2009 – Week 7

May 28, 2009, Thursday:
I was awakened at 4:30am this morning by some unknown sounds. I put the pillow over my head and tried to go back to sleep, but I was too hot. Then the sky started to lighten, and the noise became louder. Finally I was able to go back to sleep until 6:30am, but that was the end. I almost fell out of bed, a long way down, trying not to wake Susie. I took Daisy for her walk, and we went to the enclosed dog run, but just as we entered the lawn sprinkler system started and we both were wet when we left. Not a great start to the morning, but that happens. We came back to the RV, and I fed her, retrieved the coffee makings and put some in my veins. I found that we had lightning speed wifi here, and I took advantage of that to download my blog, including all the pictures. The Owner of the RV Park came by to stick a note on the window reminding us to come to the Office before 10:00am to register and pay. About that time, the lady Susie met yesterday visited, we had a talk and then went to look at the layout of their RV. Susie and I went to the office to inquire about jeep tours and art galleries to visit. The Owner talked us out of the wild and wooly tour and said the Rim Tour would be perfect. We signed up for 9:00am tomorrow. When we were leaving, I noticed a sign about the Blue Heron Rookery on the property. Ah, the source of the unknown early morning sounds, baby blue herons demanding to be fed. We returned to the RV and prepared to visit the numerous art galleries in the vicinity. We had a restaurant lunch around 2:00pm and continued touring, returning to the RV around 4:30pm. We heard the noises and were able to spot at least three nests way in the top of the cottonwood trees. The adults were in constant motion trying to satisfy the young. Susie took Daisy for a long walk, and when she returned she said she had looked at the nests, took Daisy for a swim in the river, and discovered a couple from Ocean City MD on their first trip in their RV. They were still feeling their way, staying only in RV Parks with full utilities. Susie urged them to try state parks, but they seemed a bit hesitant even though they had a generator. Susie noticed that the rocks in the Bear Creek adjacent to Rancho Sedona were lava rocks that had been smoothed by water action.


May 29, 2009 Friday:
The herons were quiet this morning, and we managed to sleep until 7:00am. We got, had breakfast and prepared for our jeep trip up to the top of the mountains on the east side of Sedona. The guide was a little exuberant, but the other paying passenger, youngsters in their early 40’s, were very nice. She had spent some time out here about 20 years ago so had a feel for the place before all the money came in. There was a discussion about the art in Sedona and the consensus was that Santa Fe was better. There were too many expensive trinkets and not enough original material. The views were terrific with numerous different layers of rock.



This area is at the southeast edge of the Colorado Plateau, centered approximately in the Four Corners area. After the tour, Susie made lunch, and we headed towards the Airport for our first stop on the “Vortex Tour” of Sedona. Some psychic said that there were four areas in the Sedona area that exude subtle energy that humans can feel. The pamphlet stated, “If someone is at all a sensitive person, it is easy to feel the energy at these vortexes, and it can be an exciting experience.”

Before we get too far, I’m not a believer and obviously not sensitive enough. It is interesting that the location of the vortexes all have spectacular views and that is very uplifting. Susie then had a haircut at a place called ‘Cottage Cuts’ and low and behold it was a small stone building and the barber was a lady who had been in the area for 30+ years. She told Susie that Sedona was nicknamed ‘Grasshopper Alley in the 1970’s. From there were went to purchase more colored pencils, and I took the time to buy some 1/2 & 1/2 and chocolate chip cookies and a cartridge for our printer. Off we went again to the second vortex and climbed to the end of Boynton Canyon.

Daisy also came. In certain ways, this was a disappointment as we expected to be able to climb up at the end of the valley and look back down the canyon. Not so! The cliffs on either side of the canyon were interesting, and with the sun setting, the colors were striking. The literature indicated that the hike would be 5 miles round trip, but it was actually 6.7 miles, and there was no energy of any type at the head of the canyon. We returned to Rancho Sedona for the night. Hot showers and a hot meal were just what we needed. I noticed that I had been bitten on the inside of both of my ankles at the top of my socks in numerous spots. I don’t know what did this, but I am sure I’ll be coating the area with cortisone cream several times a day for several days. The night was beautiful, and as the sun set the Blue Herons were carrying on but they soon stopped.

