Cost to Coast ... to Coast on 1977 GS750 and GS550

[sam000lee]

Okay here we go - the `Recap' starts here.


Pre-trip: We had been `planning' this trip for the better part of a year meaning that both me and Bobby said we wanted to ride cross country. I had bought my 1977 GS750 in the fall and ridden it 200 miles home. It had funny cruiser bars that killed my wrists and looked pretty goofy but was in generally decent shape and had 15,000 miles when I brought in into my garage. I had planned to fix it up over the winter and did some work like valve adjustments, fresh oil, cleaned the carbs and replaced the airbox and intake boots. In the spring, Bobby saw a familiar looking GS550 on craigslist - turns out we had seen it when I bought my GS750, being sold by the same guy.
Fast forward a month or so and it's a month before we said we would leave and my bike still isn't road ready. Somehow, and it still baffles me how, on July 14th both bikes are ready to go. New tires, tubes, charging systems, batteries, chains, Sonic springs (so happy I did this), sprockets, several iterations of failed attempts to get my front brake to work properly all took until pretty much the last day. I had made both of the bags we were carrying the majority of our stuff in, tank bags, a leather saddlebag for my bike and some various tool rolls/pouches for pretty much everything else. I told my boss two weeks before we left (as I hadn't been sure that the trip would actually happen) and told him I would be back in September. He thought it was cool and told me to go for it.


Day 1 +2:
Our first stop was the Strange Days vintage motorcycle campout in Cuddebackville, NY about 250 miles away. The forecast said rain and it was overcast when we left but we were able to stay dry for the first couple hours after leaving at around 11am. Here's the departure picture:




We took MA Rt.2 west which is my go to for getting away on my motorcycle. Coming up on the hairpin turn in the mountains above North Adams we were in a cloud and couldn't much further than the car in front of us when we had our first bit of excitement. A BEAR ran directly in front of the car in front of me. We were going around 15mph due to the dense fog and out of nowhere, across the road, it just galloped in front of us. We pulled over at the next lookout (which I always stop at anyway)



Once out of MA we headed to Hudson to check out a motorcycle coffee shop I wanted to see. There was a line that was taking forever so we got coffee and sandwiches at a little diner we had been to before before heading down Rt 9 to 209 to Cuddebackville.


Strange Days was pretty wild. We were only there for the first night as more and more people started rolling in and setting up camp. It rained a little, then cleared up but it was enough to make everything very muddy and properly christen our cleaned up bikes. Lots of Harleys and cool old choppers but a fair amount of other bikes, too. I saw a GS450L but besides that no other suzukis. Lots of beer, drugs, fireworks, burnouts, dirtbikes, fires, mud. I was pretty wiped out so went to sleep around midnight around the time the bands started playing.


The view from where we set up camp:



and a little later...



The next day we woke up and watched the flat track dirt racing they had going which was pretty crazy. I had never seen that before and they had dirtbikes, japanese bikes, harleys and a bunch of hardtailed bikes all going together it was pretty awesome. I took a video maybe I'll upload later.


After that we packed up and headed out. Bobby was kind of hung over so we stopped at a diner and got a decent breakfast. Didn't end up getting out of town until around 1pm. We drove through PA taking 209 to 61(IIRC) to 222 going through Lancaster where we stopped to get coffee and check out map.


Oh at this point I should point out that neither of us have a smart phone and the Rand McNally 2017 Road Atlas I brought became our bible. I got the large version with a plastic cover that was strapped on top of my gear the whole trip. Highly recommend it if you are going to be visiting multiple states.



Out of Lancaster we took 30w and camped at Codorus State park. I think we did a little over 200 miles that day putting us around 475 miles from home which is the furthest I had ever been on a motorcycle. I think we made steak for dinner and oatmeal and coffee for breakfast the next day.



Day 3 + 4:
On starting up in the morning the GS550's oil light was flickering so we found a wallmart and bought a couple quarts of Shell Rotella to top it off and have some extra. It took us two days to do the 500 or so miles to Ashville, NC and we took the scenic routes Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Gas right before entering Skyline Drive National Park was $1.94 and was the lowest we would see. Once in the park we got our first real view after getting some elevation. I asked a tourist to take a couple pictures on my canon AE-1 but he didn't seem to understand that it was film and didn't have an automatic focus...





