So we've been again, another five years on and our 10th Wedding Anniversary. But each time we go it becomes like the last time we were there was yesterday. Despite the fact that Las Vegas and Pahrump have changed out of all recognition. Or the area to the North of Kingman AZ around Chloride on Highway 95 has transformed from bare desert to the kind of germinal sprawl we saw in Pahrump ten years ago. No doubt it will eventually join up with Kingman, it's close enough on the south side. We'll find out in another five years I guess. But at the same time the mountains and the desert remain completely unchanged, except in one phenomenal way that you'll have to explore deeper to find...
I've entitled this trip "Discovering Flagstaff" because that was the prime purpose of this trip. The last trip's two days there left us determined to spend more time in Flagstaff, and we did - seven whole days.
So what provoked this interest? Two things really.
- Firstly, when we were creating our custom trip for our 5th Wedding Anniversary in 2000 the guy at American Travel in Leeds tried to persuade us to book two nights in Sedona, but being a skiing resort with Hollywood stars second home you can imagine the hotel prices. (More than mid-Manhattan, New York!) We noticed that Flagstaff appeared not too far away and, when we asked, found that it is only 20 - 30 minutes drive between them. He tried to put us off by saying that it wasn't very interesting, being "just a working class town": that was it! Buttons pushed - we had to stay there and we got a very reasonable rate at one of the local Holiday Inns.
- Secondly, the place itself. We arrived in Flagstaff after two mind-blowing days at Monument Valley. So it would be natural to expect everything after that to be quite prosaic. But when we actually got to Flagstaff we found it to be such an intriguing mixture of the original South West settler town and a modern university town. The town and its location are so picturesque that we were left most definitely wanting more by the end of our time there. We profoundly agreed - we had to go back!
Chevrolet
Trailblazer
This is "He who has a mind of his own!" We called him that because of all the things he did that we weren't expecting, such as putting on the headlights and reversing lights when locked by the remote - but only when it was dark. (Boy was that useful up at Grand Canyon!) And because there were some things we did his way or not at all. For instance, it is not possible to push in the locking button on the transmission shift t-bar to move it out of Park unless you have your foot firmly applying the brake!
We chose him for his four-wheel drive as we knew we were likely to encounter a lot of snow at Grand Canyon and Flagstaff. As it was, it was useful at GC but not needed the rest of the trip. But that didn't stop him being a great experience to drive that contributed much to our holiday. Interestingly, he was also quite economical despite his 4.2L straight-six engine. (That's the entry model by-the-way! ;-)
Diary
| 5th February Manchester to Las Vegas via Philadelphia |
6th February Las Vegas - Collect Hire Car |
7th February Las Vegas to Grand Canyon |
8th February Grand Canyon |
| 9th February Grand Canyon to Flagstaff |
10th February Flagstaff |
11th February Flagstaff |
12th February Monument Valley |
| 11th February Flagstaff |
12th February Flagstaff |
13th February Flagstaff |
14th February Grand Canyon to Las Vegas |
| 15th February Flagstaff |
16th February Flagstaff - Last Day |
17th February Flagstaff to Las Vegas |
18th February Death Valley |
| 19th February Las Vegas - Last Day |
20th February Las Vegas to Manchester (via Philadelphia) |
21st February What A Welcome Home! |
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