Arizona October 2014

Tuesday, October 7, 2014 Combermere to Phoenix
After having rafted through the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River late last fall, I thought I would like to show Anita the Arizona scenery. I also wanted to see the Grand Canyon from the top since I had already seen it from the bottom.
On Tuesday, October 7th, we drove from Combermere to Ottawa and left our car at the Days Inn. Our first flight took us to Newark for a 45 minute layover before changing planes. Naturally, this being Newark and United Airlines, our layover stretched to 5 hours. By the time we got to our airport hotel in Phoenix, it was 2 am Phoenix time so it was an awfully long travel day. Luckily, our bags arrived and, with a little help, we got our hotel shuttle outside the almost deserted terminal.
After breakfast the next morning, the hotel shuttle dropped us off at the huge car rental depot and we got our car with no problem.

 It didn't take long to get out of Phoenix and off the main highway, heading northwest toward Wickenburg. The desert here has lots of the big saguaro cacti.

 Our rental car became our base for the next 12 days.

 In Wickenburg, we toured the Desert Caballeros Western Museum, which had great depictions of frontier life and lots of cowboy art. We had lunch in Wickenburg and then drove north over the mountains and through the Prescott National Forest to the town of Prescott. On the outskirts of town, we found a good motel for $70 US. At the Safeway, we picked up some food and just ate in our room. We were still tired from our travel the day before.

On Thursday morning, we had the complimentary breakfast at the motel and then took a walk through the old western town of Prescott. From there we drove up the narrow mountain road over the next range and into the old mining town of Jerome, perched on the steep mountainside.

 Once we got down the mountain below Jerome, the desert landscape around Clarkdale was much more open. As we approached Sedona, we could see many red rock bluffs and mesas.

 We got a room at the Sedona Cedars Hotel. The view from the pool area was spectacular. After we settled in, we walked around downtown Sedona, which is filled with art and craft galleries and restaurants. There are also many New Age type spiritual shops. At the Javelina Cantina, a recommended bar/restaurant, we relaxed, drank beer and ate quite a few of the $1 appetizers served in the bar.

 The next morning we had a good breakfast at a restaurant and drove up to the top of Airport Mesa for a short hike. Some people believe that certain areas around Sedona, including where we walked to near Airport Mesa, are "spiritual vortices". Maybe, but we didn't feel it.

 After our hike, we drove up the narrow and winding back road in Black Creek Canyon toward Flagstaff. Very scenic.
In Flagstaff, we stayed at the Motel 6, where we had all stayed the year before for our Grand Canyon trip. We drove out to the PRO Outfitters office so I could buy a couple of insulated mugs, since I had lost mine when airport security had searched my dry bag last December. The woman in the office didn't remember our Canyon trip, other than she recalled how cold it had been at that time. However, she did remember our son Zack's other trip from a few years ago, when they hadn't rigged properly and lost all their meat in one of the first rapids. That story is famous.
That night we had an early dinner at Wild Buffalo Wings next to Walmart, and did a bit more shopping for the coming days.
On Saturday morning, we knew we would have a long day so we got an early start, leaving the motel around 7 am. We drove north and took the side road through Sunset Crater National Monument, a fairly recent volcanic area, and then along the edge of the painted desert to Wupatki National Monument. There are masonry pueblos scattered through the region. Sometime before 1100, Sunset Crater erupted and spread a thin layer of ash over the surrounding area. The ash helped retain soil moisture so more people came to the area for better farming.

This, the largest dwelling in the area, had about 100 rooms.

 From Wupatki, we drove north and west to the east entrance of Grand Canyon National Park. We stopped at several lookout points along the south rim of the Canyon.

 As we got closer to the main Grand Canyon village, the weekend crowds got bigger. We enjoyed many different views but we chose not to stay too long at the main viewing area. However, in the few places where we could see right down to the river, I did recognize some of the landmarks we had passed in our rafts the year before. We had a picnic lunch and eventually set off toward Page.
I had wanted to stop at Lee's Ferry, where our raft trip had started, but the road between there and Page was closed due to landslides so we took an alternate route. It was relatively barren and we were tired so it seemed like a long couple of hours drive. In Page, we found a Quality Inn that wasn't too expensive so we stayed there for the night.

 Within walking distance up the main street of Page was Big John's Texas BBQ. Everyone sat outside under a big roof, at long picnic tables in the smoke from the huge barbecues and smokers, while a traditional country and western band played. We chatted with a young couple from Switzerland who were sitting next to us.

We had great food and really enjoyed this chance encounter with the local cowboy culture. The next morning, we decided to stay another night so we'd have lots of opportunity to visit the Glen Canyon Dam and rest up a bit.

 On Sunday morning it was quite breezy but sunny as usual. The town of Page is just above the Glen Canyon Dam that holds back the waters of Lake Powell. The dam is 700 feet high and the water of Lake Powell behind it is over 500 feet deep. The lake, part of the Colorado River, is many miles long and has numerous bays in the side canyons.
We had wanted to visit one of the nearby slot canyons but it was so windy there was sand blowing all over so we cancelled that excursion.
On Monday morning, October 13th, we left Page and drove easterly through the desert to the Navajo National Monument.

 The ancient people, probably the ancestors of the Hopi, built pueblos on the mesa top most of the time but for a few generations they built this type of cliff pueblo. Nobody really knows why they did this although most speculate that it was for defence. They continued to farm the mesa tops but lived in the narrow valleys. And then, after a couple of hundred years, they left and probably moved south. Much is left to learn about their culture. The cliff pueblos were better protected than the mesa top pueblos so there are many more of them left.

 We continued our drive north and east through Monument Valley. These red sandstone buttes are very stark 'monuments' in the flat desert. Many old western movies were filmed in this area.
As we left Monument Valley, we travelled through the very bleak desert in southeast Utah, crossing the San Juan River at Mexican Hat. The landscape got a bit better as we approached Bluff, Utah, where we found a motel for the night. Bluff is a small town that was originally a Mormon outpost. The Mormons arrived here from northwestern Utah after a brutal journey across the Colorado canyon and through the desert.

 The local people have restored the old Bluff Fort, the original settlement.

 They have lots of artifacts and recorded history of the families who lived here. Mormons have been very particular about recording their story and lineage so we spent an interesting afternoon here.

 Anita is standing at the teacher's desk in the restored one room school.

That night we ate some good Navajo style food at the aptly named Twin Rocks Cafe. We had originally thought that Bluff would just be somewhere to sleep but we really enjoyed our afternoon there. The first week of our Arizona trip was complete.