Day 6 - The Grand Canyon

Today was all about the Grand Canyon, so after a good nights sleep in Cheap-Motels-R-Us, we went to IHOP for breakie. For those not in the know, IHOP rules, although having a small breakfast is impossible! Being English we had no idea how to order eggs so here's the definitive guide according to our waitress:


Sunny Side Up - They look like the pictures but are basically uncooked.
Over Easy - Flipped, but yolk is really runny.
Over Medium - Flipped, but yolk is not quite as runny.
Over Hard - Flipped, but yolk is not runny at all.
Scrambled - Messy. 
So there you go, you can now order eggs in America.

They say internet gaming makes the world smaller, but even so it was something of a surprise to not only find a friends car here in flagstaff, but also a series of signs to help us find them!


When back at the motel, we were just getting ready when Mark fell off the kerb and went over on his ankle and cut his leg. Of course this was over dramatised, but apparently he can keep the ankle and didn't bleed out.

Zoom in on Mark's right
leg to see the near
fatal cut that he endured.

Once at the Canyon we parked up and marvelled at the views before starting a hefty 8 mile walk along the rim in 30C heat at an altitude of approx 5000m. After about a mile we'd pretty much run out of water so we started a rationing scheme of not having any more until the end.Plenty of wildlife and views to catch along the way, including some Condors, Squirrels, Ravens and Americans. We then collapsed at the end and wilting on the bus back.

Achievement: Mistaken as Australians.

Back at the car we regained consciousness and jumped in the car to view the sunset and quickly got lost on the stupid road system around the Canyon. Instead of the sunset, we found lots of elk which generally seemed unconcerned by approaching traffic, although one solitary person walking happily along the footpath did somehow mange to cause a minor stampede.

The drive back was mostly memorable for the depressingly hard to photograph sunset (we found it eventually, shame we had lost the grand canyon). There was also an audience of deer standing at the edge of the forest cheering us on as we completed the rally leg coming in to flagstaff. Apparently a lack of water at altitude can cause minor hallucinations, but we saw no evidence of this.

Finally to carry on the obsession with food, we had dinner at an “Irish Pub”, which looked like any other sports bar except for the excessive use of green. The food was good though with Martin having a burger (7/10) while Mark had Sausage and Mash.