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How to see Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon in 24 hours

Posted on May 30, 2008
Filed Under Collegelife '08, People, West Coast | 8 Comments

Isak in front of the Grand Canyon   |   How to see Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon in 24 hours from Olesund

This was the longest day of our lives. We have probably been awake for longer periods of time, but this day felt like it was going on forever. We did so many things and saw so much stuff. The day started out 4 A.M. in the morning when we woke up on the train, an hour later we arrived in the sleeping city of Flagstaff. The sun was rising and Nick and us went in to the train station to wait for a café to open so we could have breakfast. At 6 A.M. we went to a café called Macy’s and had breakfast. Inside the café Isak met a Native American whose name was Tsosie, he had just been released from a five-day stay in jail for misconduct. Isak and Tsosie shared a breakfast and Tsosie talked about the Indian culture and history, very interesting. For us Europeans the whole “Indian- business” is so remote and hard to understand, most of the things we know come from Western movies or cartoons.

Nick, who was going to stay at a hostel, had planned to take a guided tour to the Grand Canyon, but it was very expensive (70 dollars) so we tried to find some other way to get there. Hitchhiking, renting a car, car-pooling, taking a shuttle there were many options but they were all expensive. Finally we decided to rent a car and try to find someone else that would like to come with us, but we did not find anyone and I guess that was the best. So we ended up cruising around in Arizona in a blue Chrysler PT Cruiser and it ended up costing us 69 dollars each, which was totally worth it. We could go wherever we wanted whenever we wanted, store our bags, pick our own music (SWEET) and just feel free.

The one and a half hour drive to Grand Canyon was very pretty, but the 4 hours of night sleep started taking its toll. Drowsy but excited we arrived to GC and we were welcomed with the most amazing view ever, most likely one of the most magnificent views on our planet. Yellow, brown, red, beige mountains, valleys, canyons and it went on almost as far as you could see. We parked the car and took a shuttle to the Bright Angel Trail where we had lunch at The Arizona Room, a lunch restaurant overlooking the canyon. Isak wanted to go before lunch, but Erik reminded him that they had had breakfast six hours ago and that the hike would be at least three hours. Bad idea to hike hungry, especially in the sun and down and later up a pretty steep and rocky path in the desert.

After lunch we started our descent into the valley and it took us one hour and fifteen minutes to reach the three-mile resting house. We wanted to go further down, but realized that we would have to hike all the way back up again. Three miles times two (9.6 kilometers) would be enough for one afternoon. The guides said it would take two to three times longer to hike up the path you had gone down. We walked up five minutes faster than we walked down, Yeah! On the way up we passed two Danish girls that we talked to on the shuttle back to the car. They were on a two-month trip with a group of people through and organization, very convenient but no freedom and kind of lame, we thought.

Sweaty and weary we took the shuttle back to our car and then we went to a nearby camping to shower. Clean and fresh we drove to another lookout point further east where we had our favorite meal, peanut butter, bread, chips, carrots and Gatorade (for old people: non-carbonated hydrating sports drink). Our plan was to catch the sunset at the eastern most point of the national park, Desert view, but we stopped at too many other look out points so we did not make it to the last one in time.

When the sun had set Erik decided that he wanted to “skit”(for Swedes: not skit as in the Swedish word for poop, skit as in: ride a longboard behind a moving vehicle). The parking lot was empty and it was dark when Isak started driving the PT Cruiser and Erik held on to it going in circles on the parking lot. After a few laps Isak saw a gigantic elk by the side of the road, Erik did not, so Isak took another lap with the car and told Erik to look into the woods. He got quite a shock when he saw the marvelous animal with huge antlers. It was the size of a moose, which is pretty big and impressive (for Americans who have not been to Sweden: Swedes ride them, have them as pets and feed them with lingonberries and Swedish Fish).

When we got back to Flagstaff we picked up some groceries at Safeway and Erik was very happy because he could use his preferred card so we got a discount. Then we went to Nick’s hostel to hang out, but he was already asleep, and we were a bit late I guess. We met a guy from Maine and two German girls and we went to a café where we had waffles and coffee. They were being babies and wanted to go to bed at midnight so we went back to the hostel and hung out there (without them) till 4 A.M. when we left the car at the rental agency and dropped our bags of at the station. Soon we would be able to sleep. And at the moment we have slept only 8 hours out of 62 but we are enjoying life and the vast desert landscape of New Mexico. In Albuquerque we stopped for one and a half hour. We tossed some Frisbee and went for a walk in the downtown area and got Coldstone ice cream and Seven Eleven slurpee.

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