Well it is called a GRAND canyon,

The drive out to the Grand Canyon from Flagstaff was as pretty as it was uneventful.  The plains and pine forests of Arizona were green, and a steady light rain fell.  There was some concern that we would miss 'the good part' of the canyon.  This was not the case.

The Liar tries to get a better view.

The whole journey people had told us the Grand Canyon was one thing which lives up to the hype.  It truly did.  I cannot with words do it justice; it is vast and colourful.

The current club members at some hole.

It was also rather cold.  We went with the intention of doing one of the more challenging hikes from the South Rim, but within twenty minutes of our arrival we watched rain race up the canyon towards us.  Shortly after that the temperature dropped below freezing.  Don't let the Talk's shorts fool you; we all wound up huddled in the canteen, eating a hot lunch.

The Talk touches the void.

That night we hit a few spots in Flagstaff.  The Liar went to bed early, as he had to take care of himself, and we got to know the student bars.  This started with a burger in the Flagstaff Brewing Company.  It turns out there are a lot of good beers made in Arizona, and we did our damn best to try all of them.

Colorado, Utah, Arizona

Our biggest day's drive began a little after 7am in Avon, Colorado and took us as far as Flagstaff, Arizona.  The first part of the drive, through the Rocky Mountains, was again scenic and on a well-constructed road.

Letting off steam in Colorado.

So well constructed that we got the first speeding ticket of the trip.  The patrolman who pulled us over said that the plane overhead had clocked our car at 94mph in a 65 zone.  It's possible that by the time we passed him, we were traveling faster than that.

The sign gives you all the information you need.

We came out of the mountains and into Utah, described poetically by the Talk as "an enema.  A big buttload of nothing."  This wasn't totally fair to Utah, which did have a lot of rocks.

There's a lot of this in Utah

And some canyons.  And some different kinds of rocks.

A lot of these too.

The surprise of the drive came in Arizona, which I had pictured to be a desolate, flat wasteland.  In fact the area was quite mountainous (which makes sense; it's where the Grand Canyon is) and it rained a lot.

Turns out Arizona is not that flat.

We stopped in Flagstaff, where we would spend the next couple of nights, and went out to Beaver Street Brewery for dinner.  Their Red ale, which had won some awards, was very tasty.  I quite enjoyed the Oatmeal stout as well.