5/23 Laughlin to Flagstaff, AZ

Laughlin has an interesting history, or rather, its founder, Don Laughlin does. You can read about his life and how the town of Laughlin came about here: http://www.1st100.com/part3/laughlin.html.

We enjoyed our stay in Laughlin, and will probably return some day on another trip. Probably won’t stay at the Tropicana, though. The room was nice enough and the price was great, but they were pretty skimpy on the amenities. No in room coffee or tea pot for Erin – you had to pay extra for that in the lobby. We were also somewhat amused to find a 3-pack of condoms and a large tube of K-Y Jelly next to the Gideon’s Bible in the nightstand. There were two remaining, which we left for the next guest.

Laughlin is on the Colorado River, and we crossed the bridge to Arizona on our way out of town. We planned on going to Sedona, with a possible side trip to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. We headed for Kingman, where we picked up I-40, taking it due east to the town of Williams, where we stopped for some lunch. By then it was cold, windy and a mixture of rain and snow was falling. Oh, and it was also getting foggy. We decided we’d skip the Grand Canyon, as it really wasn’t very good viewing weather. When we finished lunch and emerged from the cafe, it had cleared up quite a bit, so we decided to head up north to take a look. It was about 45 miles north up highway 64.

As we approached the park boundary, it began to snow lightly, and of course the wind gusts continued. We were surprised, though to find some outstanding views of the canyon, with most of the nasty clouds and weather on the opposite side of the canyon. There is a trail that meanders along the rim for quite some distance. We parked nearby and enjoyed the view from several sites. We didn’t stray too far from the car, though, as clouds were moving fast and we didn’t want to be too far away if caught in a downpour. Also, we were dressed for summer, even though it was only about 40 degrees out. After taking a series of photos, we returned to the car as a rain cloud caught up with us. We headed a couple miles down along the rim, and ahead of the cloud, to another viewing area. Wherever we looked we saw an amazing array of colors on the canyon walls, and we saw rain clouds scattered along the far rim, just above the edge. The clouds didn’t descend below the rim, although I’m sure the rain did.

We headed out of the park about an hour later, on a course for Sedona. We took highway 180, which had some of those scenic route dots alongside it, and it was indeed scenic. As we approached Flagstaff, the temperature dropped again, and we were greeted with some more wet snow. We decided to spend the night here rather than in touristy Sedona, saving that for morning. We’ll spend some time there tomorrow, then continue on south to Surprise, where we’ll visit with friends.