Moved to North Rim, Grand Canyon

Our second journey took us north out of Camp Verde, Arizona, up to Flagstafff and then north on Route 89 through the Navajo Nation.  We had hoped this trip was less eventful than our trip 3 years ago when the road we traveled (same as this time) was so torn up and bumpy, our RV we had at the time had suffered some damage when we pulled into Page.  This time - no problem, thank goodness. We had to contend with rain showers but that was no problem either.  However, by the time we reached Jacob Lake, at elevation 7200, the rain had turned to snow.  Yuck.

Snow falling - view out our back window

On our scenic drive we passed Lees Landing where you could catch a white water raft ride down the Colorado, through the National Park, crossing over the river there.  Very pretty scenery.  We followed the Escalante Staircase, now a National Monument. Climbed up to over 7200 feet and into Jacob Lake where we will be for a week.  Wanted to see the Grand Canyon, North Rim again.

Passed over Colorado River - Navajo Bridge

Many roadside stands with Navajo selling wares

Was nervous about our stay - forecast for snow at night, Friday and Saturday nights, and highs only in the 50s, but supposed to be getting warmer each day.  Woke up to about an inch of snow Saturday morning, Saturday drove into Hurricane, Utah - not far from St. George - to find an alternative internet service since we have no cell.  Was a very beautiful drive - again along the high red rock mountains Utah is known for.

Red Rock State Park, Slide Rock, and Oak Creek Canyon

Visited Red Rock State Park yesterday morning, was pretty, but not what we were expecting.  Last August torrential rains wiped out two of the hiking bridges that cross Oak Creek so many of the trails were either closed or one way - hike in and turn around and hike back.  Did hike up to the House of Apache Fire, a home built by Jack and Helen Frye in 1941, never completed, sold many times, abandoned, and then later purchased by the state.  Jack Fry was the president of TWA and wanted a get-away home away from his job.  Must have been quite a concept - wondered what it looked like inside.  Designed after Hopi architecture, Helen was the brains behind the design.  After their divorce in 1950, she got the House, but it was never completed.  Two story home with each room literally on it's own level.  Impressive views of many of the red rock formations in Sedona surround it.  On the way down from the House, watched 10 deer meander by.

Oak Creek meandering through state park

House of Apache Fire

One of the views from the House 

Mule Deer came moseying by

We drove the scenic road north of Sedona into Oak Creek Canyon, very impressive.  30 years ago we drove this same road, remembered that at the top of the canyon at 6420 feet, a viewing area was set up and back then many Navajo and Hopi Indians were selling their crafts, spread out on blankets on the ground.  This visit the Native Americans were there, but they had their wares on tables to view.  Of course I had to get a trinket or two, even Dave found something!

At top of Canyon

Would not want to bring RV on the switchback road!

Just about half way between Flagstaff and Sedona

Lots of Native American artists selling their wares

On the drive back down the canyon, we stopped at Slide Rock State Park, a natural water park that people come to play in the running Oak Creek.  The water has worn the rocks smooth and people start at an upper level waterfall and slide down through many waterfalls.  Looked like fun although watching the people, they were howling that the water was so cold.  Did not stop them from having fun!  With limited parking there, I asked what happens when there is no more parking?  Where do people park their car?  The attendant said that people wait in the turning lane of the highway, waiting for someone to leave - could be an hour or two!  But, then the highway patrol comes along and makes people move on - loosing their place in line for the next spot in the parking lot.  Guess you need to come early!

Slide Rock area

Look closely - the kids are moving through rapids

Quite deep in areas!  These kids were loving it!

Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park

Thirty years ago we visited this park and we remembered standing right by petrified trees and also of viewing the painted desert - would it be as we remembered? The drive to the park took us over 2 hours but we felt that the chance of being this close to see the park in the future was very slim, so what the heck.  Traveled north to Flagstaff then headed eastbound on I 40.  Humphreys Peak, the highest point in Arizona, was snow covered - probably from the couple of nights prior when we got rain, it got snow.

Snow

Painted Desert - vast area

Drove the park road and stopped at almost all the sights.  First up was the Painted Desert.  Very colorful, vast open areas. We wondered how far could we see? Along the way south through the park, we stopped at the Route 66 sign where the famous road that spanned from Chicago to Los Angeles came through.  Without realizing it, we parked the car right in the middle of the old road!

Get your kicks on Route 66!

