This was one of those days. I was in Williams, Az. for the day, hoping to get some shots from the Grand Canyon. It had been raining off and on since I left Phoenix. I took a back road through Prescott that ended up being one of the finest drives I've had. It wasn't the scenery, although that was nice, but the cut-backs through the Prescott Mtn's. This was a four lane divided road so there wasn't any waiting on the RV's that congest most roads through the mountains. As Guy Clark would say "look out there he comes, he's coming...look out there he goes, he's gone". Lot'a fun.
Anyway, back to the Canyon. I got up early to get some sunrise shots. It's about an hour drive from Williams and I got this one shot, Venus?, on the way. I got to the Canyon a little late for any amazing purple majesty's shots, but went around to a couple of the overlooks for some decent pics. Actually, the main reason I wanted to be in the Canyon for a day was to get out on that skywalk I'd heard about. It's a horseshoe shaped glass walkway that hangs over the rim, and you can look straight down through your feet for a mile to the bottom of the rim. It was built by one of the local tribes and I found a site in my atlas, named after an Indian tribe, that is an overlook. Without going through the internet, just playing it by ear, I figured that was it since it's in the Canyon, named for an Indian tribe, says it's an overlook, etc. Well, not so fast my friends. As I was standing at the site, leaned against a rail, watching the foreigners walk by, having realized this wasn't the walkway, I asked around and found out the "Skyway", as it's actually known, is not on the South Rim or the North Rim, it's on the West Rim. I've never heard anyone talk about the West Rim.
I was now determined. The Skyway is about 50 mi.s north of Kingman, Az., which is 120mi.s west of my home base for the day. Damn the torpedoes, I decide to go for it. This Skyway is not advertised at all on the Hwy. so when I got to Kingman I started asking around, found out which road to take, and headed out. I stopped a couple of times on the way to make sure I was still on the right road. Well, I finally came up on the one sign in Arizona for the Skyway, took the right, and was facing 28 mi.s of washboard dirt/gravel road. I couldn't make it more than 1/2 mi., at the most, convinced that bolts, springs, shocks, fenders, etc. were littering the road behind me. Seriously, I learned to drive on gravel roads, and this was the worst I've ever been on. I sat for a few minutes cogitating on the situation and thought to myself that I've still got a long road back to Austin, so "daunted, our hero crumbled". By the time I got back to Williams, the day was shot, as were my high hopes. BUMMER!
Alas, I'll write something again from Santa Fe, assuming it's not all gravel roady. Toodles. (just noticed those hazy shots, sorry)
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