We got up at 7:15, had a quick breakfast, packed up, and headed off to the Grand Canyon. As soon as we left Phoenix it started to rain (I thought it never rained here!). Hopefully this is not an indicator of the weather we will have! *** It rained steadily for 90 minutes and 100 miles until we arrived at our first stop, Montezuma Castle, and then abruptly quit and the sky cleared to a deep blue with nice white cloud.
Now it was time to finish the remaining 130 miles to the Grand Canyon. The terrain quickly changed from dry (well except for the rain we drove through) desert plains spotted with a few little hills to higher elevations with vast forests of evergreens.
We were getting hungry so we figured we would get some fast food on the way to our next stop, Montezuma Well, which was just one exit up the interstate. *** Note to self- there does exist a place in this country where there is not a McDonald's, Burger King, and Taco Bell at every exit. As a matter of fact, the average McDonald's density in Arizona appears to be 1 per 100 miles of interstate! So after realizing there were no people, much less food, anywhere near the Montezuma Well exit, we back-tracked down I-17 until we found food- not fast food... it took 30 minutes to go through the Taco Bell and Burger King drive throughs. We then headed back up to Montezuma Well and ate at a picnic area.