Petroglyphs

100 room structure housed over 200 people

Over 650 petroglyphs have been recorded in the park and we were able to view at least a dozen of them, dating back over 2000 years. But the wow factor came in when we hiked the Crystal Forest.  The area was once a humid, wet, lush climate with trees and plants and animals such as dinosaurs, giant amphibians living here over 200 million years ago. Floods, volcanos, uplifting of the land, climate change caused the area that was once a tropical environment to now be a grassy arid plain. Over time, wind and water wore away the rock and ash layers and exposed the remains of the downed trees and skeletons of the dinosaurs.  Archaeologists have found remains of peoples from 13,000 years ago.

Looked like someone had a chainsaw - perfect breaks

Trees all over the place

Amazing all the colors

Beautiful fossilized trees - amazing colors and patterns.  Pink, white, blue, black, brown, green, yellow and red are the colors you can see.  These are caused from the iron, carbon, and manganese from the silica saturated water that the trees were buried in.  Amazing.

Trees were enormous!

Payson and The Zane Grey Cabin

Zane Grey, the famous writer, had a cabin in this area, but was not aware it was in Payson.  We decided to venture to the town the other day needn't to find a hardware store and of course, visit one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, El Rancho, and to visit the Rim Country Museum and Zane Grey Cabin.  But first, the drive was spectacular driving up and along the Mogollon Rim. Stunning landscape and snow!  We had rain the night before but the elevation along the Rim took us to over  7500 feet.  When we left Camp Verde the temp was 67 but the drive along the Rim was a breezy 42 to 48.  Brr.  Traveled through cute communities such as Strawberry, Pine.  Very wealthy homes tucked in the forest along the mountain side, you can see where the Phoenix/Scottsdale folks come to escape the summer heat.  Has to be 25 to 30 degrees cooler there than where we are.

Ah - snow!

One huge pine forest!

Once in Payson, did shopping and then visited the museum.  Noticed lots of people in town and especially around the museum.  It was a cookout sponsored by the Game and Fish Wildlife government folks.  The two docents that took us through the museum were very knowledgeable, unfortunately the original Zane Grey cabin that Grey lived in from 1921 to 1929 burned down in the Dude Fire of 1990.  We could not take pictures inside the cabin but the museum is trying very hard to recreate an authentic cabin from photographs, diaries, and local knowledge.

Reenactment of Zane Grey's Cabin

Pretty fresh water lake in heart of Payson

Payson is a "Fire Wise" community, after 6 volunteer firemen were killed in the Dude Fire, the community is very diligent in providing knowledge and help with preventing forest fires.  Payson resides in the largest pine forest of North America. The city also boasts that they have a natural source of water that will last at least 100 years from now - something that no other community/city in Phoenix can brag about. Quite a haven for hunters, campers, hiking, and any other outdoor sports you can think of.  Too bad it is so far aware from Chandler (where the grand girls are) Payson/Strawberry/Pine would make a nice summer retreat if/when we stop traveling during the summer.

Sedona and Red Rocks

The RV repair guy came out and found that our faucets were clogged with calcium deposits, and once he flushed out the system, drained the hot water tank, retested, we were good to go.  Nice to have water in the kitchen!  Dave has more maintenance now, the repair guy said to flush the system thoroughly at least 2 times a year if not more.  He was doing this just once a year.

Yesterday we decided to visit Sedona.  We had been to Sedona, not as campers but as hoteliers, about 13 years ago and wanted to revisit all the large red rock formations around the city.  We did manage to hike for a bit up Bell Rock and the weather turned rainy so we headed back to the car and drove into town to sight see.  If you are into New Age and Holistic Medicines and feeling the vortexes, then this town is for you.  Crystal bead shops, New Age bookstores, healing waters this and that, spas, etc.  Very touristy and expensive. Beautiful architecture, blending into the natural surroundings of red rocks.

Red Rocks coming into Sedona

Hiked a tidge of Bell Rock

Stunning views

The fauna was impressive

Thought the white was trash - pretty flowers! Evening white primrose.

Once we passed through town we headed south towards Sedona Wetlands, took a quick look-see and again was chased back to the car with rain.  We did see enough to enjoy nature in its finest.

Five ponds with all kinds of birds/ducks

We got back to the campground and decided to walk the nature trail here to the Clear Creek which runs along the property.  Very pretty!  I can see where people would come here to hang out.  Still waters run deep.

Right in our backyard!

