Day 20

Today the weather was much better. In the morning we returned to The Grand Canyon and walked a different part of the rim trail. Yesterday we walked its western part and today - its eastern part. Before we started we listened to a short lecture about the canyon's raptors (birds of pray), given by a biologist that monitors their migration in the area. Elad thought her job was quite boring, watching birds all day, and I had a feeling she would probably feel the same way about his job…

After finishing the trail we left the Grand Canyon (with a resolution to come back some day and hike down into the canyon itself) and started driving towards Flagstaff (about 70 miles – a short drive in the USA). We headed south east on highway 180, which is a scenic root and indeed very pretty. Along the way we passed by the San Francisco Mountains, and the highest of them already had a snowy peak, as you can see from the photos.

We drove past Flagstaff and headed towards a meteor crater which is about 35 miles east of the city (35 miles of complete nothingness, we might add). It was formed 50,000 years ago. It's the first confirmed meteor crater ever discovered and the most preserved one. The crater is quite huge – you can fit twenty football fields in it and is as high as a sixty story building. We must tell you though that eye sight can be deceiving – when you look at it, it doesn't seem that big. We took a guided tour along the rim of the crater with the head guide – Eduardo, and enjoyed it very much. We learned that NASA astronauts practiced in the crater before missions to the moon, that three Hollywood movies were filmed there, and that Mormons aren't allowed to consume caffeine.

After our crater experience we drove back to Flagstaff, had dinner and went to Barnes & Nobele, where we realized that there are way too many books that we would like to read. Ignorance is bliss…

More on Flagstaff tomorrow. Good night.