May 28, 2007

May 28, 2007

After staying inside national parks the last several days without the comforts of electricity and Internet, we spend most of the morning recharging batteries and paying bills. We are also in no hurry. I am hoping the holiday crowd will be going home today.

Just before noon we leave the RV park and head the 37 miles into Yosemite National Park. Having heard Yosemite is one of the most popular national parks, we made reservations here a month ago, our only ones of the trip. We were probably lucky to get them because I think our reservation was only available because of a cancellation.

The road to the park’s western entrance follows the Merced River up into Yosemite Valley. The Merced River is another raging snowmelt river. It is hard to believe there is so much snow melting higher up. Once we hit the valley, we drive thru a boulder tunnel and get our first view of this granite-lined valley. We see El Capitan, the largest granite monolith in the world. Its sheer walls are awesome. This is the high cliff that you so often see climbers scaling in movies.

Our first stop in the park is at Bridal Veil Falls. It is just off the road. Big mistake. The parking lot is a madhouse and the footpath is a zoo. I am hoping the crowd is mostly holiday day-trippers who will be gone at sunset. The falls are very nice and we eat lunch near the base. It is not as romantic as I would have hoped with the crowd, and with the intermittent spray of water on our sandwiches. Bridal Veil is so tall that the water is almost all mist by the time it hits the bottom.

Wanting to avoid the crowd, we head to our campsite and check in. We are very happy with the site. It is large with lots of pine trees and in the shadow of Half-Dome, the other granite icon of Yosemite. We are going to enjoy our four days here. Aimee and I relax for a while, talking to the neighbors, and reading a guidebook they lent us.

Thinking the crowd has died down, we unhitch the bicycles and venture over to the visitor center. On the way we can’t help but take a few pictures. The scenery is stunning. Yosemite deserves its reputation as the most beautiful national park. I don’t know what John Muir was thinking when he said Kings Canyon was lovelier. They are similar but Yosemite has more striking vertical granite and the valley floor has many open meadows allowing better, unobstructed views.

The visitor center is pretty good. Yosemite Valley was set aside as a protected wilderness area by Abraham Lincoln in 1864, the first ever in the US. That Lincoln took time out from the Civil War to do this is a testament to its rare beauty! John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club was instrumental in enlarging the protected area and getting it national park status. We also stop by a photo gallery where they have a lot of Ansel Adams photographs. He made Yosemite and himself famous with his black and white photography here.

After dinner, we decide to walk over to Camp Curry for a ranger talk. Camp Curry turns out to be huge group of permanent canvas tents that looks just like the tent cities from the Depression era. Interestingly the ranger talk turns out to be a humorous historical look back at the origin of Camp Curry. The Curry’s built this tent city as an affordable option to the high-priced lodges at the park.

May 27, 2007

May 27, 2007

After breakfast we drive the remaining few miles up the Kings Canyon to where the road ends. Along the way we stop to see the Roaring River enter the canyon. It comes rushing in thru a narrow chute forming a nice waterfall. At Roads-End, I get out and take a few pictures of this pretty granite canyon. John Muir, the famous naturalist of the West, said this canyon is lovelier than its more famous cousin, Yosemite Valley. I will decide if he is right shortly. There is a huge waterfall a four-mile hike away. I would like to do it but we have a date with Yosemite tomorrow so we need to leave this hike for another time. We make the drive out of the canyon and back to Grants Grove. There we take a break and do a short hike to see the Giant Sequoias one last time.

From Grants Grove we head out of the park and down the mountain towards Fresno, CA and the San Joaquin valley. Our first choice for an RV park tonight is full so we go for our backup north of Mariposa, CA. It is a little out of the way and takes us several hours to get there. We take highway 99 part of the way. Along much of the route in the median are planted huge flowering bushes of white, pink and red. I like California highways!

May 26, 2007

May 26, 2007

Because of the holiday weekend, we rise early again and head north for Kings Canyon National Park. It is next door to Sequoia. Our first stop is Grants Grove. This section is a small repeat of Sequoia with its own grove of these trees. The centerpiece is the General Grant Tree, which is supposed to be the third largest in the world. I am still awed by the size of these trees. Apparently I am not the only one. In 1876 one enterprising person took a cross section of a Giant Sequoia to the Centennial Exposition that year. It was rejected as being a hoax. No tree could be that big. This area also has a couple log houses; but unlike those near the Midwest, these are built from one single hollowed out log.

From Grant’s Grove we head downhill into the canyon of the Kings River, from which the park is named. The canyon is a deep black and white granite gorge that was formed by glaciers during the last Ice Age. The small river at the bottom is a raging white-capped rush of water. The campsites along the river are all pretty busy. We snatch one of the last sites in this section. We decide to take a break today and read a book while sitting beside the river. Aimee is in heaven; she is surrounded by her now favorite bird, the Stellar’s Jay, which has feathers with three different shades of blue, her favorite color.

May 25, 2007

May 25, 2007

The rangers told us that because of the Memorial Day weekend all the campsites in Sequoia National Park would probably be taken by tomorrow morning. Worried we rise early and make the hour drive to the park’s main area. It is a steep climb thru many switchbacks to the Lodgepole campground at 6700 ft elevation. The campground is pretty empty. We could have taken our time. We pick a nice spot under a large pine tree with a nice unobstructed view of the forest. The area around our spot is littered with beautiful pine cones the size and shape of large ostrich eggs. A ranger later informs us these are Jeffrey Pines.

Settled, we have a leisurely breakfast, and walk to the local visitor center where we watch a very nice movie about black bears. They give us all the normal bear precautions I have heard many times. i.e. don’t leave food out. I am experienced enough to know that our chances of seeing a bear are slim to none. Afterwards we take the park’s new shuttle to the Sherman Tree parking stop. From there we hike into a beautiful open pine forest. The trees are pretty large but not extraordinarily so. There are a bunch of Sugar Pine trees that have an enormous pinecone. Most cones are a foot long; and one is almost 18 inches long.

After a short hike we come to the centerpiece of the park, the General Sherman Tree. It is supposed to be the largest living thing on the earth. It is huge. It measures 36 feet in diameter, 100 feet around, 270 feet tall and is 2200 years old. Giant Sequoias are massive trees. They are not the tallest nor the oldest nor the widest but they are thick and tall and grow to massive diameters. They resemble the trees that in the comics, giant ogres rip out of the ground and use as clubs.

The Sherman Tree is at the edge of this Giant Sequoia grove they call the Giant Forest. We decide to walk the three short miles across it and take another shuttle back. It is a cool hike. This small area abounds in Sequoias. It has more than 2000 sequoias over 10 ft in diameter. Sequoias only grow on the western slopes of the Sierras and then only at a certain high elevations where rainfall is plentiful and the soil is rich and drains well. From what I can gather the reason they are so big is that they have a thick red cork-like bark that protects them from forest fires and disease. This eventually allows them to outlast their pine tree competitors and grow almost forever. More than half of the sequoias have forest-fire scorch marks and their tops look like they have been struck by lightning. Yet they live on.

Halfway thru the hike we stop and have our trail lunch atop a downed sequoia. We end our hike in a large meadow on the opposite side of the Giant Forest. There we see a bunch of hikers sitting on another downed sequoia. I assume they are eating lunch like we did. When we get closer one of them yells that there is a bear on our left. They aren’t eating lunch, they are bear watching! Aimee quickly tosses me the camera so I can take a picture. Aimee is nervous; as we back away a ranger appears and says watch out for the bear with cubs on the right. Now I know Aimee is probably panicking as she is surrounded. Seeing a bear is last on her list but she keeps her cool and we scoot out of the bear’s way. I am thrilled we saw two bears in the wild; plus they were brown colored 'Cinnamon' versions of the normally black bear. Despite the bear encounter, Aimee is happy because it has been a big wildlife day for her. Besides the bears, we saw a marmot, a mule deer, a western tanager, fence lizards, Stellar’s jays and hummingbirds.

After Aimee cools down we continue on with a hike to Moro Rock. Moro rock is a large granite mountain-size monolith rising out of the forest. Once there we climb the 400 steps to its top and we are rewarded with awesome views of the snow-capped Sierra Nevada crests to our east. We finish the day at the Giant Forest Museum. I am surprised how small it is. I am left wanting to know more about the great Sequoia.

May 24, 2007

May 24, 2007

We spend the day driving inland back over the coastal hills, across the flat San Joaquin farming valley and uphill to the Sierra Nevadas. California is a huge state! In the late afternoon we arrive at Sequoia National Park. It is supposed to have the largest trees in the world. I hope they didn’t cut them down, as the area here looks pretty dry with only a few scattered stubby trees. We stop at the first park campground for the night. We thought about going to a nicer campground further within the park but changed our mind when we were told that it was still an hour further uphill with night-time temps near freezing.

We have a nice chat with the camp hostess. She and her husband spent last winter in South Padre Island in Texas and are now here for the summer. As unpaid park volunteers they get a free site in this camp in exchange for modest camp duties. Seems like a great way to spend the summer. In the past we have talked to quite a few work campers at the private parks. Most of those get a free spot to live in return for some 20 hours of maintenance duties on the site.

May 23, 2007

May 23, 2007

Today we drove a half-hour north along the coast to San Simeon, CA. So far a lot of the route north has not been close enough to the shore to see the ocean. It hasn’t been the romantic drive along the coast I had imagined. Instead there are long stretches where we are within the coastal hills. It is definitely ranch country and if I didn’t know any better I would think we were back in Montana.

San Simeon is the site of the Hearst Castle. William Randolph Hearst built this mansion atop a peak here in the 1920’s and 30’s. Willie was the only son of George Hearst, who discovered the Comstock Lode in Nevada, the richest silver mine ever. Besides inheriting it all, Willie made his own fortune in the publishing business, so he had money to burn. In his will he donated this house to the state of California. We have a noon tour of the mansion. In the interim we watch an excellent movie of Hearst’s life in the visitor center. There is also a small museum. The tour lasts almost an hour and a half and covers the main parts of the house. For the diehard, there are three more tours covering the rest of the property. The house is pretty extravagant, constructed and furnished with some of the many antiquities that Hearst collected from Europe. The outdoor pool is something else. After construction Hearst invited many of Hollywood’s stars here for frequent parties with him and his longtime girlfriend Marion Davies. The wife didn’t like California and lived in New York. Tonight we are going to watch the movie “Citizen Kane” which was loosely based on Hearst’s life.

After the tour we drive a few miles north to Point Piedras Blancas to view a horde of elephant seals. Elephant seals are much bigger cousins of the harbor seal and sea lion. The bulls have a large snout that resembles a short elephant trunk. They congregate on the beach at this time of year to molt and grow a new skin layer. We have a good time watching them. It is like watching the Animal Channel on TV. These seals are very territorial and are constantly wailing on their neighbor.

We are tiring of the cold damp weather so we turn the RV east and head inland. We stop at an RV park in Paso Robles in the coastal mountains. This apparently is wine country and there is a winery next door. After checking-in we hurry next-door to the Firestone Winery for a quick tasting. Greeting us is Andy Firestone who was the latest prize on the TV show, “The Bachelor”.

May 22, 2007

May 22, 2007

Aimee and I take a morning stroll along Pismo Beach. This stretch allows street traffic so we have to occasionally dodge a car. They also allow camping on the beach. I want to take my beloved “SS Free at Last” and spend tonight on the beach. She has a full fresh water tank and fully-charged battery, so we are self-contained and can do it without a sweat. Aimee vetoes it outright, afraid we will get stuck in the sand and she will have to spend eternity in the RV. She holds steadfast even though farther down we see several RV’s already camping here.

Disappointed I decamp and we head farther north along the coast. We play the Beach Boys on the way. It is foggy again and we can’t see the ocean. We stop a short ways down the road at Morro Bay, CA and get a campsite at the state park here. Morro Bay is an estuary with a Gibraltar-like rock, appropriately called Morro Rock, guarding the entrance. After finding a spot we like, we take our bikes and ride into town along the shore road. Morro Bay is a cute little fishing and boating village. We pass a Coast Guard station in town where a young recruit is intently shining the station’s large brass bell. We have some friends whose oldest son just entered the Coast Guard. Aimee and I both are thinking that is probably how he is also having to spend his first days.

Just past the town we continue biking out the causeway that connects to Morro Rock. On our way there the fog rolls in again and we can’t see anything. So much for a good picture. It is also chilly and breezy. We aren’t so sure we like the California coast, at least the northern part. We like some sun especially with our blood thinning out after a winter in Tucson.

May 21, 2007

May 21, 2007

We had originally planned to go to Death Valley from here. We are going to skip it for another time. The temperatures there are already exceeding 100F. After six months in the desert we are ready for some water so we decide to hit the beach. But first we have to get out of the Mojave Desert. Desert land seems to be quite popular here just like in Tucson. Despite being 100 miles outside LA, housing development is going crazy here. There also seems to be a run on squeegees in California. Every gas station I have stopped at has had no squeegee to clean my windshield. The last station manager said he puts out 4-5 new ones every week only to have them quickly disappear.

Heading west eventually the desert gives way, we meet up with I-5 North and we descend a steep road that suddenly opens up into the broad San Joaquin Valley. This fertile valley is the vegetable garden of the US. We pass row after row of grape vines and orange trees. We turn west again heading over the coastal mountains to the Pacific Ocean. We find a campsite at Pismo Beach State Park in Oceano. Aimee and I walk across the dunes to the beach and have some cheese and crackers while watching the surf. It is surprisingly cool and foggy, 180 degrees from the desert this morning. I am very disappointed. We sit there an hour and we see no sign of Pamela Anderson or her Beach patrol friends from Babewatch, I mean Baywatch. We only see a fat man in a wetsuit trying to kite-surf.

May 20, 2007

May 20, 2007

We start the day by stretching our legs and hiking up nearby Mt. Ryan for a birds-eye view of the surroundings. It only takes us 90 minutes up and down. Across the road is another bunch of Jumbo rocks. Aimee lets me be a kid for a few minutes and climb to the top. What a great place for a family with a bunch of boys.

Heading northwest now to the park exit, we see why the national park was formed. This section of the park is full of these Jumbo rock piles and surrounded by a forest of Joshua trees. I had never seen a Joshua tree before but they are to the Mohave Desert what the Saguaro Cactus is to the Sonoran Desert around Tucson. They look like a cross between an Elm tree and a Palm tree. They have the branched trunk of a shade tree with a cluster of palm leaves on the tip of each branch.

Around noontime we head out of the park northwest towards the Roy Rogers Museum. Apparently we need to get a new map as the museum was moved to Branson, MO. We spend the next hour in a traffic jam unsuccessfully trying to find an RV park with Internet and TV, something we easily found in the wilds of Wyoming and Montana. Apparently California isn’t as modern as I thought. We spend the night in Hesperia, CA.

May 19, 2007

May 19, 2007

We wake early and decide to see what Yuma has to offer before leaving. We stop at the Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park. Yuma was the site of Arizona’s first prison in 1876. It is only mildly interesting. It is situated on a short bluff above the Colorado River. Here the river is merely a large stream, just a miniature of what it used to be, before most of the water was diverted to the metro areas of Los Angeles, Phoenix and Tucson. A lot of it also flows to agriculture turning once barren deserts around here green. Yuma surprisingly has lots of wheat.

Across the Colorado west is California. We take a back road north towards I-10. This part of southern California is desolate and dry. It is too dry apparently even for cacti. In the distance west are huge sand dunes reminiscent of the Sahara. Finally at I-10 we head towards Joshua Tree National Park.

Just before the entrance we see a sign for a George Patton Museum. What is it doing here in the middle of nowhere? We decide to stop and investigate. The small museum turns out to be a good place to spend an hour. They have a very nice film about Patton’s life. In the opening moments of WWII, Patton was commanded to open a tank-training center to prep troops for the coming war against Rommel in North Africa. Patton was the only American officer with actual tank battle experience. He chose this site in the desert because California’s Colorado Aqueduct crosses nearby. In Patton’s typical aggressive fashion he tapped into the canal for fresh water before he received permission from California. The museum also has an enormous 3-D relief map of southern California made originally for the California water commission many years ago. And I do like relief maps!

A few miles farther down the road, we enter the southern gate of Joshua Tree Park. It is a long way to the northern side. The terrain is desolate and uninteresting. Strange place to preserve for posterity. An interpretative sign tells us that we are crossing the border from the low Sonoran Desert to the higher altitude Mohave Desert. The Joshua Tree grows only in the northern Mohave side of the park.

On suggestion of a park ranger, we spend the night at the Jumbo Rocks campground on the north side of the park. It is really unique. The campground is set amongst a bizarre collection of large rounded granite monoliths and boulders. Apparently they resulted when magma upbursts cooled before they could reach the surface. In the interim the soil around them eroded leaving them now exposed.

After dinner, Aimee and I make some popcorn, and drag our folding chairs atop the nearest monolith to watch the setting sun. So Cool!

May 18, 2007

May 18, 2007

Moving is always a trying experience. The complexity of our move this time was softened by only having an apartment. We couldn’t physically collect that many new belongings. It also helped that we rented furniture for the winter. One call to the rental office and half the apartment was empty. Still the RV holds a surprisingly lot of stuff and it took quite a few trips to fill it back up. What was left, along with our car, went into a storage unit. Our third. I can’t say I am thrilled having possessions stored all over the country.

The worst part of this move is psychological. Our six months here in Tucson has been like an extended vacation in a resort. We don’t want to leave. If it wasn’t that the temperature here is starting to get above my comfort zone, Aimee might have succeeded in talking me into delaying our departure.

By early afternoon we have turned in our apartment keys, snapped shut the storage unit padlock and left Tucson in our RV. Our destination is California. We head west on I-10. Not wanting to deal with Phoenix rush hour we opt to take I-8 towards San Diego. By dinnertime we arrive in the border town of Yuma, AZ. From our guidebook we select an RV park and golf resort advertised as being on the Colorado River. It ends up being a mistake. It is a little creepy. Yuma is a major-league snowbird town. But at this time of the year, this RV park is like a ghost town and way off the highway. Well I guess we are rusty at picking good accommodations.

May 6, 2007

May 6, 2007

On the way out of Holbrook, AZ we stop at an interesting rock shop. In addition to a wide assortment of minerals and fossils, they have an immense collection of petrified wood gathered from areas outside the park. This place looks like it has more than the national park. Outside the large store are several football field-size lots full of logs. Apparently the only shortage of petrified wood is in the national park.

From Holbrook we drive thru the White Mountains all the way back to Tucson. Our only non-food stop is at the Salt River canyon overlook. Arizona has steep canyons everywhere and truly deserves its name as the Grand Canyon State.

May 5, 2007

May 5, 2007

We got a surprise when we woke today in Flagstaff, AZ. Our car has a layer of icy snow on it. It is amazing how different the weather is here from Phoenix two hours to the south. Our first stop today is Walnut Canyon National Monument, a few miles to the east. Thinking it to be another Indian ruin like Wupatki, we are planning on a quick stop. We are very pleasantly surprised. The park is a small picturesque canyon with brick huts built under overhangs halfway down the canyon walls. We take a very pleasant hike that loops around the canyon. Unlike Sunset Crater, signs are plentiful and informative. Aimee also spots some hummingbirds on the walk.

Back on the highway we continue our drive east. The terrain has turned flat and barren, more like what you would expect in northern Arizona. Shortly we come to Meteor Crater. I have wanted to come here since seeing it in the closing sequences of the movie, Starman. The crater is privately owned and charges a hefty entrance fee, but where else can you go to see a real live moon-like crater? Aimee calls it a big hole in the ground. On first glance it looks smaller than I expected and somewhat eroded. But I guess it is in surprisingly good shape for 50,000 years old. The size is also very deceiving. It is big enough to hold 20 football games, with two million fans sitting around the sides. After hiking along the side and taking pictures, we head in to see the museum. It is quite well done and according to my expert wife has an outstanding gift shop.

Around noon we continue our drive east. Aimee puts in a CD of the Eagles Greatest Hits and the first song is Take it Easy. On hearing the lyrics, “standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona”, we exit the highway and eat lunch at a little diner in Winslow.

After lunch we drive to the Petrified Forest National Park. We stop at the Painted Desert Visitor Center at the north entrance. Here we watch an interesting film about the park. 225 millions years ago during the Triassic Period this area was a tropical forest. Because of volcanic activity, the trees here were buried in volcanic ash. The silica in the ash penetrated the tree cells and replaced them with rock. Impurities in the ash gave the tree mineral deposits and the surrounding soil unusual colors. The ground then eroded exposing the colorful sandstone and the mineralized tree trunks.

From the Visitor Center we drive south thru the park. The northern half of the park has the Painted Desert vistas. To me the terrain looks almost identical to the Badlands of South Dakota. Adding to my relative disinterest is the wind. It is getting ridiculously strong, making it difficult to keep the camera steady. Farther south are most of the Petrified Forest stops. The best is the Crystal Forest where we walk a short loop thru a field of rock logs. I am amazed how big they are. Most are at least two feet in diameter and some much bigger. Interestingly there are no small or medium-size trees or branches. Some of the logs are vivid shades of red, blue and yellow. And some are wood-colored looking like they were just cut down. The park makes a big point about not taking samples home. They believe two tons disappear with visitors every month. There is still a lot left.

At the Rainbow Forest Visitor Center at the south entrance, they have displays of reptile bones found buried with the trees in the park. Being from the Triassic Period, most are pre-dinosaur reptiles. Archaeologists have made important finds of an early dinosaur relative here.

Tonight we stay in Holbrook, AZ and celebrate Cinco de Mayo at a local Mexican restaurant. Aimee says I had one too many margaritas. I will let you know tomorrow.

May 4, 2007

May 4, 2007

We start the day back at the Grand Canyon’s south rim Visitors Center. It is relatively small but has an interesting relief map of the canyon where we can trace our hiking path down to the bottom and back. From there we head west to join a ranger-led Fossil Walk. Aimee and I are able to identify lots of ancient sponges and shellfish popping out of the rocks at our feet.

Afterwards we take one of the park shuttle busses a few miles west to view a couple more overlooks of the canyon. But we are just seeing a small part, as the Grand Canyon is hundreds of miles long and mostly inaccessible. Back at the village, we retrieve the car and head towards the east entrance of the park. Just before exiting we stop at the Desert View vista. Here the canyon is noticeably shallower and is missing the granite Inner Gorge. The weather has cooled considerably and is quite windy. We were lucky we had mild weather in the canyon. Any colder and we would have been in trouble on the hike out. If we ever do the hike down again we need to remember to check the long-range weather forecast.

Heading southeast from the Grand Canyon, we pass by the Little Colorado River gorge. The Little Colorado is a small tributary that has its own steep canyon. I would be impressed if we hadn’t just left the Grand Canyon. Farther south we find the loop-road turnoff for both the Wupatki National Monument and Sunset Crater. The route turns out be a long unpleasant washboard gravel road. I almost turn back several times. We eventually arrive at the Wupatki Visitors center where we learn the road is paved five miles farther down the road. Thank God. Wupatki is an old Indian ruins set amongst some red desert rocks. It is mildly interesting. The one item of interest to me is a geologic curiosity near the village. A desert blowhole. A small opening in the ground is blowing out cold air. Apparently it is attached to an underground cavern that breaths with the changing air temperature. If I were an Indian living here, I would have built my house over the hole for instant air-conditioning.

From Wupatki, we continue along the loop-road to Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. I am quite disappointed with the park's lack of signage, uncaring staff, and mediocre visitors center. The park is not living up to its potential. What I am able to piece together is that northern Arizona has had lots of volcanic activity. Sunset Crater is the latest. Around 1064AD, a cinder cone volcano erupted here. Because the magma was relatively fluid, instead of exploding, the volcano spewed a magma fountain into the air. The magma cooled and fell back to the ground as cinders. Later lava flowed from the volcano sides. Since this area is very dry little has changed in the last 1000 years. Sunset Crater is a mountain size pile of black cinders with only a few pine trees growing on it. Off to the side is a small lava field the same as we have seen in Hawaii. The main crater is off-limits but we climb up its smaller sister, Lenox crater. Thank goodness it is smaller as it is not an easy hike. It is like climbing a steep sand dune. Two steps up and slide down a step. Also the wind seems to be getting stronger and I am not dressed for cold. Arizona at times has to be the windiest place in the world.

Before leaving the park, Aimee spots a large blue bird; we later learn it is a Stellars Jay, a larger cousin of the common Blue Jay of the Midwest. We spend the night back in Flagstaff.

May 3, 2007

May 3, 2007

I have been worried about the hike out of the Grand Canyon. We were told to expect a ten-hour climb out. I am not sure my hips can last that long. At home 4-5 hours is the max I can endure. I brought some Aleve with me hoping that will let me last longer.

This morning we have the early shift. We get a 4:30 wake-up and dress for our 5AM breakfast. At 5:41 we are on the trail. The park recommends returning via the longer ten-mile Bright Angel trail because it has water halfway up and shade along many sections. The Bright Angel trail follows a fault line across the canyon and was used by Indians for centuries. In the late 1800’s it fell into private hands who charged a toll for its use. To compete the park built the South Kaibab trail by blasting it out of the canyon walls.

The Bright Angel trail first follows the river for almost two miles west before starting its ascent. The trail then follows a small stream up a gentle grade sheltered from the sun. After only 2.5 hours we make it to Indian Garden, the halfway point. This little tree-lined oasis on the Tonto platform provides us a nice break and refilled water bottles. This trail is so different from the South Kaibab. Unfortunately the gentle grade so far means the last half is going to be a killer with a huge elevation gain. But we are way ahead of schedule and we can take our time. We got all day if necessary.

It takes us 4.5 hours to do the second half. It is steep and tiring. The canyon is purported to be very deep, almost a mile down. Not so. The canyon floor is about the same elevation as Tucson. But the canyon walls…. Oh they are tall, very tall. And their high altitude makes hiking up them hard on the lungs. But we persevere and make the top three hours sooner than we ever thought. Just below the rim we are greeted (or rewarded) by a male Bighorn sheep grazing on the sparse greenery on the trail. He has huge horns!

At the top we take a quick celebratory picture and head to the lodge for much needed showers and rest. Later in the afternoon, feeling recharged, we stroll along the rim checking out the older historic hotels in the village. At El Tovar Lodge we stop for a beer and to people watch. For early May, I am surprised how crowded the park is and how many Europeans are here. The cheap dollar must be luring them. For dinner we eat at the Arizona Room in the Bright Angel Lodge, with a great view of the rim. While waiting for our meal, a California condor flies right past the window. Finally! The park has made a big deal how they have taken this nearly extinct bird and reintroduced them into the canyon. Despite three days of hiking in the canyon, we have seen only ravens soaring in the canyon. Now that we have seen one of these condors, I can call our Grand Canyon tour complete.

May 2, 2007

May 2, 2007

We reserved two nights at Phantom Ranch, so we have a free day at the Grand Canyon bottom to explore and let my poor aching hips recover. In the morning we hike north along the North Kaibab trail. It is fourteen miles long and ascends to the North Rim. We only walk the first few miles. The trail follows Bright Angel Creek thru a gorgeous pink granite canyon. The rock here would make a great countertop in Aimee’s future kitchen. If this side canyon were anywhere else, it would be its own National Park. Here it is one of many outstanding and inaccessible wonders. A nice bonus hike for us today. I try to pick up a small lizard by its tail to show Aimee, but the tail falls off and continues to wiggle in my fingers amazing Aimee. After this two-hour leg stretch, we sit in the ranch canteen, slowly eating our sack lunch, and write a couple postcards. They will be hauled out of the canyon on tomorrow’s postal mule service.

In the afternoon, we hike along the Colorado River. Coming off the Glen Canyon Dam, the water is ice-cold. We stop and chat with a guy on a canyon float trip. He is on day eight of an eighteen-day trip and it’s his sixth float trip. That is a common theme here. Almost all the hikers staying at the ranch have made this trip before. The bottom of the Grand Canyon must have a magnetic attraction for people.

After dinner we listen to a ranger talk on the geology of the canyon. Following the lecture he leads a small group of us on a scorpion hunt. He passes out black lights and unfortunately we see quite a few glowing green specimens around camp. Good thing Aimee and I both have top bunks!

May 1, 2007

May 1, 2007

We rise early again and drive the ninety minutes from Flagstaff to Grand Canyon National Park. For some reason I thought the Grand Canyon would be in the middle of the Arizona desert, instead it is in the middle of a pine forest. As soon as we clear the entrance gate we park near the Visitors Center at Mathers Point. I skip the Visitor Center and walk straight to the rim. Oh my gosh, it is spectacular! We have seen it many times on TV, but it is so much better and so awe-inspiring. The sky is overcast and the colors are vivid. To the right is a narrow spit of land descending into the canyon. An interpretative sign says the South Kaibab trail follows that spine to the bottom. Now I can’t wait to start the hike. All my early jitters are gone with the excitement. Aimee is having the opposite reaction. Her heart is starting to flutter looking over the edge. I am afraid it is going to be way too steep for her.

We head to the west side of Grand Canyon village and find the Maswik Lodge where we have reservations for Thursday night. We park the car there, pull together our hiking gear and wait for one of the park shuttle busses to come by. Two shuttles rides later we arrive at the South Kaibab trailhead. It and Bright Angel are by far the two most popular trails into the canyon. The trail is surreal and so cool. Although steep with a big drop-off to the side, the trail is very wide. And unfortunately littered with mule droppings. So much for the fresh air. We pass three mule trains on their way up. One with riders, the other two just carrying cargo.

The first section of the trail is a continuous set of switchbacks that steadily descend down the steep Upper Canyon walls. Around every corner is a different vista. For a short period the trail flattens out onto the Tonto platform. Still no sight of the Colorado River that carved this thing. The river is hidden inside the Inner Gorge. As soon as we reach the edge of the Tonto platform, we see the river and descend another series of switchbacks. The Inner Gorge is mostly sheer granite walls and first appears purplish in the overcast sun. We spot some rubber rafts pulled up on a section of beach way below us. Once down at river level we cross the Colorado on a long suspension footbridge.

 
Another half mile and we arrive at Phantom Ranch, a tiny rustic resort along Bright Angel Creek that flows into the Colorado from the north. The stream turns this normally desert environs into a virtual oasis. They have a small canteen where Aimee and I drink a beer to toast our favorite hike of all time. We were pretty lucky with the weather. The clouds made this five-hour 7.5-mile hike very enjoyable. The trail is notorious for its lack of shade and water. That night we dine on the best beef stew dinner I have ever had. The only downer is the small male dorm that I have to share with nine other guys.

April 30, 2007

April 30, 2007

We are going to start traveling full-time again in a few weeks. Before we give up our Tucson apartment, I wanted to drive north and see the Grand Canyon and other nearby sites in northern Arizona. A couple months ago I called the parks system to get a reservation at Phantom Ranch at the canyon bottom. The clerk said that those accommodations sell out a year in advance. Bummer!

The weather at the Canyon is finally starting to warm up so Aimee and I get set to go north. On a whim I called the park again and was luckily able to pick up a last-minute cancellation. Yes! Now all I have to do is convince Aimee to hike down to the bottom with me. She doesn’t like heights at all.

We set out early today driving north past Phoenix towards Flagstaff. Just south of Flagstaff, we take a slight detour thru Sedona. Five years ago almost to the day, on our Arizona visit, we spent a few days in Sedona and fell in love with the scenery. Shortly off the highway we hit the town of Oak Creek and get our first glimpse of Sedona’s red rocks. It is stunning and better than we remembered. As we drive into town, it looks like Sedona has grown incredibly popular. The main road thru town is jammed with traffic and houses have popped up everywhere. This is one place both of us think should have been set aside as a national park.

We only plan to visit for a few hours so we head first to Red Rock Crossing State Park to take in the vista of Cathedral Rock from across Oak Creek. This is the most photographed spot in Sedona and was the site of many old western movies. While hiking around both of us are feeling the heat and sweating. The humidity must be higher here than in Tucson. Maybe the urban myth of “dry heat” might have some truth after all.

We also take in the views up Boynton Canyon and atop the airport plateau. We end the day by driving up beautiful Oak Creek Canyon to Flagstaff. The scenery changes dramatically as we near Flagstaff. The terrain turns into pine forest and is noticeably cooler. Like South Dakota’s Badlands, the red Sedona rocks must be the erosion boundary between the high Colorado plateau and the desert below.

Spring 2007

Spring 2007
With all our hikes this winter, we have gotten to know the desert. Or at least we thought so. The desert seems unchanging and earth colored, but beautiful in its own way. We are now seeing changes. First yellow wildflowers have started popping up. Then the Ocotillo, which all winter was just a dead-looking thorn branch has suddenly sprung tiny green leaves and an orange flower spear tip. They are quite pretty. The totally green Palo Verde trees are turning a brilliant yellow. Still pretty tame changes. But now we are seeing the first cacti start to flower. Apparently each species will flower at different times thru the next couple months. How out of place and opposite looking flowers are on a cactus! Many of the cactus flowers we have seen so far are quite large and stunning. What I find so fascinating is the biggest, prettiest flowers are coming out of the ugliest, smallest cacti!

April 10, 2007

April 10, 2007
Somebody recommended Tohono Chul (means Desert Park in the local Indian language) to us a few days ago so we spent a couple hours there today. It is mostly a botanical park that we would think is nice if we hadn’t gone to the Desert Museum yesterday. Unfortunately it is a weaker cousin. They do have an interesting greenhouse gift shop. If we weren’t going back in the RV soon, I would like to buy something.

April 9, 2007

April 9, 2007

When we visited Tucson five years ago, we stopped at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. It is supposed to be Arizona’s second most visited sight after the Grand Canyon. We remember it as being very nice so we go again today. It is a combination zoo, botanical garden and natural history museum. All designed to help people appreciate the desert.

We can vouch for the museum’s popularity, as the large parking lot is almost full when we get there. When are all these snowbirds and tourists going to go home? The Raptor Free Flight show starts shortly after we arrive. They have a trained owl, hawk, and raven that they let fly around the desert in front of us going from post to post for food.

After this short show we walk the mostly outdoor park checking out the desert animals and plants they have. In spite of all the desert hiking we have done, I have to come here to see a mountain lion, mountain goat, javelina, and rattlesnake. We listen to a very humorous lecture on diamondback rattlesnakes and dealing with a bite. The lecturer says the typical victim is young, male, intoxicated, with tattoos, whose last words were “Hold my beer” and “Watch this.”

Aimee likes the group of nesting hummingbirds flying around chasing flower nectar. I like this green parrot that says “hello” repeatedly to me when I enter the birdcage. This same parrot whistles at Aimee. Despite seeing this park already, we enjoy it again. It is very nicely done; no wonder it is so popular.

April 6, 2007

April 6, 2007
We went to the Tucson zoo today. Probably not good timing because a lot of people had the day off. The park was crowded but not intolerably so. It took us only an hour and a half to see everything in this tiny zoo. The facility mostly has animals that like the heat. Besides the usual lions and tigers and elephants, they have pink flamingoes, ostriches, peacocks, and giant anteaters. The zoo is actually known for its anteater-breeding program. Aimee especially liked the newborn zebra. She didn’t like the polar bear that happened upon an unlucky duck and was using it as a rag doll.