Skyline drive was very beautiful but the traffic was a real downer. The speed limit is something like 35mph and it's easy to get stuck behind a line of slow moving traffic. We were happy to get out of the park and onto the Blue Ridge Parkway which was AWESOME! No traffic at all which I found very strange especially seeing that there's an entrance fee for Skyline Drive. Neither of us had ever been on a road with so many curves and it was also up in the mountains with gorgeous views pretty much the whole time. Highly recommend it. Bobby's taillight fell of as the sun started going down which set us back about 20 minutes while we scavenged a nut from somewhere else on his luggage rack to replace the one that fell off and then it was time to look for somewhere to stay. We went past the campground first to go to Bedford, VA to get some food and gas as there is no gas on the BRP. Bringing our Subway to the campground it was pitch black and completely empty except for the host. Very creepy setting and there were lots of signs warning of bears. After eating we stashed our very aromatic trash in a bear box, drank a couple of warm genessee cream ales, set up our hammocks and went to bed.


The next morning:

We woke up early, packed up and got a move on and stopped an hour later to make breakfast and take some pictures. The fog in the background covered everything below but rolled away as our oatmeal heated up, pretty cool:




As we went further and further we began to climb in elevation and at about 5,000 feet was when I think I first noticed the bike feeling a little sluggish which would happen a lot since we went to a lot of high up places. We also got rained on pretty hard and I got pretty cold since all I had for rain gear was a torn up old poncho.


By the end of the day I was cold, wet and my shoulders and arms and butt all ached. Was very happy arrive at our friends' house in Ashville and do some laundry.

[Charlie G]

Very nice! Now which one are you? The short one or the tall one?

[sam000lee]

I'm the tall one.


Days 5 and 6:


The morning of our fifth day we woke up and went to Moose cafe for some southern food, which began with the best biscuit I have ever had (haven't had many but it was awesome) topped with apple butter and regular butter...pretty sweet. Our buddy we were staying with had/took the day off work and we we drove back up to the Blue Ride Parkway and went swimming at the bottom of a waterfall and then climbed up the rock face to get a better view.





After that we drove up to a different swimming spot a little higher up. It started to rain a bit as we got out of the car which we thought would pass as soon as we hiked to our new spot it started to absolutely pour and thunder. Everybody who had been swimming there had left but we got soaked pretty immediately so it didn't really matter. After trying to wait it out we just jumped into the freezing water while it was still pouring. It was very very cold and didn't get any better once out of the water but we laughed it off and had a pretty good time. Of course by the time we were back at my friend's car it had stopped raining. I don't get to experience this type of weather much but we were in a cloud in the mountains which dampens the sound and feel pretty spooky.


After we got back and put on some dry clothes, did an oil change and I put a valve shim that Ray had shipped there (thanks Ray!) and then went into town to meet up with people for food/beer, etc. and had a pretty fun night. Our friend was explaining the strange system a lot of the bars had where there was a membership (normally $1/year) and only members could go into the bar. They could bring `guests', but if you they didn't know a person off the street wouldn't be able to just walk into any bar. I forget the exact purpose for this but apparently it makes things a less annoying during the tourist season.


The next day we woke up, went back to Moose Cafe since we liked it so much the first time and left from there. We really wanted to go to the Wheels Through Time museum but it was closed and instead headed toward Dollywood in what ended up being a 2 or 3 hour detour only to get there and not really have time/patience for the park. Rt 321 was very pretty in some parts, but in others was pretty slow so we lost a lot of daytime hours.





It rained on the way to Nashville and we pulled in as it was getting dark, not having any plan or anywhere to stay. After asking a couple of strangers, we found the main drag on Broadway (I think) which was pretty wild with music playing at every bar and there were pretty much only bars on that part of the street. We were both actually pretty grumpy especially having to spend a bunch of time finding somewhere (free) to park to avoid paying $20/hr each or whatever the going rate was. We split some nachos and got a couple of beers and decided to head on and find somewhere to camp. By this time it was proably around 10 or 11pm.





So we gassed up and left the city and went about 50 or 60 miles up Interstate 24 (which would be our last interstate for several thousand miles) until we saw the exit that our atlas said there was a campground at. It was dark, cold and we ended up riding around for about an hour, doubling back several times after thinking we had missed a sign or a turn. We never found a campground and ended up getting a super 8 off right off the exit we had taken. Pretty frusterated at probably 2 in the morning about having to dish out $65, it was the only time we stayed in a motel/hotel.


