Day 17 - Thursday, April 14 - Grand Canyon & Meteor Crater
 
The day started early with a bike ride along the South Rim. My last bike ride, 36 hours prior, had been through the neon canyon of Las Vegas. Now, along the edge of the greatest natural wonder on Earth...
   
Along the South Rim...
       
 
       
 
       
 
In places the South Rim trail is startlingly close to the edge...
 
     
 
I breakfasted back at South Rim Camp, just a few hundred yards from the rim...
 
     
 
I drove east along the South Rim, stopping frequently at overlooks...
 
       
 
 
 
I met a fellow named Gerald from Lichtenstein, in the Saxony region of Germany, near the Czech border. We found ourselves stopping at the same overlooks and that became a laugh. Gerald was trying to get a high angle picture of his BMW scooter against the canyon background - I told him to try from atop Bigfoot and that seemed to work...
 
     
 
Proceeding along the South Rim...
 
     
 
At this spot I enjoyed my last "Coffey Cheese Biscuit"... compliments of Mrs. Coffey, in Charlotte...
 
       
 
 
 
Tusayan Ruins...
       
 
   
 
Desert View Watch Tower...
 
       
 
       
 
     
 
Entering the Painted Desert...
       
 
     
 
Southward from Grand Canyon, to Flagstaff, Arizona...
 
         
 
Picking up I-40 East / Route 66... toward Meteor Crater...
 
       
 
Meteor Crater...
www.meteorcrater.com
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/images/meteorcrater.html
 
       
 
       
 
       
 
     
 
Proceeding on...
 
Winslow, Arizona...
       
 
     
 
BNSF... freight train across the desert...
 
Passing the Petrified Forest...
     
 
I crossed into New Mexico and put in for the night at Gallup...