May 30, 2009 Saturday:
We left Rancho Sedona at 10:00am and headed south along AZ179 for a few miles and then turned around. The purpose was to see the rocks and buttes
surrounding Sedona from a different perspective and to also see the Frank Lloyd Wright (I think) church nestled up against the red cliffs. We drove up and when we arrived it said “No RV’s beyond this Point”, but provided no place to turn around. There was one very large house on this road that must have been built early on. It had an observatory for viewing the stars. We return to Sedona and headed north on AZ89a following Oak Creek Canyon until the canyon stops. There have certainly been floods in Oak Creek as the bottom is covered with large rocks, some with a diameter of 4 feet. These rocks were rounded and smooth, indicating severe erosion by water action. About 6 miles up the road, we stopped at the local DQ or Native-American roadside stands, depending on who is talking. Susie talked to Diana and learned that Diana e-mailed her dissertation and would mail the hard copies on Monday. Now only a 2-hour defense remains. We continued north in Oak Creek Canyon, noting numerous cars parked along the roadside and people walking the edge of the road, all creating interesting traffic opportunities. We also noticed that all the campgrounds were full so obviously there was going to be a Plan B or maybe even a Plan C for the night. By the use of many switchbacks, we climbed out of the canyon as we came to its head and stopped at an overlook that enabled us to look down the canyon plus see the numerous switchbacks we had just navigated. There were several interesting informational signs at the overlook, but the one that caught our eye was the cross-section through Oak Creek Canyon. There is a fault down the center of the canyon, and the equivalent rock layer on the east side of the canyon is about 600 feet below the one on the west side. There is a 600-foot thick basalt rock layer on the east side that doesn’t exist on the west side. We continued into Flagstaff and picked up a part for the awning and went to Safeway for a few items. While Susie was waiting for me in the RV, 2 men who were up to no good, approached her. Nothing happened, but Daisy failed to bark or growl. We reported the incident, but I’m sure these guys had left the area. A bit scary. We decided to head a bit further north with the hopes that we could find a campground in a National Forest, allowing us to be closer to the Sunset Crater Volcano and Wupatki National Monuments that we will tour as we head towards Grand Canyon. We found the USFS Bonito Campground. There were several spots, and as we settled at 4:00pm, thunder and lightning began. The surface of this campground is cinders from the eruption of the Sunset Volcano. We drove the RV to the Visitor Center only to find that it was less than 200 yards from our campsite. It started raining while we were there and didn’t stop until 7:00pm. At the Visitor Center, we learned that there is some dissention among the scientists about the timing of the eruption. Earlier in the trip, we heard it was 1065AD, then 1064AD, and here with more scientific means the date is somewhere between 1040AD and 1100AD. We had a light supper and discussed the plans for tomorrow. It is interesting that today we started out at elevation 4,500 feet and are now at almost 7,000 feet. The temperatures have gone from 85 degrees to 58 degrees and surely will go lower during the night.

May 31, 2009 Sunday:
It was 43 degrees when I awoke this morning so I stayed in bed a bit longer. In a half hour the temperature had risen 5 degrees, and I noticed that there was moisture coming off the exposed cinders as the sun hit it. I took Daisy for a long walk, and when I tried to feed her, she tried to bury her food. Must not have been hungry. Unfortunately, she had so contaminated her dish that I had to throw the mess out and start again. We closed up the RV, and headed out through the Sunset Crater NM. I think I forgot to say, but this volcano produced a cinder cone and a small lava flow and did not have the explosive characteristics of Mount St Helens. We climbed up the edge of the Lenox Crater, and cinders were everywhere. Across the road from the Lenox was the lava outflow from Sunset Crater.
Some of the lava outflow was large rocks and other a’hah (spelling might be wrong) as called by the Hawaiians. The flow shape is unusual, and it looks as if it is twisted rope. We were unable to get close to the Sunset Crater because the cinder walls of the volcano are very easily damaged by foot traffic. We continued north, leaving the Sunset Volcano NM, crossing the land of the Babbit Ranch, still owned by the family. It is the largest ranch in the United States totaling approximately 1,000,000 acres. Now a million acres is big, but the land is so sparse that it is hard to raise anything but cattle and that is marginal. As we approached the Wupatki NM, we looked across and saw the San Francisco Mountains, the peaks of which were snow covered from the storm we experienced yesterday afternoon. After entering the Monument, we stopped at the Wukoki Pueblo. A National Forest Service volunteer was at the site, and he was full of knowledge. We talked about how things change, and he told us that last week two giant pots were discovered in Dead Man’s Gulch. There had been covered with cinders, but the blowing wind had exposed the tops. A NFS archeologist went to the site, the pots were retrieved and dated around 1050AD, just about the time of the eruption of Sunset volcano. The current thought is that the pots were covered by the cinders and lost. He also told us that the people who lived in this area would bury large pots and keep them full of water for use by travelers. We traveled on to the Visitor Center, noticing the building black clouds over the San Francisco Mountains. While touring the Wupatki Pueblo, the winds started to blow and the black clouds lowered. We returned to the RV for lunch. The winds buffeted the RV and deciding that it would not clear for a time, we left the NM and headed north along US89, turning left on AZ64. Poor Gabby Garmin, she didn’t want to go this way and was having fits. Eventually she surrendered when we were about 25 miles from the Grand Canyon National Park’s East Entrance. We stopped at an overlook to the Little Colorado River that was mostly dry even with the rain that has been falling. We entered Grand Canyon NP and stopped at Desert View on the east side.



