C made us this feasty breakfast this morning, with eggs and bacon and apple pancakes with syrup. On our way out of Grand Canyon we stopped at yet another viewpoint, Cape Royale. Staring into the canyon again, I was moderately impressed. Also, the visibility wasn't great. However, as it kept getting worse, we realized there was a forest fire on. The national forest service had provoked one, as part of their yearly renewing of the forest. And now we were standing there at the edge of the canyon trying to catch sight of the opposite rim on the south side (with difficulties). It sort of made me chuckle. 
But it didn't make everybody laugh. I cyclist approached us to ask to get a ride in the back of our truck. He had set off this morning on a days biking trip through the woods to one of the rimpoints. Access to it had now been closed by forest guards, and the cyclist didn't sound too happy about that. A lady we crossed was even less happy: She informed us that she had come 3000 miles to visit the canyon for 2 days, and she was more than slightly inaccommodated by the forest guards decision to set the canyon on fire while she was visiting!
We gave the cyclist guy a lift down the road, so that he wouldn't have to sweat so much getting back to his site. We then drove out of the park, through the forest and past Jacob Lake again. As there is no straightforward crossing of Grand Canyon possible, we of course had to make a detour on the 89 bis to the East and go all the way down to Lees Ferry just below Glen Canyon Dam (Lake Powell), past the colourful Vermilion Cliffs. It was a very pleasant drive for me, as I so much enjoy the startling colours of the rugged Arizona landscape. 
To make a long story short, the road took us through Williams, where we got some ice cream, to cool off, Flagstaff which looks lovely, with lots of things around to explore: Sunset Crater, Wupatki National Monument and ski slopes! Past Flagstaff we went through Oak Creek Canyon down to the hippie/new-age town of Sedona which prides itself with being the Most Beautiful Place in America. We were there just in time to stroll through the main street and take a look at crystal shops.
A lady C. kindly starting conversing with tried to sell us a bungalow with access to a nudist jacuzzi/spa and we just barely escaped from her. This time, all campsites in the vicinities were full, including the 4 sites in the cute little Oak Creek Canyon, so we ended up finding a spot in the national forest land just outside Sedona. It's not really a forest actually, just protected desert land with a few brushes here and there. We camped in a spot with stunning views to all directions, but only after C had scared the hell out of me talking about all the critters we could run across there. We did come upon a tarantula on the road. That didn't exactly make me feel all that relaxed, but after making ourselves confortable in the bed of the truck, sipping red wine with salami, I began to feel alright about sleeping in the wild. Wasn't even seriously shaken by the howls of the coyotees in the vicinities as we heard them tear apart a rabbit they caught ... We enjoyed the full moon for a while and talked about the wild west before we crawled into our little tent for the last time this trip.
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