Improbable Lands

On Friday we finally drove back toward the Grand Canyon now that the weather was better. We’d looked at the forest lands near the Grand Canyon and decided to camp on the South side off Long Jim Loop Road. It’s a short little forest road right in the town of Tusayan. Tusayan is just a few miles down the road from the entrance to the South Rim of Grand Canyon. It’s a newer town that seems to have sprung up to serve the tourist needs of the Canyon. Not so long ago, the nearest thing going was Williams, about an hour down the road, with its train that takes tourists up to the rim. So, Long Jim Loop Road might have once felt more like you were in the wilderness, but now feels like a conveniently located campsite just outside town. In fact, if needed, we could have caught a shuttle into the Grand Canyon right from the National Geographic center that was about a 5 minute stroll from our campsite. Still, the spots are nicely spread out, dispersed camping. We liked the idea of being as close to the Canyon as possible. There is, of course, camping inside the Canyon, but it was mostly booked and obviously more expensive and crowded than free, forest camping.

On Saturday, we again entered the park and drove to check out some of the more historic sights and decided what, if any hiking we wanted to do while there. We checked out some more the view points and visited the Tusayan Ruins which are the remnants of an Indian village there. We did a short hike near camp with Malachi the Wonder Beast and found a natural entrance to some sort of cave. Short of moving rocks around though you couldn’t really get inside it. While we investigated the cave Malachi the Wonder Beast gave up on us and returned to camp on his own. Old man doggos are sometimes short of patience.

Sunday, we did the Bright Angel Trail down to the 3 mile lookout point. A 6 mile hike doesn’t seem like much, but when the 2nd half is pretty much straight up, it’s more strenuous than you would think. The park keeps volunteer rangers at the different lookout points to forewarn tourists not in the know, that trying to descend all the way to the bottom and return in one day is not the best idea, unless you are training for an ultra-marathon or some such thing, or, at the very least, starting your hike in the wee morning hours. Bright Angel is on of the most traveled trails in the park so it was pretty crowded, esp. by the time we headed back up. The views were awesome of course. A the 3 mile lookout Zack Attack and I scrambled out to the farthest rocky nubbin we could reasonable sit on and ate our lunch while we took in the vast scope of the the canyon down below. After we wandered the Village for a bit and checked out the Hopi House, another iconic building designed by Ms. Colter in the early days of the park.

On Monday we decided to hike down the slightly less traveled, South Kaibab trail. The volunteer ranger we chatted to on the Bright Angel Trail the day before said it had some of his favorite views. We got to see a group of people coming back up from Phantom Ranch on a mule pack. Of course, I took picture of some mules. They seemed very sweet. We had decided not to go all the way to the bottom this trip, but one day i’d like to see it. There is camping at the bottom of the Canyon, but Phantom Ranch is another one of the Grand Canyon’s historic buildings. After we hiked we took the shuttle out to a few more view points that can only be accessed via shuttle (or special permit). The very end of the line is Hermit’s Rest featuring another Colter designed building. The rock structure that houses a gift shop fits in with the landscape just as it should and you can’t imagine it ever having not been there. It truly resembles the dwelling of some long ago hermit who was perhaps a little better at rock work than most hermits. It used to be a stage stop for a tourist stage line that ran out that way.

Tuesday, we started early as we had decided to do a slightly more ambitious hike – the Grandview trail down to the Horseshoe Mesa. The Grandview trail is less maintained than either Bright Angel or South Kaibab and also steeper. There used to be a hotel at the top maintained by a gentleman that had owned a mine at the bottom. Before the trail came to the Grand Canyon, his hotel was a popular as any of the others, but the proximity of the train stop to the other hotels nearer the current Grand Canyon Village contributed to the rather shorter life span of the Grandview Hotel. Starting the hike as early as we did and the twisty turns of the early part of the trail led to some fabulous reveals of part of the Canyon we had not seen yet. We met a man and his daughter coming up and the let us know about a cave near the Horseshoe Mesa. We searched and searched for that cave as it was getting hotter, but ultimately had to give up as we needed to start heading back up. I was feeling pretty miffed about the elusive cave until Zack Attack fed me a sandwich and then I felt slightly better about my life. We did get to see the mine at the bottom, which is marked with radiation signs by the way, in order to deter too many people from visiting. All in all, we ended up hiking about 12 miles. We celebrated when we got back by taking the Wonder Beast with us to the nearby pizza joint for beer and pizza. An inquisitive raven wanted to join in our feast, but we declined his company. We thought about doing the 4th big hike in the Canyon the next day – the one from Hermits Rest – but decided it was best to head back towards Flagstaff where we would be attending the Overland Expo. Hermits Rest will have to wait for another visit.

