Kathy-P: Amazing Arizona

Last September I spent about one week in Arizona and I was absolutely stunned by the diverse beauty of this state. From deserts to green mountain slopes you can find everything there, however the most incredible feature of Arizona's landscape are the rock formations and, of course, the Grand Canyon.

Our first stop after Phoenix, where we arrived but unfortunately didn't spend much time, was the Montezuma's Castle National Monument.

Montezuma's Castle is a village hewn into rock that housed a tribe of natives hundreds of years ago. I was fascinated that they were able to build something like this monument with the technical means of their time.

Sedona is a small western-style town in the heart of the Grand Canyon State that's definitely worth a visit. Embedded in a marvellous rock valley, Sedona mainly consists of wooden houses that line up along the main street that leads through the town. On both sides of this street there are small shops and restaurants. I admit that it's a bit touristy, but beautiful nevertheless. It's also really hot there. We arrived in Sedona around noon and after having looked around a bit we fled into an air-conditioned restaurant whith a glass wall through which we had a great view over the mountains.

When I first stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon the enormity and the view took my breath away. I had imagined it to be big, but I had no idea it would be that huge! All I could see for miles on in every direction was red and orange stone and down in the deep I could just make out the Colorado River. The next day we flew over the Canyon in a helicopter and I was once again taken aback by the beauty and the sheer size of it. Near the eastern edge of the Grand Canyon National Park there is an ancient Watchtower built by Native Americans centuries ago. You can climb up and enjoy the view from the top and inside you can see arts and crafts produced by the people who built the tower.

During our visit to the Grand Canyon we stayed in Tusayan, the village nearest to the Visitor's Center of the National Park. It mainly consists of hotels and fast food restaurants, but there's also an excellent Steak House where we dined once, as well as a trading post that offers a lot of souvenirs and other stuff.