Ribs 'n' all that

I haven't written much yet about the food in the SW. There is a reason for that.

This part of the US doesn't have a reputation for terrific food (it seems to be quantity over quality a lot of the time), further complicated by the fact that we were mostly staying in National Parks, so you're a captive audience. That said, there were a few memorable meals.

The best was definitely the Bright Angel Lodge at Grand Canyon Village (No pictures available, as I was too busy eating to reach for the camera). Service is incredibly slow, but the food is lovely. Spicy, thick home-made corn chowder, slabs of meaty ribs smothered in sweet cactus syrup, and cinnamon-laced apple grunt for desert (which unfortunately I was too full to eat). And when you're through stuffing your cheeks like a chipmunk preparing for winter, you can step outside the door and be right on the rim, watching the condors soar over the canyon.

Of course, there were plenty of crappy meals as well. The worst were pancakes at the Yavapai cafeteria in Grand Canyon park; they brought back all the suppressed memories of my University dormitory meals. You add half a pint of syrup, and yet magically the pancakes are still so dry you can barely swallow them.

I'm amazed that no one's realised yet their potential for mopping up oil spills at sea....

Think I can corner the market?

It's Grand, this canyon*

As numerous guidebooks and travel writers have already said, nothing can prepare you for your first sight of the Grand Canyon. It's too vast, too mind-blowing, to be able to take it all in. 277 miles long, anywhere from 4 to 18 miles wide, and a mile deep. Open your mouth and stare in awe, peeps. That's all you can do.

So no more burble, just some pictures:

Sunset from Grand Canyon Village

Sunrise from Mather Point

I think I see a river... Grandview Point

* Apologies for the bad puns and cheesy jokes you'll find in these posts; that's what spending 9 days with my father does to me.

From moonscape to Crystals R Us (Sedona)

The drive from Phoenix to the Grand Canyon takes you through a moonscape of orange sand, cliffs of grey rock, and towering saguaro cacti.

Saguaro (pronounced sa-wah-row) will be familiar to all of us from road-runner cartoons, but these protected plants only live in a limited area, the Sonoran desert. Each cactus only begins to grow arms at 75 years of age, and won't reach full height until at least 150.

We stopped for lunch at Sedona, the "new-age" centre of Arizona. It's one of those towns that has somehow managed to land firmly on the tourist trail, for no particular reason, and now it's filled with tacky gift shops, overpriced restaurants, and not much else. In other words, a bit of a dump.

The scenery nearby is beautiful, however.

The photo above is of Bell Rock, site of the failed 1987 Harmonic Convergence (essentially a bunch of gullible visitors who paid to sit on the rock in the hope it would launch itself into space). Now less visited by alien well-wishers as it is by giggling tour groups

On the Bright Angel Trail

This is me, and this is the Grand Canyon