Emm no Shiki 　エムの四季: It's Grand: Backroads, Arizona and the Canyon

Today we veered away from highway 40 yet again this morning by taking route 53, a country road cutting through ancient lava fields now covered in beige and green, awesome rock formations, and the Zuni Native American reservation. Along the way we saw a lava cave at El Calderon, the massive El Morro rock formation, and countless gorgeous vistas. The interstate highways are undoubtedly faster ways to travel, but the scenic byways are decidedly more fun. Not only is the scenery marvelous, but the driving is amazing (especially with Kuro!) and you get to see much more of the local communities. Many of the towns in backwoods New Mexico are depressed indeed, but it's important to see the reality of living in even the most beautiful of places, and there are signs of revitalization as well.

Route 53 nonchalantly crosses into Arizona and dead-ends in another backwoods highway (191, I believe) that leads to I-40, so we took that up and greeted some cattle on the way. Arizona's landscape was at first a bit drab compared with New Mexico; the highway showed off a lot of plain desert, so we contented ourselves with the clouds until we reached the Petrified Forest, where petrified wood can be found in abundance. The presence of trees was welcome, but not so much as the visitor center's hot dogs, which we gleefully consumed for lunch!

We then headed up to Flagstaff, the gateway to Grand Canyon National Park, and stopped at the visitor center there for help planning out our brief visit. Amy and I have found almost everyone in the customer service sector to be extremely friendly, and none are more so than park rangers and visitor guides. We received a wealth of information and decided to do the Flagstaff loop, which takes you east of Flagstaff and past the Sunset Lake Crater before heading west along the southern rim of the park and finally back south. I will try to post only the best of my pictures, but as the canyon is called grand for a good reason and we were there for a rainbow and for the sunset, I took almost 300 pictures today. There's no denying that the GC is an amazing place.