THURSDAY, 7 NOVEMBER 2024

(Grand Canyon, AZ – Twentynine Palms, CA)

I didn’t sleep as well. I kept waking up feeling cold and would struggle to get back to sleep. At around 4am I decided to get out of bed, get my coat, and spread it like a duvet on top of me. I felt much warmer and, once I fell asleep, stayed asleep until around half-seven. At that point I looked at the outside temperature. -7C. Hmmm. Still, it was our last morning here, so I made coffee, put on a lot of clothes, and  went outside onto the balcony for my coffee in the canyon moment.

After that it was time to shower and pack, before loading up the car and checking out. In anticipation of warmer temperatures later, we both wore shorts, but that was a little…er…’fresh’…given it was still before zero at the Canyon. We had a little drive around the Maswik Lodge area to look at the newer buildings they have built, and while doing that saw several deer again. Then it was on to the general store for a few last supplies, before our final visit to Grand Canyon Rim next to the Yavapai geology museum. I took it all in, and was sad to leave.

After departing south on Highway 64, we drive the hour to Williams, where we had brunch at Goldie’s Route 66 Diner. We’ve stopped here before and it’s always good food. It was above freezing, but only just, and the wind was cold.

After filling up the car, probably for the last time, we were onto I-40 West for Kingman, where we had a short stop (and it was still cold), and then towards the Arizona/California border. This is the road less travelled for us, as we usually turn off here Las Vegas. We passed a lot of very long trains. By my estimate, they were approaching a mile-and-a-half long. I’m glad we didn’t encounter any at a level crossing. Just before the border we turned off towards a small place called Golden Shores. When we had stopped at Kingman, I’d asked Andrew if he wanted anything to eat. His reply: “No, we are stopping again though aren’t we?”. I took this to mean he didn’t want to eat yet, but would before we got all the way to Twentynine Palms, which was still a 3 hour 10 minute drive away. So I looked up where there were diners along the way, and there really wasn’t anything except in this small town, 5 miles off our route. I said it had a diner, but was only 50 minutes away. Andrew said ok. So that was where I drove to. On arrival I pulled up outside, only to discover that Andrew hadn’t meant for food , just that we’d need to stop for a drink or something somewhere… I headed the five miles back to I-40 and were continued. Ah well. We’d certainly never have discovered that small town for any other reason. 

Almost immediately we were back on the interstate we crossed the Colorado River and entered California, where we had to pass through an inspection point (which always feels weird within the same country).  Shortly after that we turned south, down US-95. This was a strange road. It was single carriageway, allegedly 65mph limit and, after initially being a bit winding as it climbed some mountains, was largely straight. The Romans couldn’t have designed it better. However, because it was straight, it followed the ups and downs of the land like a giant roller coaster. It is also heavily used by trucks. For the most past we made good time, before falling into a truck convoy for the last nine miles.

At the junction with CA-62, which would take us west to Twentynine Palms, we stopped for coffee from a gas station, and then headed off into the setting sun. Quite literally. It was very pretty, if somewhat dazzling. The sky also changed colours in the rear view mirror, although I wonder if those colours were aided by any of the forest fires contaminating the air. 

Eventually we reached the town, find out hotel and checked in. It was finally a reasonable temperature, but without the sun, it still wasn’t exactly warm. We immediately went back out for dinner at Denny’s, this being the easiest option, for both a known option and quick service. Then it was back for showers, beer, blogging and bed. Although we benefited from gaining an hour today, handy when you have a long drive, it does mean that it already feels like 9.30pm, and there’s still lots to do tomorrow. 

[Editor’s note: Now that we’re back on WiFi and not just a 4G phone signal (although it was a huge bonus to be able to get that), the rim trail hike video from a couple of day’s ago is here: https://vimeo.com/1027549190. The gentle meandering video from yesterday is here: https://vimeo.com/1027551421.]