Day 7, 8, 9:


Next up was Kansas City, MO where we have a bunch of friends. I don't remember how many miles it was but too many for one day. We took I-24 into KY, 13w to Rt 3 which we took through Chester (Home of Popeye) and up to St. Louis where we camped west of the city. By the middle of the day it was over 100 and it stayed there all day and it was also the first time where we had to stop and have a `where do you think the next gas station is?' conversation.
Gas in Chester:



After going through St. Louis we were in a bit of traffic and both bikes were acting up a little while we were sitting there idling in the heat. We pulled over in a gas station for an hour or so to wait for things to cool and the traffic to die down. It was a pretty long day and we bought some steak, corn and an onion which we made for dinner and some eggs and bacon for breakfast.
That night I was woken up by a MEAN sounding snarling and the sound of animals fighting. I thought it was a coyote but when shone my light on it it was five or six racoons going through our stuff. They ate all the eggs and bacon and even after I made sure there was nothing left they could get at I must have seen at least 20+ more racoons that night and didn't sleep very well.




That day we didn't really get to have breakfast since the racoons had eaten everything so we packed up and headed for KC. We were there for 2 nights staying with a friend. By coincidence another friend of ours' band was on tour playing KC the first night so we hung out with them and got tacos. The next day we were taken to a swimming spot outside of the city.



By this point IIRC we were at about 2,000 miles in.

[Charlie G]

Nothing worse than a group of raiding raccoons while you're camping. I've seen them passing candy bars to each other through a tent screen they un-zipped. They are pretty bad in some established campgrounds in the Redwoods of Northern California.

[sam000lee]

Days 9 and 10 (2 posts due to #pictures):

We left KC with our friend Ric on the Evo chopper he built. When we had got in touch to see him in KC we forgot to mention we were on motorcycles and as soon as he figured it out said he would go with us to at least Denver since he had some `time off'. Everybody said that the drive to Denver was incredibly boring but we took Rt. 24 and 36 the entire way across instead of I-70 and it turned out to be really beautiful. This was the first point where I felt actually far from home and in a totally different scenery than I was used to. Kansas is very flat and really windy but for the most part we had the road to ourselves in between towns. One gas stop was next to a miniature horse farm:







Towards the end of day 9:






Made a wrong turn at some point:



and I think this is Osborne, KS where we traded a guy some drugs for directions





My Gs and Ric's sporty:





We camped in Webster state park on the edge or a lake/resevoir:





And the next day was more of the same:

[sam000lee]

We stopped in St. Francis to check out the motorcycle museum upon suggestion of a man at a gas station. Lots of cool old bikes including some Japanese stuff and Easy Rider replica's that had been verified as accurate by the original builder. We got there as they were closing but they super nice and let us in anyway:














The bar we ate breakfast/lunch at with a "STOP OBAMA" banner behind the bar surprised me with it's cool bathroom art:



Towards the end of the day we stopped to get gas and the station was closed which made us a little nervous as it was ~20 miles between towns and so even if one of the next couple had a station there was no guarantee they would be open. Both the GS's were on reserve when we got here and it was closed but equipped with a very temperamental way to process a card. It took the pump about 10 minutes to connect but it ended up working out.





Oh also I forgot to mention that it was around 105 out for both of these days. We were soaking ourselves with water at every gas station and would be dry withing 5 minutes, it was hoooot!


We didn't get to Denver until night time but went to a bar that Ric's friend worked at and met some new people.

Did about 650 miles between the two days.

[Charlie G]

and I think this is Osborne, KS where we traded a guy some drugs for directions

Be resourceful......

[sam000lee]

Days 10, 11, 12:


Denver stuff.


Day 13:
We left Denver with on an overcast morning taking 285 with the goal of getting to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. It was pretty hot in the city but soon we had to pull over to put our jackets on as we went further into the mountains:





I hadn't been in proper mountains in a long time and shortly after we came around the corner to an enormous view and had to pull over to take some pictures and yell at each other. It felt a lot bigger than it looks in this picture:





This was maybe our best riding day so far, especially in terms of the views and diversity of scenery. I got a headache from the altitude which I nursed with coffee at a gas stop while Bobby and Ric got what looked like pretty awesome taco's from a food truck. Leaving 285 we took Rt 17 south towards the Sand Dunes park. It was an extremely long and extremely straight road, which we have nothing like in the Northeast, which never seemed to end. Unfortunately, this UFO watch tower was closed:





and about somewhere between 15 and 50 miles later we got absolutely poured on as we limped into Alamosa, CO.
Trying to beat the storm:





We stopped at the local brewery which was a lot more lively than I expected - I think Alamosa is a college town - where we sat drenched and had a couple beers and split some chips and guacamole. Eventually the rain settled down and we got some food at the grocery store and headed towards the park. From Rt. 17, the Sand Dunes look quite close. But if I remember correctly it was about 25 miles down another long, distance deceiving, straight road. We got to the park around dusk where the sign said "All Campgrounds Full" and so went back several miles to a privately owned campsite on the side of the opposing mountain where we gathered what wood we could find and had hot dogs for dinner.







