Day 13

We got up this morning reminiscing over the night before and met at the breakfast area, which was outside, this was really nice as the sun was shining BUT the breakfast was disappointing , just cereal and coffee. But this didn’t matter as today we were heading into the Grand Canyon. This was still about 60 miles away so we left at about 9 ish. With the town of Williams disappearing in the mirrors I am sure all of us had a laugh at one of the high points yesterday, mine was Rob kissing the Moose. Probably about half way to the entrance we noticed a Air Museum so we puled over to have a look. We all decided to pay the $7 entrance fee and have a closer look. This tuned out to be a cool stop and another photo opportunity. After this we rode the remaining few miles into the National Park. The entrance to the park for us was $12 so we paid the cute park ranger and rode in. Now the park has had some upgrades since the last map update on our TomTom and we got a bit lost, but eventually we got to the right point and parked up. First priority was to eat something but as there were no restaurants where we stopped we all just snacked on a candy bar and walked up to the South Rim. OMG today was a perfect day weather wise. The Canyon is so big and amazing that despite having seen this before I was still amazed. The guys that were seeing it for the first time were equally impressed. So after loads of photos and wow comments we got back on our bikes to find a restaurant. We found a cafe nearby and had lunch. From here a very tired bunch of guys (this is the remnants of last night) got back on our bikes and took the Desert View road east. This is the road that hugs the South Rim and exits out on the East side, which was perfect for us as this put us on the US89 South towards Phoenix. On this road there were ample scenic stop points which we took, and added to our photo collection. At one of them Rory decided he wanted to sit on one of the bikes and video us, but he wanted to sit backwards. This looked so weird but gave Rory a good video platform. We all bunched up and took turns posing for the camera. After a while we pulled over to let Rory off and then pushed on, there were no more stops now until we either made it to Sedona or needed gas. As it turned out we were grateful we needed to stop for gas just outside Flagstaff because the route in was so windy we were all fighting the bikes and at some points we were riding at about 40 degrees on a straight. We were all very tired but still wanted to make Sedona and pushed on after our gas stop. This ride in to Sedona was the best ever. it took us on US89a which was a stretch of road that winds through gorgeous scenic red rock walled canyons and pushed the riding skills of all of us. After we hit the beautiful town of Sedona we pulled into a Best Western in the centre of town to see of they had any rooms, they could accommodate us, but it was a bit pricey so we rode around for quite a while until we settled on a Resort in town called Los Abrigados, it was our last proper night together as bikers on this trip and this resort was perfect. The suites were lovely and most of us had great views. We ate in the resorts restaurant and had a few drinks in the bar and reflected on the last 2 weeks. But everyone could not stop talking about the ride into town. We will probably go back out and do this again despite not being en-route. Todays ride was a long one but probably one of the best, the views we experienced today will remain in our minds I am sure for a very long time.