We made our way over to Williams Arizona, gateway to the Grand Canyon’s South Rim and a little touristy town to boot. To get there, we had to go through Flagstaff and out another 30 minutes, passing through some mountains that had obviously forgotten that it was the middle of May and that snow should be found only in northern extremities of this planet. At times, we couldn’t even see the Mini Cooper out of our rear view camera, and the rig was surprised that we were putting it through some crap that it wasn’t expecting. However, both vehicles made it safely, albeit really dirty, but none the worse for wear.
ACROPHOBIA. I’m not a big fan of heights, as a matter of fact, I think as I get older I become a little more antsy about getting close to 5000 foot drop-offs. It certainly hampers some of my touristy desires and I am trying to overcome this problem ‘cuz I want to be in a few more photo-ops. As defined in Wikipedia, acrophobia “is an extreme or irrational fear of heights, especially when one is not particularly high up”. So, I guess I have semi-acrophobia, an affliction I would rather have than some of the other ailments that befall men of my age. Carry on!
The Grand Canyon, or what I saw of it, is majestic, eye-filling, indescribable, captivating, stunning, addictive…there is probably an adjective for every letter in the alphabet that could describe the Grand Canyon. I made little sorties close to the edge, but only when there was a guardrail and no one else around (fear of crowds mixed with a little acrophobia?). Jan on the other hand has no fear of heights, a confidence that I lack and fail to understand. She took some beautiful pictures from spots a lot closer to the chasm than I dared venture, and while the sun was not particularly bright that day, the enormity of the park was evident and the colors that it could show did manifest themselves somewhat.
I did a quick read of the rim trail map and although they show a wheelchair along the trail, they also showed non-guardrail parts of the walk and advised that those with faintness of heart might be advised to stay back from the canyon edge. No problem. I let Jan do the walking and photography and I agreed to meet her at the end of the trail…so to speak.
She took some great shots. This one here I would think could be called the Thelma and Louise Trail…
The geology info is certainly interesting showing the age of earth to be at least 1.2 billion years old…
Here are a couple of nut cases
A little too close to the edge for my comfort
But it is an unbelievable part of the United States.
Today’s recipe offering, finding myself a little more in my comfort zone, comes from Melissa Clark. She claims to have in addition to a ton of other spices at least 24 different dried chiles and over 50 dried herbs, but when it comes to whipping something up in a hurry, her holy trinity is olive oil, salt and lemon. Add some chile flakes into the mix, and you get pasta with fried lemons and chile flakes. Enjoy!
the wooden spoon - a travel/photo blog 