WE found our campsite without any trouble. The Mather Campground (tents and vehicles less than 30 feet) was full, and we saw several people turned away. We are glad that we made reservations. There are showers here, and that is a very good thing. Mather was the first Superintendent of the National Park System, and there are numerous facilities honoring him.The bug bites, or whatever, seem to be less painful, and I am hoping for a good sleep. We attended 2 Park Ranger talks, one at the Campground and another at the Mather Amphitheatre. Both we good, but I didn’t stay awake for long after we returned to the RV. For the first time in a very long time, the RV is positioned so that the sun comes up on the right-hand side, and not in my face so I should be able to sleep later. The sun rises here at 5:14am due to Arizona not changing to Daylight Savings Time.

June 1, 2009 Monday:
Wow, the month of June already! I was right; I slept longer, not waking until 7:00am. We had breakfast and washed our hair before getting on the bikes and heading east along the canyon. There is the Rim Trail that pretty much follows the edge, but no bikes are allowed so we had to settle for the overlooks, which happen to be more than adequate. We stopped at Yavapai Point and discovered that there was to be another Ranger talk about the discovery of the Grand Canyon. The Spanish were the first to get here in 1540AD, but the first people to traverse the Colorado were John Wesley Powell expedition in 1869. Powell was quite an explorer, geologist and ethnologist (look it up), and his feats are more amazing since he had lost an arm at Shiloh in the Civil War.




After taking numerous pictures we headed further east to Mather Point, then to South Kalib Trailhead and Yaki Point. All have wonderful views and many more photos were taken, many to be deleted I’m sure.



Kalib Trailhead was a special place because the stables for the mules carrying tourists down into the canyon and back are here. The rules on using the mules are quite strict; one example being that if you dismount from your mule without the leader’s permission, you cannot remount and have to walk the rest of the trip, another is that you cannot weigh more than 200 pounds, including all equipment.
The mules that had the day off were stretched out and sleeping soundly in the warm sun. The mules really have to work hard taking people in and out of the canyon. We returned to the RV and while Susie made lunch I had some adjustments to make to the bikes and finally installed the speedometer on Susie’s bike. We left for a Ranger talk on the California Condors and were lucky enough to see two of them in flight. I tried to take pictures, but we’ll how successful I was.
Mature California Condors have a wingspan of 9.5 feet and are the biggest bird in the North America. In 1982, there were only 22 living specimens in the world and through aggressive conservation and breeding programs that number has increased to almost 300 today. Currently there are 75 California Condors flying free in Arizona and 150 in the world. We stopped to have an ice cream cone, and the concessionaire has a most unusual scoop. Instead of being a scoop, it was a cylindrical device that was pushed into the large ice container and then removed with a consistently sized scoop of ice cream. It seems to be a pretty smart way to avoid arguments with customers who think they’ve been short-changed. We, and several others, had a difficult time fending off an aggressive squirrel that thought the ice cream was for him. We stopped by a Visitor Center, but didn’t find anything interesting. Back to the Campground where we took Daisy for a quick walk, had showers and then went to another Ranger talk. Back to the RV for dinner and hopefully an early bed. We are planning to get up early tomorrow morning to watch the sun rise over the Grand Canyon.

June 2, 2009 Tuesday:
We awoke at 4:30am and decided that it was too dark to safely ride the bikes along the road and went back to bed. Since tonight is our last night, maybe we’ll get up early tomorrow and use the RV as transportation. We did lots of things today, but the biggest was riding out bikes out the road to Hermit’s Rest, the westernmost point of the South Rim complex of GCNP.




It was a 14-mile round trip and we were able to see more of the western portion. Since we were here last, they have paved about 3 miles of the original single lane (Ford Model T size) road ending at Hermit’s Rest. It is close to the rim and since it was the original roadbed, there was no significant environmental damage to the living plants. There is one area that is under environmental remediation and that is the cleanup and closing of a mine that originally produced copper, but in the 1960’s became the source of the purest uranium ore in the US. This cleanup has been underway for about 3 years, and there’s more to go. We learned this from 2 young ladies working as environmentalists for the NPS. Wouldn’t you know that Mother Nature would put a uranium mine in an area that was to become a NP? We finished the bike ride at 5:00pm, rushed back to the campsite, took showers and Susie made a bag dinner, Mounting up again, we pedaled back to the Village (as they call it) to catch a bus to Hopi Point to witness sunset at 7:40pm (we were told it was 7:14pm). There were special buses to take us back, and they were as jammed as any NYC bus I’ve been on. We were going to load our bikes on a second bus to take us to the campground, but there was still just enough light to allow us to ride with flashing taillights, reflective vests etc. Back at the campsite by 8:00pm, I discovered that I had allowed 2 days to travel from Grand Canyon NP to Zion NP in UT so we decided to try to stay another night here, travel Thursday, giving us another day.


