Day 5: Williams to Grand Canyon Village

May 13, 2018

I was wide awake from 3 AM to 4 AM. It seems like the higher the elevation, the more likely I am to wake up in the middle of the night with clogged sinuses. Generally I take 2 Advil when it happens. When it's really bad I take Advil and a Sudafed. This tendency only subsided a little bit by the end of the tour. It seems to take my body many days to adapt to high elevation.

I got on the road at 8:30. The hotel doesn't provide breakfast. I walked around quite a bit before finding an open restaurant.

Today the distance is long but the climbing is moderate and the southwest tailwind should help a bit. I continued east on Historic Route 66 for a mile until it ends, then turned north onto AZ 64 towards the Grand Canyon. North of Williams AZ 64 gently climbs above 7000 feet to get around small mountains, then very gently descends 1000 feet to Valle.

AZ 64 climbs around some small mountains north of Williams.

The shoulder is narrower now but it was quite usable at first. The rumble strip only ruins about 1/3 of the paved shoulder.

At first AZ 64 has a decent shoulder for cycling.

The landscape gets quite brown as I descended to Valle. Above 6000 feet elevation but there is only grass and small bushes. No junipers. A few days ago I saw junipers at much lower elevation.

This mountain was rather distinctive. Few other mountains in the area.

I have seen very little cactus during this tour. I'm surprised to see prickly pear at such high elevation.

I stopped for lunch in Valle. It's a small tourist town at a highway intersection, with a couple of motels, a restaurant, and a big Jellystone RV park. It looks like it has been declining for a long time. Probably the decline is caused by the recent buildup of the Tusayan gateway community just outside the national park. Tusayan is only 6 miles from canyon views. Valle is 25 miles from canyon views.

The open valley surrounding Valle gives unobstructed view of tall mountains to the southeast. San Francisco peaks is the highest mountain range in Arizona. I won't go very close to the peaks during this tour.

San Francisco Peaks to the southeast. Highest peak in Arizona. 12,633 feet (3828 m) elevation.

In 2003 I was much closer to the peaks when pedaling from Flagstaff to Valle. There was much more snow on May 13, 2003 than today, May 11, 2018.

Much more snow on San Francisco Peaks on May 13, 2003.

After Valle, AZ 64 begins to climb again. Fairly gentle from Valle to Tusayan. Steeper between Tusayan and Grand Canyon village, but still not difficult. Pine forest begins just before Tusayan.

Traffic was surprisingly heavy. I don't remember this much traffic when pedaling this highway in 2003. Today I am pedaling the road on Sunday afternoon. In 2003 I pedaled the road on Monday morning. Maybe that explains the difference.

The shoulder of AZ 64 is narrower north of Valle. The improperly positioned rumble strip forces me to pay close attention to the road because there is usually less than 2 feet of asphalt between the rumble strip and the gravel.

Climbing back into the tall pines with heavy tourist traffic and a rumble strip that makes half of the narrow shoulder unusable.

I didn't stop in Tusayan. It's a park gateway community, with several large luxury hotels. Also an IMAX theater. To calm traffic, roundabouts have been built at both ends of the strip. The side roads of the roundabouts don't connect to anything now. The roundabouts were built merely to slow down traffic.

The park entrance is just north of Tusayan. I paid the $15 hiker/biker entry fee. Mountain climbing begins in earnest after the park entrance. I climbed to 7000 feet elevation at Mather Point.

I wore tights all day. The high was 70F (21C).

Today I don't have much time to look at the canyon but I want to see it once while I'm so close. I stopped for 30 minutes at the busy Mather Point overlook which is the closest canyon overlook to AZ 64. Adjacent to the visitor center as well. I think it's always crowded during daylight hours.

I had fun taking pictures at Mather Point. You can sense everybody's excitement. For many visitors this is their first view into the Grand Canyon.

Self portrait at Mather Point. A long way from Oatman, Arizona.

I was at the Grand Canyon almost exactly 15 years earlier on May 12, 2003. It was my first visit to the Grand Canyon and my first online tour journal.

I only had to pedal about a mile from Mather Point to the Yavapai Lodge registration. The lodge is not on the rim. It has many buildings widely scattered in the forest. It doesn't look like a lodge at all. I arrived at registration at 6 PM, got my key, then pedaled a mile uphill to the room. Then I pedaled back down the hill to the restaurant. It's annoying that all services are a mile downhill from my room. At least there is a nice bike trail.

Lodging is expensive and hard to get at the Grand Canyon. My room cost $338 for a 2-night stay. No breakfast included. When I reserved 6 months in advance the four lodges on the rim were already fully booked. My lodge building is apparently the only pet-friendly lodging at the Grand Canyon. The room has a huge dog kennel and feeding bowls. I've never before had a motel room that includes a kennel.

Dinner was an awful pizza at the lodge's giant cafeteria.

Today had a high of only 70F. I wore tights all day. This should be the coolest day of the ongoing cool spell. Tomorrow is forecast to be warmer.

So far on this tour I have pedaled 5 consecutive days and every day's destination was higher than the starting point. It feels like I've been going continuously uphill for 5 days. Good thing I have a rest day scheduled tomorrow. I plan to sleep late.

Distance: 63.9 mi. (102.2 km)
Ascent/Descent: +2490/-2175 ft (+755/-659 m)
Average Speed: 9.5 mph (15.2 km/h)

Today's ride: 64 miles (103 km)
Total: 236 miles (380 km)

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