Day 14: Grand Canyon - Desert View

Rohan woke at 5:50am and then woke Julian up.  We are the seeing the positive side to this - New Orleans is 2 hours ahead of here, so maybe then they will wake at a decent time there!  I also had the opportunity to catch sunrise over the Monuments which was very pretty.  We got the boys up at 6:30 and had an early breakfast.  We didn't turn on the generator, so it was cereal and sandwiches.  

We left the campground just after 8am and drove up the road to see a few more monoliths which weren't as spectacular as the ones that were in the park.  We turned the RV around and headed south back along the road we had traveled yesterday.  We continued past the Page turnoff and we by-passed Tuba City.

The guy at the campground at Lake Powell had told us about some fossil dinosaur tracks just outside Tuba City, so we pulled up to the paddock where there were handmade dinosaur signs and Navajo market stalls.  Rohan was sleeping, so Julian and I decided to have a look together.

We were greeted by Joe and he took us around the sights - first up a lot of raptor footprints, all in good condition.   If I was a bit more with it, I would have been able to remember the actual dinosaur names.  Nevermind - I will google it later.  There were also some fossilized dinosaur bones and it was easy to see the head, rib cage, and the tail.  Joe also showed us a T-rex footprint but I have read that this isn't a real one.  Julian had a good time but was too nervous of the Indian to say much.

We got back to the RV to find Rohan awake and not happy to be so :(  He was even less impressed when he got strapped back into the car seat!  It was only 10am, so we kept going. 

 We filled up with fuel in Cameron and then headed into the Grand Canyon National Park.  It rained but cleared up very quickly.  All along the roadway were dotted Navajo market stalls – they looked very decrepit and we couldn’t decide if this was done on purpose or not. 

We stopped at the first view point inside the National park of the Grand Canyon and it really is GRAND!  Once again the sheer size of the place is overwhelming.  Julian and Rohan had a nice little walk but the lack of guardrails again made us a little nervous.  It was also freezing and we were prepared for that on our little walk.  It did make it easier to get the boys into the camper though :) We had an excellent lunch of peanut butter sandwiches with apples in the warmth of the RV.

We continued to drive along this road (Desert view rd) and made another stop at Grandview point.  Amazingly the last carpark available was an RV spot long enough for us.  We had a quick look but Rohan was too energetic for such a drop-off so we scampered back after a quick look. 

We were all feeling very tired and then Steve missed the turn to the visitors centre, so we called it quits and headed to Tusayan where the campground was located, 7km away.  The campground looked ok, nothing special, but it has showers and a laundry so we were happy with it.  We had afternoon tea in the camper with the boys watching the iPad and Steve and I trying to wake up – it was only 3pm!

Apparently the past week has been cloudy and tomorrow is going to be sunny before becoming cloudy again, so we decided that we should book our helicopter flight before they sold out.  We drove down to the airport to where the helicopter companies are located and Rohan saw his first helicopter take off.  He loved it!  Thankfully we could get a spot on a North/East/South rim flight at 2pm tomorrow, so now we just have to curb our excitement until then.  Today all flights had been cancelled because of low cloud over the canyon, so we may have finally had some luck with the weather.  We then drove back to the campground and hooked up.  It is cold here too and the lady at the campground said that we were lucky that it hadn’t snowed!  It is 6540ft here, so that does sound reasonable.

Both Julian and Rohan were tired and everyone was a short with each other, so we decided to walk to the General Store to get some bread and then next door to “We cook Pizza and Pasta” for dinner.  Julian was keen to have pizza, so we ordered the same as last time – Hawaiian and BBQ Chicken.  Rohan was manic tired and could hardly eat a thing.  Julian managed only 2 slices.  Steve and I polished off the rest – it was good and not oily/fatty either! 

We walked the 100m home and then I read more of the Witches.  Rohan tried to reprogram the RV!  They were showered and in bed asleep by 7pm.  After they were asleep, Steve and I had a couple of beer and chips.  Steve tried a flavour of Doritos called “Dinamita – Fiery Habanero”.  They were corn chips rolled up like little cigars and coated in a nuclear hot spice mix which Steve said was all heat and no flavour.  He didn’t eat many.

Today was one of those long traveling days and with the early wake-up, we were all a bit tried and sick of it.  Thankfully everyone thought that the drive was worth it once we had seen the canyon.  We have 3 nights here, so hopefully we can rest up a bit whilst we are here.