June 3, 2009 Wednesday:
Up at 4:30am this morning, we drove to Mather Point to watch the sunrise. There were not as many participants in the morning, but still a pretty good turnout.


Once again many used the flash setting on their cameras. The sun rose at 5:17am and by 5:30am most people had left. We returned to the campsite, had coffee and did some other stuff while I was waited for the Campground Office to open at 8:00am. I was first in line and was able to add a day to our stay with no problem. We decided to have breakfast, cafeteria-style, in one of the lodges before going to the store to restock some items. I can tell you, things are not cheap in any National Park when buying from an outside vendor. At 10:30am we loaded up the bikes and headed to the Bright Angel Trail that leads to Phantom Ranch in the bottom of the canyon. It is a 9 mile one way trip, with an elevation change of more than a mile, and we knew we weren’t doing that. There is a water hut 1.5 miles down the trail, but the elevation change was 1,300 feet, and we were pretty sure we weren’t doing that either, but we off we went. The trail is a series of switchbacks that became more severe the further along the trail we went. As a sobering reminder, there was an official notice from the park asking if anyone had seen a 69-year-old man who started hiking at the end of May and has not been seen since. He was to return to the rim using the Bright Angel Trail. At 11:00am we started down the trail, probably a bit late as the temperatures were starting to climb. We carried food and lots of water and had good hiking boots, unlike several people who were wearing sandals and not carrying any water. Crazy! We saw 2 CA Condors, but were not able to get photos. We went about 1/2 way to the 1.5 mile water hut, and saw a Ranger climbing up the trail. She checked to see if we had water and food and warned us to be careful of the heat. We had seen some people climbing out, and they seemed to be struggling a bit. One family on their way out rom the 1.5 mile hut said the Ranger posted at the 1.5 mile was asking people coming down what there plans were and checking on supplies. Another group said that there was only one more shady spot before the hut. We decided to turn around and hike out. We didn’t have any trouble, but rested several times. We saw the same Ranger as before, and she was checking on the health of people walking up. We were surprised by the number of people on mule rides who had been to the bottom and were on their way out. There were at least 6 groups with between 4 and 8 people in each group. The mules have the right-of-way, and the people are to step off the past and let them by. Susie was often leading and often the first indication that the mules were approaching was the appearance of 2 big ears as they came around a corner. All the riders were very happy about their trip, and I think we should have done that (if I could have made the weight limit). If you’re coming here, seriously consider it. We were out of the canyon at1:30pm, had our packed lunch on the el Tovar Hotel while sitting in wicker chairs. Both Susie and I fell asleep for a bit. Then it was off to a Ranger talk, but we bailed out after it became apparent that we weren’t interested in what was being said. Back to the RV for a nap, then showers. While Susie was taking her shower, I walked over to the adjacent campsite because we thought we had seen them on the Bright Angel Trail. That was not true, but the husband told me that yesterday his wife had started from the Campground at 5:40am, ran 2 miles to the top of the Bright Angel Trail, ran 9 miles and 5,000+ feet down the Bright Angel Trail to the Phantom Ranch, rested for a bit and then ran back up the trail. Overwhelming! We had dinner, and went to our final Ranger talk of the Grand Canyon part of the trip. This Ranger, as most are, was very animated and his presentation was titled “How the Grand Canyon Got Here” and done without PowerPoint presentations, slides and any other major props. He was very good at saying why this piece of earth is special and why there is only one GRAND Canyon and it is here in Arizona (can you believe that there is a grand canyon in Florida?). He talked about the sediment laid down by the oceans and the amazing fact that 70,000,000 years ago this area was lifted 12,000 feet without any tilt in the rock formations. Now we have been looking at lots of formations as we travel, but as we now recollect, most were tilted, crushed and whatever other things you might imagine, and if they were flat, it was for a very small area. They different layers are different colors and that is why the view is so spectacular. The formation of the Colorado River started just 5,000,000 years ago. We returned to the campsite and worked for a bit before going to bed. It was a long and strenuous day, but certainly worth it.