Author: robmin57

This has been #1 on my bucket list for quite some time. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

We have been very fortunate with our camp sites. Ed had made reservations on the exact day they were available, some 13 months ago! It has payed off with lovely sites within our NPS and a few private campgrounds along the way. We are currently in Wahweap Campground, part of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. It is a great campground within our Nationally run system. What a precious gift they are to us!

On this extended trip we brought along our toaster oven and Instapot. We have used the heck out off the toaster oven whenever we have electric. The Instapot has begun to come in handy for these busy days and chilly nights. Dinner last night was roasted spaghetti squash prepared by Ed and Chicken Cacciatore prepared by me. Its great to be cooking partners!

Yesterday we decided to look for small adventures around Page, AZ. A fellow camper had told us about a great bike “path” that goes around the rim of the mesa that Page occupies. The “path” turned out to be a singled track off road trail. I quickly found out I am not a mountain biker! We made it about 3/4 mile and then turned around.

It was time to find a different adventure and find one we did! We drove to the Beehive Campground which is about 2 miles from Wahweap, where we are staying. We wanted to check it out as it looked like a boondocker site. Lucky us, as it led us to a most amazing rock formation just up the gravel road to the left. We decided to get out and rock scramble a little. We happened upon a trail, marked by carefully laid out rocks, that circumvented the entire formation. What a thrill! It turns out that the trail has the unofficial name of “The New Wave”. I had read about the wave and had seen pictures of it. It felt like we were there! Thank goodness for the “failure” or we would not have discovered our “find”!

Thursday morning we woke up to a very breezy, very chilly day (40*). It was the day we had planned to ride Hermit Road out to Hermit’s Rest. We were tempted to just stay put in our warm and cozy home away from home, but we were scheduled to leave on Friday so the question loomed… ”If not now, when?”. So, we dressed in layers and headed out. The ride was magnificent! Only park shuttle buses and bikes are allowed on Hermit Road so we practically had the entire road to ourselves. The road rolls along the western end of the south rim and the vistas were breathtaking. “Rolls” is a key term because we ended up riding a total of 1200 feet of elevation gain. That’s a lot for us flat landers! It was a tough, 20 mile round trip ride but worth ever pedal stroke. My crystal ball sees Electric bikes under our Christmas tree😉.

Hermit’s Rest, itself, was a charming historic building designed by Mary Colter. She was also the architect of the Dessert View Tower which we were able to visit on Friday as we headed to Page, Arizona. She had an amazing ability to design buildings that seemed to grow out of the landscape.

Oh my, I almost forgot to mention that along the road we came across an Elk bull and his harem. He was bugling and looking very protective of his group of females so we did not linger long!

Yesterday we hiked down to the first rest house of the Bright Angel Trail. It is 1&1/2 miles down with a 1200 foot drop in elevation. The views were stunning and changed at each switchback. To say this was a stretch for this height adverse being is an understatement. The hiney num-nums, a term we use to fondly described my physical reaction to heights, only kicked in a few times. I was too busy looking down to make sure I didn’t stumble. Well, what goes down must come up. We trekked back up that 1200 feet like champs! It was another accomplishment that made me very thankful for my bionic knees.

After an hour long wait in line to enter the Grand Canyon National Park, we arrived at our camp site in Trailer Village. We ate a quick lunch and then practically ran to the rim trail. Ed kept saying “slow down” but I could not stand the wait any longer. My first look was everything I had imagined and more. The grandeur was breathtaking and moved me to tears. This response has happened to me a few other times, when first viewing Monet’s water lilies, and when being caught by surprise of the magnificence of Klempt’s ”The Kiss”. This time though, it was God’s work, and he out did himself. We walked a four mile loop from the campsite along the rim trail and each view was as impressive as the next. It had snowed the night before and the temperatures remained chilly enough that the snow in the woods at our campsite did not melt. The Outland Firepit came in handy as wood fires are not allowed here. It was the perfect setting for a celebratory drink!

After a windy and chilly night, the skies began to clear for our last day in Sedona. We attempted to do the Bell Rock hike but the parking lot was a zoo scene. Lucky us though, we instead did the Little Horse trail, which was beautiful and much less crowded. The rock formations around Sedona are astonishing. Unfortunately, so is the traffic. It seems we aren’t the only ones seeking it’s wonder. We ended our stay in Sedona with a delicious meal at the very popular Elote. The first course was Elote, which is an off the cobb version of Street Corn. For our main course I had Lamb Shank in Adobo sauce and Ed had Buffalo Short ribs braised in poblano mole sauce. There might have been a Prickly Pear Margarita or two on the bill too! We are off to the Grand Canyon where it was 19* this morning!

We’ve had a busy couple days getting to know the Sedona area. We drove the spectacular Oak Creek Scenic Road which had beautiful scenery and some great National Forest Campgrounds. Next up we fit in a 2 mile hike on the Adobe Jack Trail before we met our guide for a sunset jeep tour. The scenery is breathtaking. We started on an off road trail called the Bear Wallow, but it became to much for this old spine of mine. Scott, our guide, picked up on our intrigue with vortexes and took us to a most amazing spot. It is Columbus Day weekend and the crowds in Sedona show it, but he took us to Rachel’s Knob. It is know for its spiritual energy. Thankfully, we had the place to ourselves. We used devinig rods to locate the zones of highest energy. Ed and I both felt it! I said a quiet prayer of thanksgiving for this amazing earth we inhabit. The trip back to the tour’s home base was stunning with the red rock formations illuminated by the setting sun.

Today we arose early to try to score one of 13 parking spaces to access the Soldiers Pass hiking trail. The lot opened at 8:00 AM sharp and there was actually a policeman to monitor the situation. We were successful! The hike was about 4.5 miles of stunning scenery. We visited the Seven Sacred Pools. They were low on water but you got the sense of how important this water source was to the Native American tribes who inhabited this region long ago. It was a fantastic hike. Afterwards we rewarded ourselves with a nice long nap after a couple of very busy days.

It was such fun meeting up with friends from Bellingham that have now settled in the Phoenix area for the winter. We went ATVing in the BLM land north of Phoenix. The land was vast, the trails a bit technical, and Travis succeeded in finding one of the few mud puddles in the whole region! What a blast!

On the way from Santa Fe to Sedona we just had to stop for the night at Homolovi State Park, outside of Winslow. Along the way we drove the The Petrified Forest National Park. It was interesting but there was hardly any RV parking and what was there was being used by cars. So, off we went to set up the RV in what turned out to be a well equiped and user friendly campsite. Then it was off to stand on the for-mentioned corner, which for some reason, was important to me. It was a happy place. We had a delicious dinner at The Turquoise Room, turned in early, then awoke to this gorgeous sunrise. Life is good and I am thankful.