We leave Phoenix around 7.45am. First we drive to an outlet where Nathalie was looking forward to. We seem to be too early as everything is still closed. We saw a Wendy’s so we go there for breakfast.

After a nice breakfast we return to “Anthem Outlets” which are open now. After about a 2 hours shopping we drive towards “Montezuma Castle National Monument”. On the way, between exit 255 and 259, on our left side, we see a big fire in the bank where firefighters are trying to extinguish it. In the direction of Phoenix there is a big traffic jam, just like we are used in Belgium, but fortunately we are driving in the other direction.

Once arriving in “Montezuma Castle National Monument” we buy our annual pass for the national parks. It is extremely hot here and Patrick and Lucien saw a tarantula hiding between the rocks.

Around 1.45pm we arrive at the visitor center just before Sedona where again we take beautiful pictures of the rocks of Sedona. At the visitor center they send us to the Sedona airport viewpoint where you have the nicest views of the valley. On our way to this airport we drive to the “Chapel of the Holy Cross”. We continue towards the airport and indeed, the park ranger was right, it is beautiful! When you cross Sedona you are amazed by the beautiful houses which are all touristic. It is a small and cozy little town where we would have liked to stay…

We continue towards the Grand Canyon and arrive around 4.30pm at the “Oak Creek Canyon” where native Indians are selling handmade stuff. There Sofie & Nathalie buy a nice hat to protect them from the sun.

A bit further we fill our tank and drive towards the Grand Canyon. As it is already after 6pm we do not stop at Valle Airport and Yabba Dabba Doo Bedrock City but we just drive on. We have a problem… we do not know where exactly our hotel is and have to look for it. We only know it is on Hyw 64 but that is long… We drive into the Grand Canyon National Park and look for it. We find some hotels but not ours. We decide to ask someone whom we think is a local. He heard of the hotel and we are way too far! We leave the park and after about 4 km we enter Tusayan where we see our hotel at our right. We check in around 7pm, go to refresh ourselves and have dinner at the Steak House. This was not so good and we expected more from a steak house…

After dinner we walk back to our hotel for a good night’s rest…

Daytrip approx. 434 km