West Coast Diary: Snow in Arizona (Day 6)

Jorge arrived soon after we finished breakfast, and so we loaded up his car with Olga's and my bags, whilst Martin and family filled up their minivan with their luggage.

Off we went on the journey up to the northern part of Arizona. As we checked the weather forecast beforehand, we knew it was going to be cold, so we decided to stop at one of the outlet centres nearby. We all ended up buying winter jackets from the Columbia store (and some hats and gloves too). Before setting off we went and grabbed some food (Chinese for our car, McD's for the minivan).

Full on food we headed off to the colder side of the state. We noticed that the landscape was becoming less populated by cactus, and was getting a more mountainous and pine-tree feel. Before long we were seeing frost on the ground and then came the thick forests of snow. Were we really still in the same state that borders Mexico?

It was quite spectacular the difference in scenery up here, and we noticed immediately the necessity of those newly bought jackets.

Upon arrival at the hotel we noticed that the engine of Jorge's car had started to steam. We opened her up and found that the coolant tank had split open from the freezing temperature. What a great start.

Once the minivan arrived, and we had all checked in, we all got into the vehicle and headed off to the canyon. We headed for Mather's Point, were we saw a glorious sunset of colours across the canyon. Very impressive.

One thing to note for trips here at this time of the year - the paths are covered in ice, which, when you are near a 6000 foot drop, can be a little worrying. Careful use of available handrails and branches of nearby trees allowed us to move around and get some great views of the canyon's colours.

The north side of the canyon is actually closed at this time of the year as it is so cold and dangerous, so I suppose it's lucky we could visit it at all.

Once we got back to the hotel, we dined at the hotel restaurant (lamb for Olga, elk steak for myself) which was actually very good, except for the extremely slow service which considering the fact that it wasn't even half full was very surprising. We then went downstairs and played some billiards (or pool for us) in the bar.

Heading off to bed we checked the temperature outside, and it was -20 degrees Celsius. Luckily there were heaters in the rooms. Unluckily, ours was so noisy we had to turn it off to get some sleep, and therefore the room got freezing overnight.