Day 14 (1/3):


We woke up, made some oatmeal for breakfast, and broke down camp before heading back to the National Park to check out the Sand Dunes:





While talking back to our bikes in the parking lot of the visitor center, we all turned to look at the vintage-sounding motorcycle coming around the bend and ended up meeting Eli who was riding his 70's goldwing around the country to hit all the lower 48 states (pictures here: https://www.instagram.com/oldwing_eli/). We chatted for a bit about our traps and exchanged information before heading to the dunes themselves. Eli ended up getting home to NY state about a week before we did and rode through all lower 48 states in I think around 2 1/2 months.








Leaving the State Park we backtracked the long straight road to Alamosa, where Ric headed back to Denver and Me and Bobby, and our GS's, set off towards Grand Mesa National park.

[sam000lee]

Day 14 (2/3):


After parting ways with Ric we got on Rt. 160 going towards Grand Mesa National Park. After about 40 miles it began to rain and there was some serious storm clouds ahead. We pulled over to put on our "rain gear", which for me just meant putting on my scarf and a couple extra long sleeve shirts to stay warm after getting soaked, and soon enough we were in a steady bit of rain.


Just after leaving Alamosa:



Even though it was wet and cold, 160 was a nice road leading up through the mountains. I had somewhat forgot when we would passing over the continental divide, and we came out of the rain just before getting to the Great Divide. We stopped to take pictures but also to heat up some water for make coffee and oatmeal, and to change my wet socks.














At over 10,000 feet, there was a noticeable lack in power in both the GS750 and GS550. Both being pre-1980, they have VM slide carburetors (as apposed to CV) and don't have any way of compensating for the high altitude. In fact we had both made sure to grab extra sets of spark plugs a few days earlier in case we started fouling the ones in the bikes. The trip down was a more enjoyable than going up since I was warming up and the performance difference wasn't as noticeable.





We rode for a couple hours more. I was up front and it kind of seemed like Bobby was trailing a little bit but not enough to notice. I think we got gas in Durango, and Bobby said his bike felt very low power. We decided to just keep going to try to get to Grand Mesa which was only another 20 miles or so but ended up pulling into the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant since Bobby could only get the GS550 to go 40mph or so at WOT. To let the engine cool down and also to avoid breaking anything, we went inside and got beers and some chips and salsa while we speculated on what might be wrong. With somewhat clearer heads, an hour later we went out and pulled the plugs to find an expected rich condition on 2 + 3:





but this on 1 + 4:



Seeing that was a bit of a releif because we figured the plugs had just fowled and that switching them out might just be all that was needed. We did that, and a mile down the road had to pull over on the shoulder so that Bobby could tell me that he was getting the same low power and a lurching feeling. It was probably around 7pm at this time and so we made the decision to just push on and try to get to Grand Mesa, about 15 miles away ... at least we could wait until the morning to deal with it. Shortly after, however, I saw a sign for a campground, pulled in without thinking twice and we set up our stuff feeling disheartened and still cold from getting rained on earlier.
We were more than 2,300 miles from home on 40 year old motorcycles and I think it was the first time that it occured to me that that was not a normal situation to be in. It was also the first time where our lack of access to the internet (no smartphones) seemed like a burden instead of a freedom, since we had no immediate access to knowledge (i.e GSR). Our atlas told us Mancos was a few miles up a head so we both hopped on my bike and headed into town...