Still waters run deep

Enjoyed a quiet evening and had a nice steady rain all night and today is bright sun but chillier than we are used to - high today is 59.  Still a nice change from the high 90s.  Buddy is beginning to come around - he is starting to annoy Grace, his limp is not as pronounced, and he is beginning to stay out more and not hide.  Good thing we have days here for him to get used to the rig.

First Stop Out for Summer - Camp Verde, Arizona

We pulled out yesterday morning, leaving Picacho Peak behind.  We traveled west bound on Interstate 10 into downtown Phoenix, pulling the CR-V Honda behind us,  and then picked up Interstate 17 north and climbed up and over the Mogollon Rim Mountains.  I do not like this drive because not only are you climbing up to over 5000 feet, you have to come back down at some point.  The last slide down was at a 7% grade for 4 miles, thankfully the engine's internal system was able to hold the RV and car back and Dave had to only step on the brake a couple of times.  I said it was good practice since we are heading to Wyoming and Montana this summer, passing back and forth over the Continental Divide a number of times and will be surround by mountains all the time.  We will be in much colder weather - we are happy since we were living in the upper 90's to low 100's the past 2 weeks at Picacho and looking forward to the welcome change. Last night the temp was a cool 48 and today should reach 75, how wonderful!

Sonoran Desert - Picacho Peak (poppies blooming in March)

Hello/goodbye to downtown Phoenix

Don't like the steep climbs/descents 

Dropping down into Verde Valley
 Humphreys Peak to left (snowcapped - highest point in AZ) in Flagstaff

Pulled into Zane Grey RV Park around 12:30 pm and got to our sight within minutes.  We have called a mobile RV repair guy to come out to visit us this afternoon.  We are bee-fuddled as to what is going on with the water.  We have hot and cold water in the bathroom sink, shower, and running water for the toilet.  But no water in the kitchen.  Can't figure it out.  But, hopefully it will be minor and we will be fine for the rest of the summer.  Staying at this park has been a goal for over 10 years when we visited the park years ago, just passing through.  Always thought it was pretty and restful.  We are tucked back into the cottonwood trees, the Clear Creek flows about 500 feet behind us.  Last night we heard coyotes howling, I just love that sound! Birds chirping, lots of trees and grass - what a welcome change to the Sonoran Desert we left behind.

We will stay here and sight see, visiting Sedona, Arizona state parks, as well as national monuments.  We will also use this time here to get acclimated back into living in the RV for the next 5 to 6 months.  Buddy, our younger cat, is not doing well - he hurt his paw the day before we left so we are watching him closely to make sure he will be okay.  And he's a wuss - he is so scared of the RV, he hides most of the time.  Grace is doing great - she remembered this rig and quickly got used to the routine.  Summer - here we come!

Winter 2014 Over/Boyce Thompson Arboretum

Cannot believe that winter is over.  Let's get caught up since my last update in November.  We laid low for December through March, trying to get healthy.  First prescriptions did not work at all, did some nasty side affects, then finally got the right one and at last feeling great!  We did not do any side trips, but did have two groups of friends visit us.  Our next-door neighbors from our Olmsted Falls days, Jackie and Dennis, came to stay with 10 days.  Had a blast showing them as much as we could during that time.  Whirl wind trip.  They went on to Hawaii from here to visit with their grandson who is stationed at the US Marine Corps base on Oahu, staying for a month.  Lucky them!!

Then Karl and Julie came out for a visit (they are baseball spring training buffs).  We could not spend as much time with them because the spring school break was on and we had granddaughters watch duty for two weeks.  We did manage to spend weekends with them, hiking in the Catalina Mountains and visiting Tombstone.  Fun times.

And now we are beginning our countdown to leaving for the summer.  Hopefully within a month we will head out northbound.  Our long term goal for this summer is to visit Wyoming and then on to Montana, hoping to get to Canada, visiting Banff National Park and back down here by end of November.

We made a quick trip yesterday to Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park in Superior, Arizona.  About an hour and half ride north of Picacho.  Have always wanted to go and finally went.  Hiking trails, botanical gardens, interpretive trails.  Very pleasant.  Will definitely head back there for more visits.  We were lucky that we got through the town of Florence - the Country Thunder 4 day show was just beginning and we were only delayed for a short amount of time with heavy traffic.  However, the amount of RVs coming towards Florence - can only imagine if we had waited another hour before passing through.  Looked into the lineup of country music stars - and wow!  Some big names and tons of music will be in Florence this weekend.

Here is some pictures of our time spent yesterday at Boyce.  Lovely park, beautiful weather.