Ange came across one for a special Africa themed zoo not too far from us. So on the 30th we headed south on the Interstate system (actually very good here, almost a pleasure to drive) for an hour and a bit and soon arrived at the zoo. Actually ended up at the county court, but soon fixed that. Descended quite a few thousand feet off the Flagstaff plateau and we were quite definitely into desert here.

View from the top of the plateau, looking out over the Coconino National Forest towards southern Arizona.

Interesting zoo. The main attraction for Angela was the Tiger Splash event they run, where the keeps are in with the tigers as they get them to jump into pools and chase after pool toys! Yes the humans were in with the tigers, plural on the tigers too. How much interaction was there?

That much! I gather having your scalp licked by a tiger hurts; if there tong...

Mexican Hat to Flagstaff

So we'd ended up in Mexican Hat, Utah by accident, which meant today's main goal was to get back to Arizona where we were supposed to be headed. So we dug out our maps and colouring pencils and set about making a plan. The proprietor of the motel saw us and got chatting; she was quite jealous and wanted to be able to travel again. She suggested a few places we could try along the way that we might find interesting.

As soon as we stepped outside I had one of those moments; we'd arrived in the middle of the night to a tiny little backwater town in deepest darkest southern Utah, with little idea what was actually here. So when I stepped out and found myself surrounded by red cliffs and brilliant blue skies it was quite something. Just to add to the surrealism, something very black, very fast and very low screamed overhead in a giant lazy circle, no doubt off to some top secret military installation! Not the first time we've had flyovers either; seems to be something that happe...