Saturday night and Sunday morning we stayed at the Weatherford Hotel in Flagstaff, AZ. I knew there would be noise at the hotel but I did not think it would be that bad. There was a band in the basement bar and we were on the second floor. It sounded like they were playing right outside our window. We could also hear people talking and laughing. And the occasional loud vehicle. Despite the noise, I managed to get some sleep. I woke up around 2:00am and it sounded like the band got louder. Fortunately they finished up some time after 2:00. Unfortunately the people were still around and were loud. Finially, all the noise died down around 3:00am. I managed to get some more sleep after that. I know Karla was also bothered by the noise and also had a rough night sleep. Even though we had a fitful night of sleep we were up and ready early. We checked out and headed north out of Flagstaff.

The drive was really nice. Lots of views of canyon and mountains and colorful rock formations. We stopped at horseshoe bend as it was on the way. I thought the walk was just a few minutes. But it would have taken us over a half hour to get there and back and we did not have that much time. So we walked a little way, looked at what we could see, not really seeing horseshoes bend, and turned around.

We drove to Ken’s Tours and got there right after 10:00 for our tour of Antelope Canyon. We got water and checked in and waited for the tour to start. There were a lot of people for the 10:30 tour but we divided up into smaller groups. We walked to the start of Antelope Canyon and the first part is a series of steep, metal stairs that take you into the canyon. und. It was a really cool thing to see. There are a lot of incredible colors and rock formations. However, it did get a little old pointing at every rock that had a finilar shape, naming it, and then taking a picture with it. There are some cool pictures, but what are you going to do with 100 pictures of rocks? I probably could have walked through in a half hour but it took about an hour waiting for everyone taking their photos.

Karla was waiting for me when I finished and went to the truck and headed out. From there it was a short ride to Grand Canyon Brewing in Page, AZ. We found a place to park and it wasn’t too busy. At the bar they had big tree trunks as bar stools. We found a couple that had backs on them. Turned out they were pretty uncomfortable. We got some beers and started with some cheese curds. I had an IPA that was more malt than hops. Karla got a Baltic porter that was pretty good. It turns out they don’t brew at that location so it does not count for my brewery list. I was a little disappointed. I got a burger that was good and Karla got a chicken sandwich. We also got an order of sweet potatoes waffle fries. Also good but way too much food. We tried some different IPAs that were better than the first round and ate what we could. I looked at the merch. Either they did not have my size or it was too expensive. I just got a sticker.

From Page it was only ten minutes to the Glen Canyon dam. We stopped at the visitor center and admired the view.

Then it was almost three hours to Bryce Canyon. It felt longer but there were some nice views along the way.

We checked in at the lodge and were told we were in the sunrise building in a second floor room without an elevator. It only took a minute to drive there but we had to haul our luggage up the stairs. The room was not bad and we had our own balcony. After resting for a minute, we got ourselves together and went out on foot. It only took a couple minutes to walk to the rim of the canyon and see the amazing views. We walked up to sunrise point and it was breathtaking.

We walked around some more and talked about getting some food. We went to the general store with the idea we would just bring some stuff to our room. But the store was closed when we got there. It was just after 6:00. We walked by a food truck and that was also closed. We went back to the main lodge and put our name on the list for dinner. The wait was about a half hour. Because we had time we walked around and found a pizza place. That sounded better to me. We ordered a pizza and some drinks to go. We took it back to our room and sat on the balcony. It was a beautiful evening. After we ate, we sat on the balcony and played cards.

After a few rounds, we went walking again. It was after 8:00 and the last rays of the sun were hitting the canyon. There were a lot of people around taking pictures. We walked along the rim and admired the view. I went down a trail into the canyon for a few hundred yards. Every turn was another incredible view.

The sun was setting and the canyon was starting to get dark. We went back to the room and had a little more pizza and split one more beer before going to bed. It is almost too quiet after the cacophony that was last night.