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for anywhere featuring bars called saloons or taverns. This place was special though, and even had horses with carriage trotting along the main street.

I checked into the Grand Canyon Hotel, which was truly a blast from the Western past as well. In fact, it is the oldest hotel in the state of Arizona. The building had a flashy red vertical "HOTEL" sign on the corner, and instead of a sterile lobby or reception area there was an authentic saloon-style living room. I stayed in hostel accomodation, but ended up having an entire 6-bed room to myself the first night, including a loft, two bathrooms, and wireless internet in the room! In the many fancy hostels I'd stayed at in Australia and New Zealand, including in metropolitan areas, I had never heard of this. Now I got it in a miniscule dot-on-the-map Western town in Northern Arizona. I was awed. Admittedly, however, I was a smidgen on edge about sleeping alone in an old, otherwise unoccupied and perhaps haunted building in a small remote town.

Day 2: Exploring the Grand Canyon

Williams is the closest "big" town to the Grand Canyon, but still about 60 miles away. At the suggestion of a friend back in Claremont, I was determined for my first view of the canyon to be at sunrise, with beautiful reds, purples, and oranges abounding. My motivation surprised me when I woke up at 4:15 am without even needing my alarm, and was out the door by 4:40, ready to spend a full day entranced by one of America's treasures.

Unfortunately, I underestimated the time to reach the national park by about five minutes. As I drove through the entrance gates, I could see the beautiful sunrise colors slowly fading away, along with my hopes of a striking first view of the canyon. I was legitimately upset. As I finally pulled up to the first available viewpoint, with the sunrise having morphed to a typical bright white morning, my first reaction the canyon was not a breathless "Wow," "Oh, my God, it's beauuuutiful!" It was an unmentionable slew of four-letter mutterings, and disappointment in myself for missing perhaps the best Kodak moments of my trip. I was more fascinated by my terrible attitude and lack of appreciation than by my managing to miss the sunrise by so little time.

So, on this note, I started my day of sightseeing around the canyon. The view was indeed stunning, but after about an hour spent at maybe six or seven separate outlooks, I did feel like I was starting to see the same thing over and over again. The thought of "I get

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