Tonight is our last night in Flagstaff, Arizona. The area around Flagstaff has been one of the more varied and interesting stops on our tour of America. We’ve ventured underground into a dark lava tube cave, explored prairies littered with ancient pueblo ruins, walked around the base of a volcanic crater, climbed a red rock hillside, and visited the Grand Canyon.

During our time here, I actually enjoyed our visit to the Lava River Cave the most—it was really unique. I learned about the cave randomly on Roadtrippers, and I’m surprised that it’s not a bigger draw. The cave is about 30 minutes from Flagstaff, accessible via a couple of essentially deserted unpaved fire roads. A 5-minute walk from the parking lot brings you to the mouth of the cave, and it’s immediately obvious how cold (about 30 degrees, compared to 70+ outside) and dark the interior is. The first 100 yards or so is sketchy enough to make you wonder if scrambling down a small dark hole in the ground is a good idea, but after the initial descent the path through the cave levels into a relatively easy walk.

I lugged a heavy tripod underground with me for some photography, so got to enjoy the hike sans hands (the other carried a flashlight—the dozen or so people we encountered were all better-prepared with headlamps). But while I remembered the tripod, I forgot my speedlight, so all of the shots I took were lit by Lori and me frantically painting the cave walls with tiny flashlights while my camera took 30 second exposures.

The ceilings in this room were over 30′ high! We took the left fork, but I’m pretty sure the right path eventually went to the same place.

The light at the end of the tunnel. Or cave. Lori wouldn’t sit still for the exposure, which is why she has three heads.

I also really enjoyed taking the short drive down to Sedona yesterday. We spent a day and did some hiking, drove the scenic byway, and visited a few of the touristy attractions (which Lori covered in her post yesterday). My favorite was our walk (climb?) up Cathedral Rock. The hike is only about a mile each way, but it’s steep enough to warrant using your hands in a few areas. That’s fun because it means we inevitably get to witness other couples argue at the steepest sections, when one accuses the other of tricking them into doing a trail that’s too difficult. Lori and I only argued a little bit.

Left: Lori on the steepest section of the Cathedral Rock trail—note the tiny people below cheering her on. Right: Lori on a ledge at the top of Cathedral Rock.

And today, we spent our final day in this area visiting the south rim of the Grand Canyon (we stopped at the north rim on our drive down from Page). I actually found the Grand Canyon to be a bit underwhelming. The views into the canyon are amazing, of course. But the park is crowded (it was a Saturday), and it feels more like a tourist trap than the other National Parks we’ve been to: swarms of visitors walking along the rim with ice cream and souvenir bags, omnipresent shuttle buses, advertisements for tours and gift shops all around.

After walking the rim for a few miles, we took the Bright Angel trail about 1/3 of the way down into the canyon. The crowds seem to thin out the further down you travel, although even at the point that we decided to turn around, there were still quite a lot of people around. I definitely regret not getting to the park earlier and walking the entire length of the trail, as I think we would have had a different experience. As it was, it’s good that we stopped when we did, because it started raining (and turned quite cold!) just as we reached the top. We finished the day by driving out to the Desert View Watchtower, which provides some great alternative views of the canyon and Colorado River.

Lori at the top of the Grand Canyon’s south rim

The Bright Angel Trail, seen from above. We hiked about 1/3 of the way down into the canyon.

Tomorrow we head west, to Vegas!