[Jedz123]

Sam
You truly are an inspiration! The epitome of a hard core rider! I've always "never seem" to have the time to do a cross country trek and your really inspiring me to do so. We aren't young forever... My gears are now spinning for next year.
Ride safe! Great to meet you at our GMR meet this year. Hope next year you'll be able to tag for the whole thing!
We should ride sometime soon!
Best,
-J

[sam000lee]

Day 14 (3/3):


So we take 160 into town and it doesn't seem like theres much. Theres a hotel/restaurant that looks too expensive and we double back and find the Mancos Brewery. Inside theres a few people and we sit at the bar and we hook my ipod up to the wifi (I think theres a post or two on GSR from that bar). I got a cuban and a beer, it's more than we would normally be spending for dinner but it had been a long day. While we're waiting for our food I asked the bartender if she knew of any motorcycle shops in town. She goes 'hmmm' and turns to the man next to us: "Hey Harry, are there any motorcycle shops around here". Harry looks at us and asks us why and we tell him from and explain our trip.
It turns out we were sitting next to the owner of Basin Motorworks, a motorcycle shop specializing in (some vintage) BMWs. So after chatting for a bit Harry tells us to come by in the morning with the bikes saying we could work out of his shop. Feeling a lot better than we had when we came in we left and went back to our campsite.


Day 15:


In the day light we realized that Mancos was a pretty cool town full of old hippies. There were a couple coffee shops and bars, an art center and other stuff like that. Harry lent us a compression guage and some stuff to dress our points. He seemed to know everyone in town and so we got to meet a lot of people.
It was Friday and after ruling out a bunch of stuff, I tried swapping out the condensers from my GS750 into the GS550. Bobby took off down the street to test it out and saw him coming back with a thumbs up...it worked! Before we had left I had bought a set of ebay points which arrived partially broken and unusable BUT they were sitting back home in my parents garage with two (maybe) working condensers. I called my mom and described them and 20 minutes later she was driving to my dads work so that he could FedEx them to us. It was a Friday and 4:30pm back on the east coast and he dropped them off for next day delivery for a whopping $12.
With that out of the way and feeling releived we hung out in Mancos and helped Harry move a bunch of his shop to the other side of the garage space he works out of for a couple hours. Somebody told us where we could camp for free on BLM land and eventually we took my bike up to scope out a spot.


Here's where we camped:











View from the hammock:


After setting up we went back to the Brewery for a couple drinks. We ran into Harry again and ended up playing pool with him for a while and chatting some more. He was trying to sell his BMW business and thought we would be pretty good candidates haha! Definitely a cool idea and a tempting offer...


It was drizzling when we headed back up and it rained overnight. Not a problem in the hammock because we both had tarps strung up.


Day 16:


On Saturday we were woken up by a man with a hunting bow around 6:30am. He was actually pretty nice nice, letting us know there were some people going to be using that area for hunting practice a bit later but I definitely was playing out several "The Hills Have Eyes" situations in my head. After packing up we headed into town and hung out at Harry's shop for a bit. It was Mancos day, so there was a parade through town at 11am which we watched and waited for the points and new condensers to arrive. At around 2pm the FedEx guy showed up and we put in the `new' condensers, tested them out and got on our way. Mancos turned out to be a pretty cool place to hang out for a couple of days and Harry was an awesome host letting us hang out at his shop.





We skipped going to Grand Mesa, so the next stop was Moab, UT. I lost my gloves at some point in Mancos and one of the bolts on the GS550 luggage rack came off so we stopped at a hardware store on the way out. It was cool and raining when we left but within a couple hours we were in the bizarre world of Utah, which was a lot warmer. It was my first time in the state, except for visiting the four corners when I drove cross country with my dad in high school. This is on 191 ... Utah is a pretty crazy looking state, especially around Moab.





We got to Moab in the early evening before the sun went down and stopped at a bar to get some food and a beer. There was a lot of miserable looking camping along the highway and it all seemed to be full anyways so we asked one of the waiters if he knew any good camping spots. He was the right guy to ask and told us about nearby BLM land that was more of a `local known' spot just outside of Moab. On the way out we stopped at a dive bar for another beer and to play a couple games pool. The ride up to this campsite was pretty awesome and overlooked the valley that Moab sits in:





Our camping recommendation turned out to be pretty great, too. After walking down to scope it out, we ended up riding the bikes down a pretty steep and sketchy dirt road to get to a campsite. I set my hammock up next to this big rock with a sick view





This panorama didn't come out great, but you get the idea:








It was a lot cooler up in the mountain where we were (compared to the 100+ in moab), and we got a decent fire going before crashing for the night. The sky was super clear and I saw a bunch of shooting stars as I was falling asleep.

[sam000lee]

Sam
You truly are an inspiration! The epitome of a hard core rider! I've always "never seem" to have the time to do a cross country trek and your really inspiring me to do so. We aren't young forever... My gears are now spinning for next year.
Ride safe! Great to meet you at our GMR meet this year. Hope next year you'll be able to tag for the whole thing!
We should ride sometime soon!
Best,
-J

Haha what a complement! I definitely want to get back up to VT before it gets too cold, I'll let you know!