On Monday most of the day was spent with more relaxing at camp and then visiting Bearizona right outside Williams. Bearizona is a drive through animal park where the animals roam free and you drive through their areas. We saw bear and bison and other critters. I am a critter fan in general. They seem to do their best to give the animals a large enclosure as close to what it could have been in nature too. I believe most of the animals are rescues of sorts as well, like the blind owl that comes out to play during the birds of prey show and the mostly crazy turkey that is constantly displaying his feathery finery for his petting zoo visitors.

We also were continuing to look for flint in various spots including driving out to a spot near Ash Fork we had been told might be a place to pick up some good pieces. So far, we have not had terribly good luck finding any. This is probably because we have very little idea what we are looking for. More research is required as usual.

Tuesday we ventured out and did a pretty little hike to Keyhole Canyon. There are a few petroglyphs there. The spot was a perfect set up to force wildlife into for hunting by the native peoples many moons ago. Like many spots we’ve visited there has been much more water there in the past. If you hadn’t gathered yet, I’m a bit of a waterfall hunter. Sadly, some of the waterfalls we’ve hunted have not been running as it seems to be a hot, dry year, most everywhere. We saw just a smidge of water, but it was still a nice spot. We found some chunks of flint here. Or at least what we think might be flint.

On Wednesday we had a fishing day. We tried for some fish first at Dogtown Lake and the Wonder Beast had an epic showdown with a crawdad. We then headed further out of town to a spot near Whitehorse Lake called JD Dam. The hunting/fishing guy in town told Zack Attack it might be a good spot. No one else was there and Zack Attack caught no fish, but it was pretty. Zack Attack did manage, very skillfully, to cast a line and hook the hat I was wearing. Luckily, my hat saved my noggin from being hooked. The Wonder Beast really wanted to wade into the boggy marsh areas surrounding the lake so I spent most of my time holding him back.

Thursday was a big day. We got up early and drove through a fun little ghost town called Jerome on a back road. We then went on into Clarkdale to ride the Verde Canyon Railroad. We sprung for the extra 20 bucks to get a first class seat on this little tourist train. It takes you back through a lovely section of the Verde Canyon along the river there. We loved it. One of the greenest bits of Arizona we’ve seen. And, train rides are just plain fun. I can’t resist them. We also saw a mountain lion crossing the road on the drive back. Pretty awesome day overall.

We explored the town a bit more in the morning just for kicks, but by early afternoon we had moved camp back to Dogtown Lake, but got much closer to the lake this time. There is a nice little campground near the actual lake, but we stayed just outside of it. We love our free National Forest camp spots. It was a good day for a forest stroll and hammock relaxing and listening to some books on Audible. The Dogtown Lake area seemed to be a popular camping area, but big enough that you can’t hear your nearest neighbors, esp with all the friendly neighborhood trees surrounding you. A good day overall

We escaped the heat of Phoenix quickly after visiting with the engineer as temperatures were in the 90’s and frankly just seemed even hotter than that. The poor Wonder Beast does not do well in the heat and both Zack Attack and I are in agreement with him. The internet let us know that the weather was now better near the Grand Canyon, so we headed back that direction with the intention of exploring more. We decided to stop for the night in Williams and regroup. We stayed in more of the Kaibab National Forrest at Dogtown Lake. Or rather near Dogtown Lake. We got in late the night before and didn’t make it all the way out to the lake. The next day we stayed at an RV Park in town to get necessities done and also so we could be within walking distance of Williams, another cute little town with bits of the old route 66. We had a beer at Historic Brewing, which is not really historic, but just called that…those sneaky, crafty brewers. We had a lovely dinner at the Red Raven right in town. We talked up some shopkeepers, including the local leather worker, who told us about some spots to get flint as Zack Attack is thinking of taking up flint knapping. I’ve decided that my complimentary, old timey skill, shall be whittling. We shall see if manage to keep all our digits intact. After talking to the leather worker, Jay Redfeather of Open Road Cowboy, we decided to stay in town a bit longer and search for flint and take a train ride amongst other things. We headed back to set up camp near Downtown Lake again. Jay, by the way, is a great guy and helped Zack Attack fix his wallet and just let us chat him up for quite a while. His store is an eclectic mix of his own art and leather goods and you can watch him working right there. Definitely a fun little stop in Williams if you can catch him in his shop.

We decided to escape the snow and go visit our friend in Phoenix who was having a party to celebrate the end of his semester at nursing school. Malachi the Wonder Beast got lots of attention and we got to experience the heat that is Phoenix. In short, the party was lovely, but the heat was too much. We did stop on Friday to see an engineer friend of a friend to consult with about the Grolar Bear. The poor Grolar Bear is a bit heavy, even for the bear hybrid that he is. The engineer had built quite a few of his own rigs and gave us some advice which we will followed up on at the Overland Expo at the end of the month (more details later.) Slick Industries was very nice to give us a consult though since he doesn’t build vehicles for other very often at this point.

