Day: September 15, 2017

These were taken with my smartphone camera later in the afternoon on Tuesday.  I previously posted pictures taken earlier in the day.

These were taken with my smartphone camera later in the afternoon on Tuesday.  I previously posted pictures taken earlier in the day.

On Wednesday I went back to the Grand Canyon for the second day.  I drove north from Flagstaff and went in the East entrance.  This took me to several overlooks I could access with my own car before parking at the Visitor Center and taking the Orange Route buses to parts of the Park I hadn’t seen yet.  Approaching from the east I started the day with different vantage points than I had the day before, and had the sun at my back.

Rain was moving in to the area (and arrived earlier than they had forecast) but I was able to get a few hours in before things got windy and wet.  I would have loved to have parked at the airport, just south of the Main entrance, to watch the many helicopters taking off and landing but the storm looked pretty nasty (it was) so I passed and headed back to Flagstaff before it reached the Park.

These were all taken with my smartphone camera.  I will post closeups, taken with the digital camera, in future posts.  As noted before, colors become more pronounced as the day progresses.

Here are more photos taken with my smartphone.  I will post closeups, taken with the digital camera, at a later date.  There were more clouds today, as a storm front was moving in to the area, so there are small pockets of shadows which moved quickly over the landscape.

Large, black ravens were among the several birds which put on quite a show over the Canyon.  I will address the birds and their behavior in a separate post, possibly tomorrow.  I did get these two pictures which give you some idea just how big they are.  Ravens are part of the same family as crows but are considerably larger.  They are jet black and are beautiful creatures.  They are also supposed to be extremely intelligent.

 

Thursday I headed west of Flagstaff on the dreaded interstate to get to a fantastic, fun to drive 155 mile stretch of Historic Route 66.  The portion I drove is separated from the interstate, unlike a portion I drove in Illinois last year which was parallel and, frankly, rather boring.  Today’s drive was very different and brought back memories of vacations my parents took me on when I was a kid (remember Burma Shave signs???).  It was quite an enjoyable drive.

I tried to capture photos of established businesses (some, closed, unfortunately) that have been there since the glory days of “The Mother Road”, not just opportunists who bought a property on the route and have tried to make it “look old”.  I wish I had brought my Asleep at the Wheel CD to play the “I Get My Kicks on Route 66” song over and over while I drove….

First town – Seligman:

Between Seligman and Peach Springs:

This (below) was past Valentine, near Hackberry.  Yes, there is an active business buried under those trees.

This was in the town of Kingman, the largest town I visited along the way:

Also in Kingman.  Of course The AmazingMrD (me) would have to come back and have lunch here on the return trip.  Best chili dog and root beer I’ve had in a while….

In Cool Springs, before traversing a tricky stretch of narrow, winding, mountain road.

When I got to the town of Topock (right at the border with California) I cheated and took the interstate 45 miles back to Kingman, where I had lunch and then took the old road back east towards Seligman.  The leisurely drive ended up taking all day, but was very enjoyable.

 

Here are some other things I saw along my drive today.

Once I got past Kingman things transitioned very quickly to desert.  The last portion of the drive from Kingman, through Oatman and on to Topock was rough country, but very scenic and fun to drive.

Signs at the stone building in Cool Springs (which is an active business, but wasn’t open today) directed you to the “Rest Room”, which was merely a facade leading to the open desert.  It did have a sink, mirror, soap and towel dispenser so you could “freshen up,” though….

This young burro was so intent on licking salt off the road it didn’t seem to care anything about what was going on around it.  He/she was standing right in the street in the little town of Oatman.