The day started out with a really yummy breakfast for both of us compliments of Macy’s European Coffee house & Bakery. Sarah had the vegan waffles with fruit topping and I, the biscuits & gravy. My biscuits were nice and crunchy like they should be and the gravy, with i don’t think had any real meat in it, had a great sausage gravy taste. Very stick to the ribs meal:
We liked Flagstaff alot. It had a very cosy small mountain town feel to it. There were a ton of people using bikes to get around. Sarah said it seemed to be a very ‘green’ town:
Our first stop was the Sunset Crater National National Monument. The crater means volcano so this was part of the volcano system (i think the last one that erupted) that created all the mountains in this area. The park featured places where lava had flowed and solidified into a jumbled area of twisted rock. This photo is at the base of one of the volcanos. It looks inviting. Only a 1/2 mile to see the crater. What i found out was that this was a 200 ft 1/2 mile climb up a very steep grade. We don’t have steep grades in Indiana (at least in Camby). I did make it to the top. Sarah got pretty winded too. The high altitudes kept us breathing pretty heavy and the old ticker was going a mile a minute. I think i got enough exercise to hold me for a couple of months:
So far so good
At the top, you can see where the remains of the crater still, after hundreds of years, has kept things from growing:
We weren’t the only ones to make it up to the top:
What was pretty neat was you could see the results of the eruption as the sides of the surrounding landscape still has the marks of the blast on everything that faced the blast. Very cool to think about it but i wouldn’t wanted to have been there at the time.
I’m going to have to cut this short as it’s time to leave. I’ll post up some grand canyon pictures once we get settled in Vegas (maybe .. I’m thinking now that the hotel may not have internet access).
So on tap for today .. Hoover Dam and perusing Las Vegas. We won’t be out too late as we have a real real early morning tomorrow to make our appointment at the Goldstone facility.