Since we were in Arizona, we of course, wanted to see the Grand Canyon. We ventured out on Tuesday and decided we would camp in the nearby Kaibab National Forrest and check out the Grand Canyon from there. The weather was turning colder and wetter and the forrest land was quite muddy by the time we got there. We stayed on a forrest access road almost directly across from the more official Kaibab Lake Campground which we drove through just to check out. If we can, we prefer to camp, not in actual campgrounds, but in dispersed camping areas. The weather wasn’t the best, but we drove up to the canyon the next day and checked it out. South Rim was almost completely fogged in and the canyon was invisible. We decided it was the perfect first view of the canyon. Other site seers there did not necessarily agree. We got lunch and wandered to some of the other spots you can drive to. The skies eventually did clear and we got our first glimpses of the canyon that is just bigger and more awesome than it is easy to imagine. Or maybe it is more that it actually lives up to expectations. You cannot be disappointed by the scope and beauty of the Grand Canyon. Many of the early structures in the park were designed by Mary Colter and Desert View Watchtower was amongst them. It was from this harmonious structure that we got our first views of the canyon. The building itself was interesting paying homage to native drawings and is just a neat rock structure that seems to rise up from the edge of the canyon as if it had always been there. There are several levels to check out the South Rim view from and ingenious little mirror viewers at one level. We checked out another forrest access road that leads from the interior of the park into Kaibab Natiional Forrest after probably less than half a mile. There is a lookout tower there. We climbed the metal structure of the Grandview Lookout tower as the winds started increasing and the weather started to roll back in. By the time we made it back to the campsite it began to snow. We hunkered down for the evening, laughing at the unexpected experience of snow in May.

We managed to head back into Prescott and get a last minute spot at the campground about 2.5 miles out of town, White Spar. A great place to stay if you wanna check out Prescott. There are even a couple little hiking/biking trails right from the campground. We met up with our friend after his bike race and found a fabulous little cafe in town that had some live music. Parker Smith plays most Saturday nights at a little spot called the Raven. You can get coffee or beer or wine at the Raven and Parker’s brand of old timey music was right up our alley. We sipped wine and enjoyed. Zack Attack has recently decided that wine is indeed drinkable so I am not alone in my wine sipping anymore. We decided to stay a couple more nights at White Spar and just relax and handle some practical details like laundry and such. The campground, which had been so crowded over the weekend with so many people in town for the race was now quite a bit more cleared out, so it was quite and relaxing.

We decided to venture down into the Prescott area as we wanted to meet up with a friend who was doing a bike race there the next day. The campground near town that we decided to camp at was full, so we heading out into some forrest land. There is a lot of forrest land in Arizona and it often times ends up being a bigger adventure than you think. That day we traveled until the end of sunset, but found a beautiful spot at Mingus Mountain. The ponderosa pine that are so prevalent in Arizona were in full force here. It was a nice little side adventure before heading back into Prescott proper the next day.

I am playing some catch up on my blog to just hi-lite some of the fun we’ve had since leaving Death Valley. Zack Attack had some work obligations in between and so we had a brief hiatus while I visited my Dad and Zack worked near Phoenix. When Zack wrapped up work we decided to meet at a campground near a few hours from Phoenix called Hualapai Mountain Park. It’s a little mountain spot just up the road from Kingman (one of the many cute little Route 66 towns we ended up passing through.) There were a couple other folks there, but not many to speak of. Just mainly us and the deer. I may have feed a couple of the bolder deer some carrots (don’t tell anyone.) Malachi the Wonder Beast usually doesn’t notice the deer because they are too skittish to get too close, but these deer were more bold than most. Malachi tried to introduce himself through a series of unmodulated barks that the deer did not appear to understand or appreciate and once he turned his back a sassy one pranced down the hill and almost landed on my old man dog. He scampered off quickly after that. There was a lot of hammock time here and a little bit of in town time taking a peek at a couple of antique stores. It was a good reunion.

We headed into Death Valley and entered through Beatty. We made a short side excursion to the town of Rhyolite. Rhyolite is one of the many ghost mining towns in the area, but Rhyolite has quite a few preserved buildings including an almost completely intact train station. Unfortunately some of the better preserved buildings are fenced off so you can’t tramp around inside of the them. It was a fun spot through. A couple folks seemed to still live out there and there was an outdoor ‘museum’ that including some funky art installations. Druid-like plaster cast figures in white are hollowed out but for the shape of their robes. You can pose inside them including the arrangement of figures that is based on the last supper. After a nice stretch of our legs in Rhyolite we headed into Death Valley proper and decided to just make things easy and stay in one of the bigger villages, Stovepipe Wells. Stovepipe was a bit warm, but not quite too warm yet. The camping wasn’t much to speak of – just a big parking lot really – but the village was fun and we had beer at the Tavern across the street. I recommend the bacon wrapped dates. It’s also very central to the rest of the park so we could decide where to head from there and even pick the brains of the other campers staying there. It’s nice to be way out in the middle of nowhere, but also nice to practice our social skills with other camping/traveling folk here and there.