day 32: Grand Canyon to Sedona, AZ

23.3 miles – 492 ft climb

He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind, and who reveals his thoughts to mankind, who turns dawn to darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth –the Lord God Almighty is his name.

Amos 4:13

We decided to head over to see the Grand Canyon on the cycle first thing this morning. I don’t know how you could lose something as big as the Grand Canyon, but both times we headed over we managed to get lost and had to turn around and back track a few times. When we found it, we were able to pull the cycle right up to the main path, which we later found out was called the Rim Path. It was nothing like I expected. Well, the Grand Canyon itself was, but the rest wasn’t. I didn’t think we’d be able to drive up 10 feet from the canyon. There were only a handful of people there. We were able to walk right out to the edge. It was kind of refreshing that people were actually allowed to be in potential danger and had to make wise choices for themselves. I guess you can’t fence off the whole Grand Canyon, but in my mind I guess that’s what I expected. We took a million pictures from various points along the path. I was pleased that Bruce did not feel the need to take a selfie from the very edge at any point. We walked out to Mather’s Point which actually did have a railing. And then headed home for breakfast. It was much faster going home.

I made breakfast burritos with the most delicious tortillas that Carmilla had given us from HEB. Right in the middle of breakfast we looked out and saw …wait for it …Elk! Right at our campsite. We went out and took pictures along with a bunch of other people. The Elk practically posed for us. They were so domesticated. We ended up seeing them multiple times today. I guess that’s why they weren’t alongside the highway. They are all at the Grand Canyon. Someone needs to move the signs.

We went back to the Canyon around 11:00 AM so we could see it in full sun. When we had gone at 7:00 AM a lot of it was still in shadows. I definitely regret that I did not plan ahead to find out how to go about seeing the sunrise at the Canyon. Next time. We unplugged and headed out around 12:30. Photos below all taken by Bruce. He is multi-talented. He even laid on his stomach to get the cactus shot.

Since today was pretty much straight south or what I prefer to call a latitude adjustment, we decided that Bruce would not ride today, so that we could have more time at the Grand Canyon and in Sedona. But as we were descending into Sedona on Hwy 189A Bruce couldn’t stand it. So we pulled over and he threw on his kit (biking clothes, remember?), pulled out his bike and headed down. It was about 20 miles to our RV site. At this point the highway had a nice shoulder so I was perfectly ok with it. Little did I know that it would soon turn into a zigzag road with a 7% downhill grade (complete with signs warning the trucks) and NO shoulder. I was so thankful that Bruce was in front of me because then I knew that he had already passed that part safely. I had waited a few minutes (think 10-15) after Bruce took off to head down. He must have been sailing down that highway because I did not catch up with him until almost 15 miles later. I know he’s fast, but that’s ridiculous! He said, “it was a white knuckle ride, but thrilling too.” At one point he was going 40 mph! I had to put Harvey in 2nd gear and take those curves slowly. I’m not sure Harvey ever got up to 40 mph. But man oh man was it beautiful!! It started with the beauty of trees changing color for fall and then evolved into huge red rock ginormous mountain structures. I’m not sure what they are called. Bluffs? Rock Formations? Mountain Plateaus? But wow!!

I backed Harvey into the site all by myself, without someone to guide me in, for the very first time. I was pretty pleased. Except for the little sign at the back that I plowed over. Which we now own.

We Ubered in to town and had a bison burger at the Cowboy Club & Grill. We have not Ubered much. This was a new thing for us, but it went super smoothly both times. I was feeling like living on the edge so I talked Bruce into ordering an appetizer with a variety of weird things. It had fried cactus, rattlesnake sausage and bison ka-bobs.

When we got home Bruce sat outside and played his guitar by himself. Because I was inside writing the blog.