We arrived around 5pm, paid our $25 for entry and decided to set up our $20 Walmart tent for the evening. The camping was supposed to be $18, but the office was closed when we got there so we bunked the charge by leaving before it opened up again the next morning. We watched the sunset over Yavapai Point before driving 50 odd miles out again to get dinner. We ended up at a Denny’s because nothing else was open 24 hours and it was around 10pm by that point. I had a huge meal – so huge in fact, that it came on three plates and the waitress was astounded that I finished it.
That night Fin slept in the tent and I slept in the car because it was far too cold, but all the stars were out and it was so dark that we could see them all clearly. We woke in the early hours to deer eating in front of the car, which was something special.
When we’d washed up we took the Bright Angel Trail down into the canyon but it was really icy in the shadowed parts of the path and Fin slipped so we went back because neither of us were properly prepared. Plus, it takes a day to hike to the bottom and we didn’t have the time. The canyon is an awe inspiring place though. The rocks are different shades of reds and browns changing constantly with the light.
Once we were back in the car we took Route 66 through twisting mountain roads to a place called Oatman, where we stopped and watched a re-enactment of a gun fight before heading off to Lake Havasu City to see the old London Bridge. Some of you may not know this, but the bridge was originally built in 1831, but by 1962 it could no longer withstand the weight of traffic that was crossing it everyday and so London sold it to the founder of Lake Havasu, Robert McCulloch, who had it shipped over to America brick by brick.
This neck of our journey was a lot quicker than we had planned and so we arrived in Vegas a day ahead of our schedule.