[sam000lee]

Day 17:


Woke up and rode back into Moab. Theres a ton of stuff to see around there so we had to kind of pick and choose. We stopped at Jailhouse cafe to get coffee, but it turned out it was more of a sit down place so we ended up getting a kind of expensive ($12 each) breakfast and coffee (not really that bad considering). After that we headed straight up Rt 191 to Arches. This was the first national park that I had been planning to go to for months so I was pretty excited. Once we showed our parks pass we climbed up the side of the rock face (not exactly sure what this geological structure is called) and soon had a nice view of Moab and everything around it. We gave ourselves a couple of hours here, and stopped at a bunch of the pulloffs and despite being 100+ degrees we walked a couple of the trails which was HOT, but still fun!
I lost the roll of film from this part of our trip (due to my lack of knowledge about cameras), which sucks because I think that it had the best pictures on it, but still have some digital ones.


Arches:







After leaving Arches, we were pretty eager to get going so we went back through Moab down Rt 191 and took a right on 211 towards Canyonlands National Park. This ended up being one of my favorite places we went and it was almost completely empty as we headed towards the park around 3/4pm. The ride from 191 to the actual park is about 40 miles and is a mixture of destert, then a green forested area that sneaks up and then crazy cliffs and plateaus and the canyons themselves.





At the end of the park, we were the only ones there and spent some time climbing around on the rocks (lost the pictures but have the one)





It had been on and off overcast all day and in the distance we saw the rock faces start to shine...i.e. rain. From our atlas it had also looked as if you could ride through the park, our next destination was Zion National park but as it happened the only way out was back the way we came. Soon enough it was drizzling and getting very dark and so we got back to our bikes as it was starting to rain on us and pour around us. As the rocks got wet they became metallic looking and we raced back (noone one the roads!) the way we came, outrunning the rain which had made the whole area look like the moon. We got a little wet but soon dried off once we had escaped. We got gas in Monticello and decided to find somewhere to camp closeby over trying to cover more distance as it was after 8pm. A woman at the gas station told us that the next two days were going to be raining pretty badly in Utah, so we also decided we would head south instead and go to the Grand Canyon the next day.

[Downs]

Well we made it back! A couple of days ago actually but I've been decompressing. About 9,500 miles and six weeks total and both bikes are doing well...for the most part.
I'm getting all my pictures developed and then I'm going to go back and give a more detailed summary/pictures of the trip since my internet access and posting was pretty scarce while we were gone.

This is a picture ya'll will look back on for a long time. It tells a story in and of itself. Awesome. Ya'll are even dressed the part for the time frame of the bikes.

[sam000lee]

Day 18:


We woke up pretty early and set off down 191 without eating. we rode for an hour or so and stopped at a diner around Bluff. It ended up being pretty expensive so we just got coffee and then ate a couple cliff bars outside. An hour or two later we were in Native American land going through Monument valley. Much of this area is Native American land and the poverty is very visible. I had driven through here in high school and had a memory of stopping in the desert at a "Dinosaur Tracks" sign. Well we saw the sign on 160, pulled over and were walked around for 10 minutes or so, I think the same older man, being shown various dinosaur footprints in the dryed up mud and gave him $8. There were several booths set up with a couple of families selling jewlry and as we walked back to our bikes, another man became quite aggressive and critisized us for not buying any jewelry. He called us fa***ts and was yelling about tourists with money visiting and then leaving taking their money with them. It was a really hard situation, and we didn't argue with him...he was right. Thousands of people go through there every year on vacation while all around there is a lot of poverty that came as a result of American settlement. We didn't buy any jewlry (the guy was being an a!@#!le) but really, spending $20 wouldn't have been a big deal to us and we were no different than the other tourists coming to see the novelty of the Grand Canyon...













Once in Grand Canyon National Park (South rim), we stopped at a couple of outlooks but then headed to one of the campsites to see if we could get a spot. There were a ton of Elk just roaming around, including a couple hanging out by the registration booth. The campgrounds were all "Full" but we asked anyway and got one that somebody had cancelled. After setting our stuff up, we went to the store in the main park Village, got some food/beer and then found somewhere to post up on the side of the canyon. A young european couple asked us to take a picture and then stuck around for a bit chatting.





Stopped to "like" this badass liscence plate:



Enjoying the view:





When we got back there was an elk by our campsite:



And we made some steak and onion for dinner: