Done with the grand Canyon - on to Sedona!

I never got used to the time difference between NY and AZ – which I guess is good since our vacation is almost over – so I was up early enough to catch the sun’s first ray on the cliffs of the Grand Canyon one last time. 

Then we were off to Sedona, our last stop.  We took 64 east, so that we could stop on the way at the many viewing areas of the Grand Canyon, and I could literally post hundreds of pictures, one more breathtaking than the other….  We could have spent the entire day, just going “ooh” and “aahhh”, on our way out…

So here are the 2 last ones: 

The trail I walked yesterday – one the left, one can clearly see the trail going through the Tonto plateau, about 2500 feet down from the rim.  And then down from that, the patch of the Colorado River where the trail gets to it – and then on the right (faintly) the foot bridge that crosses the river.

 I spent a lot of time going:  “Look here Joe isn’t this amazing”?

We finally exited the park and drove south toward Sedona – again, we could have spent days looking at the different sights.  But we just admired most of them from the car: 

 Here is mount Humphrey (A mount I had never hear of) which, at over 12,000 feet is the highest point in Arizona, and visible from very far away.  It is part of the San Francisco range – a range I had never heard about either…. I guess there is much about this region I still have to learn.

We drove through Flagstaff, which is significantly prettier than I thought.  Not that I thought it was ugly…  I just never thought about Flagstaff… anyway, it is really lovely, in a beautiful ponderosa pines forest, with gorgeous meadows.   But we did not have time to stop, and continued on to Sedona, down the Oak Creek canyon – another amazing sight.

Did not do any sightseeing today, but enjoyed a bit of luxury at “L’auberge de Sedona”, right on the Oak creek, 

 where we had a wonderful dinner right by the creek.

  The food and the setting competed with each other in greatness……Appetizers were Dungeness crab crepe, and bib salad with Dungeness crab.

 Main course was roasted veal cheeks in an earl grey broth with rosemary polenta (I had that, it was simply amazing!),

 and venison with hen of the woods mushrooms (Joe had that – he said it was great, but it could not possibly have been better than the veal cheeks….)

 And of course, dessert….

Now, we are going to do some star gazing (the hotel hires an astronomer, with a high magnitude telescope.  With the dark skies around here, it should be fabulous).

Tomorrow, more hiking and sightseeing.

A Bright day onthe Bright angel trail, and on the rim.

The “bright angel” of the trail must have been looking out for me, because when I woke up, my ankle was feeling much better and the weather just could not have been better!.  So I started heading down the trail just before sunrise at 6am.

There are many dire warnings at the trail head about not walking all the way down to the river and back in one day.  They say things like “there are many people in better shape than you can possibly be who have tried to do this and died..”    This is probably true, but it refers to trying to do it in the summer, when the temperature at the top is around 80, and it can be as hot as 105 at the bottom.  I’m pretty sure that these do not apply to a day like today – perfectly crisp 41 degrees at the top in the morning, and 78 at the bottom!  In fact, I met several people doing the same thing as me, including a group of very fit young people, who were JOGGING the rim-to rim trail!!!!!  And also two 70 year old gentleman who said they were planning on doing this leisurely, and had brought head lamps in case the came back after sunset- which would make it a really long day, since the sun sets around 7:15pm.....

But early in the morning , and particularly toward the bottom, it was very quiet and peaceful, a lovely reprieve from the throngs of people on the rim.

This being said – the fact that is was doable, certainly does not make it easy – this is no stroll in the park….  It is 9 miles (one way) and a change of elevation of 4600 hundred feet (also one way). 

The way down took me almost exactly 3 hours, and was really pleasant.  Here I am on the Tonto plateau (about ½ down) – I don’t think I looked as happy on the way back up.

 

I made it to the river shortly before 9am.  

Since I had given myself a turn-around time of 9:30am, I decided to keep walking along the gorge, to the foot bridge that goes to the camp ground (the bridge is in the background)– I think I’ll have to add “Stay  at the Phantom range campground overnight” to my bucket list, it looks really cool…

 Then the long climb back began – here are the switchback getting out of the lower gorge,

 and the trail just in front of me (taken from the same spot).

 On the way, I saw many creeks, and pretty water falls, which is unusual this time of year, and result of the recent storms.

I tried to rest at Indian gardens (a welcomed oasis of shade on the Tonto plateau) before the last 4 miles climb, but was literally harassed by squirrels:  they must not have read the sign saying that they should stay away from tourists, and that they carry bubonic plague….  So I moved on…. 

 From the Tonto plateau, there is a very good, and very daunting view of the rim, which is where the trail eventually leads back....

The last 3 miles of switchbacks were tough – and also much more crowded.  

 I rewarded myself with some ice cream by the rim!  My i-phone, knowing what matters,  choose to focus on the ice cream, and not the canyon……

While I did this, Joe spent some quality time with the super-duper camera lens.  Here is a (small) sample of the magnificent pictures he took.

 He also met some interesting wild life (shown here is a female elk), and many pretty flowers....

To celebrate our last day at the Grand Canyon National park, we had dinner at the El Tovar:
Appetizer and local wine,

 Desert with Merlot (entree not shown.....)

During dinner, and walking back to the room, we encountered this really big elk, who seemed to greatly enjoy the grass in front of the restaurant. (he was with a couple of females and yearlings, the rangers worked hard at keeping everyone within safe distance - this is the beginning of the mating season, and they can be quite territorial).

We enjoyed our last evening lights on the canyon.  Tomorrow, our last stop on this south-west adventure, Sedona.

The Grand Canyon plays peek-a-boo.....

The weather system we dealt with yesterday was still hanging around today -not as bad for sure, but when we got up, the Grand Canyon was playing peek-a-boo behind the clouds:

Joe and I still headed out on the rim trail early, hoping things would clear out.  Joe, still displaying unassailable faith in the desert climate in spite of the overwhelming weather evidence, left his newly acquired rain coat at in the room….  So when it started drizzling, he decided to hop on the bus, and see the trail by stopping at the different overviews.  I stayed on the trail, where it soon stopped raining, and the weather started to clear out, and the sun rays started to shine on the Canyon.  

 What was wonderful is that the early rain kept most of the other tourists away, so at times, I had the Grand Canyon all to myself!  That was well worth dealing with a bit of rain!

Speaking of tourists:  The Grand Canyon national Park is REALLY crowded – and this is not even peak season.  I can’t imagine how it is in July or August…. When you’d have to be crazy to come anyway because of the temperature, but apparently, it still is the peak season….    I can’t say that it interfered with anything we wanted to do, but it’s just a bit overwhelming at times…  On a related note, here is the most random request-from-a-tourist/random-act of-kindness:  Joe was stopped by a very wet German tourist after this afternoon’s thunderstorm.  She said:  “Sir, I know this is an odd request, but I got very wet during the storm, and now I have a 3 hours bus ride to Las Vegas, and my socks are so wet and cold and uncomfortable.  Would you be willing to give me a pair of clean socks?”  Joe, being the kind-hearted man he is said yes, and gave her a pair of his socks…. 

 

 Getting back to our topic – the Grand Canyon: I met a pretty blue bird, and admired a lot of nice grasses and flowers on the 8 miles rim trail.

It eventually got clear enough to view the Colorado river, all the way 1 straight mile down!  

And by evening, the sun was finally there, and we could view the entire breadth of the GC, and the sunset! And the lights!!!!

This is me, at sunset, very happy that the weather turned out so nice!

 

Tomorrow, I'm hoping to walk down the Bright Angel trail – 8 miles, 4500 feet down to the Colorado River – and, hopefully, back up.- that's the trail, seen from the rim.  (not 100% sure I can make it because I somehow hurt my anckle, so i'll see in the morning....)

we learn the difference between climate and weather.

Climate is the average precipitation and temperature over a minimum of 30 years.  Everything else is weather……

There was a lot of weather today in Bryce Canyon, which climate is high desert, and right now is the dry season.  In fact, the climate is so dry that they constantly remind you about hydration and the potential for forest fires….  And Joe, having learned about climate, did not bring any rain gear….

What we got today is weather – a lot of it – of the wet kind!  There were a lot of wet and cold German and French tourists at Bryce Canyon today!  (and at least one set of wet and cold Joe and Francoise tourists…..).  The Germans were being stoic and the French were complaining,  But then again, that’s the natural state of both groups, so maybe it had nothing to do with the weather…….  Joe and I did the best of a wet and cold situation and stopped at the different sites anyway – some of it was a bit of a challenge – for instance, the “Fairview” stop – which is supposed to provide broad and long views of the park and the valley looked like that.   

And the top of the park was in the clouds, making it not just foggy, but at over 9000 feet, very cold.  As we got down though, we did manage to admire the hoodoos formations.

 (Note that Joe bought a rain jacket at the visitor center...)

We also met these pretty antelopes…

 

We then headed south toward the Grand Canyon – about 300 miles away.  On the way, we stopped by to take pictures of the appropriately named red canyon,

 and of the river that flows from Bryce, which had turned exactly the same color as the hoodoos, because it was carrying so much sediment from the rain.

A lot of the drive looked like this:

But then the weather broke at last, as we neared the Glenn Canyon dam, and the rest of the drive was a lot more pleasant.

 The Glenn Canyon dam is a very impressive feat of engineering,  whether or not one approves of damming the Colorado river:

 There was a long detour because route 89 was closed, making an already long drive longer by 1 hour – but the alternate route –AZ 98 – was really beautiful, going through Navaho country, and the high Colorado plateau.  The countryside is simply grand, and beautiful and vast – and it goes through Navaho villages that are amazingly different from the life style we know…

We finally arrived at the Grand Canyon, where we are staying at a lodge right on the rim, but were just too tired (and hungry) to take pictures today – this will wait till tomorrow.  (we only stopped once on the road inside the park to take pictures of these elks).

Tomorrow, I’m hoping for some climate.  I’m tired of weather…..