We recently travelled to Arizona for a family vacation combined with a visit to Scottsdale for the Cat Fancier's Association annual meeting and awards ceremony. We were cautioned about the heat and dry conditions by friends who live north of Phoenix and experienced it first-hand.
Our first day took us from Phoenix to Sedona. We had intended to take Schnebly Hill Road from Interstate 17 into town, but found it closed due to the fire danger from the extremely dry conditions. Instead, we drove back south from Flagstaff down 89A through a glorious canyon that opened up around us as we descended towards Sedona. The red rock formations emerged from the canyon walls as we crossed back and forth over the creek. There were very few cars on the normally-crowded road (we were permitted through a checkpoint in Flagstaff only because we had reservations that evening in Sedona), and the merchants and innkeepers in this resort area were conspicuously hurting.
We settled into our hotel, enjoyed the pool, and struck out for dinner. We found a "unique" Thai place, entered well before the evening rush, and enjoyed vegan Thai cuisine. As we ate, the place filled up with all sorts of characters from the area - all evidently well in tune with the psychomagnetic vortices (or whatever!) that surround Sedona. Regardless of the validity of the New Age claims, Sedona is a wonderful locale.
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When we left Sedona, we were unable to drive back north through the canyon, but had to take the southern route back to I-17. Retracing our steps around to the east of Sedona, we travelled back north to Flagstaff, and then took 89 northeast through town toward the eastern entrance to Grand Canyon National Park. About 10 miles north of Flagstaff, we left 89 and drove through Sunset Crater and Wupatki National Monuments. This area, containing very young (~900 year old) volcanic calderas, is also scattered with ruins of settlements dating to just before and just after the emergence of the Sunset and other craters. As we drove north from the Sunset Crater area towards Wupatki, we stopped every few miles to gape at the house-sized lava bombs that had been ejected from the volcano and were slumped by the side of the road. Amidst the lava, desert plants and insects had taken hold, occupying a very fragile ecological niche.
We stopped again at the Wukoki Pueblo site, where we talked with some archeological researchers who were taking detailed GPS readings of the ruins. They described how the settlement seemed to occur coincident with the climate changes induced by the volcano, and how the settlements had failed once the climate had settled back into its pre-volcano drought conditions. We also talked about the relationship between Wupatki and Chaco Canyon (with their very similar stacked dry rock construction techniques), and the cultures that preceeded the pueblo-builders that had established trade routes with the Hopewell Indian cultures of the Midwest. I gawked a bit at their equipment (they had a telemetry base station on a nearby hilltop and were carrying wireless LAN-based GPS and laptops), and generally enjoyed our conversation. In the mid-afternoon sun (probably 100+ degrees), we didn't stay out long once we finished talking.
Our first glimpse of the periphery of the Grand Canyon was on the east entrance road, as the canyons of the Little Colorado River deepened and widened to our right. By the time we saw the Harvey Company's Indian Watchtower at Desert View, the Little Colorado River had joined the main Colorado River, and the Grand Canyon lay out before us in all its splendor. The tower itself, designed in the 1920's by Mary Colter and completed in 1932, exemplifies a sensibility that is somewhat lost on me - synthetic tourist kitsch (with the involvement of a Hopi artist, Fred Kabotie, to lend an air of authenticity) that has itself passed into the lore of the national park. Don't get me wrong - the tower is fun to explore, and offers great views of the Grand Canyon and the river below - but it really doesn't fee right to me.
After finding our hotel south of the main park entrance, settling in, and getting a good night's sleep, we returned to the park early the next morning to reconnoiter the South Rim. I had anticipated horrendous crowds, but really didn't feel like there was an oppressive presence of people. We walked along the rim from Hopi House (another Mary Colter artifact) to the top of the Bright Angel Trail, taking in the sights and talking to the rangers and naturalists about what we were seeing. An amateur astronomer had a chair-based telescope focused on Venus, visible in the day in the clear Arizona air. Carol, of course, bird-watched the entire time. We quickly found the California Condors, and also found the naturalist that was monitoring them using a radio receiver and directional antenna, picking up the transmissions from the wing-tags they wore. Carol helped a number of people spot the birds, particularly on their cliff-side roosts below.
We returned to our hotel to spend the heat of the afternoon in the swimming pool, then went back into the park during the late afternoon and early evening. We scouted out the parking spots near the West Rim entrance, and ate dinner at the El Tovar hotel. I got just what I asked for, a window-side table, and sat in the glare of the setting sun for a half-hour or so, but then enjoyed watching the dusk settle over the Canyon after sunset. After dinner, we drove over to Yavapai Point, where the Tuscon Astronomy Club had set up numerous telescopes. The kids and I had a chance to see M-31, the Ring Nebula, some brilliant views of the Moon - great fun! It was too dark to bird-watch, so Carol spent that time in the car.
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Carol and I returned to the park that evening to do some bird watching, watching the condors once again, and also got up early the next morning. We ate breakfast at Bright Angel lodge, did some souvenir-shopping for friends, and made it back to our hotel in time to grab the kids and head over to the horseback-riding concessionaire in the National Forest.
After leaving the Grand Canyon, we headed back south to Flagstaff via Williams, and then east to Meteor Crater, which is definitely worth seeing once. The story of the deciphering of the puzzle of the crater is fascinating.
We then found ourselves in Hollbrook, where we stayed overnight, and got up very early the next morning to drive through the Petrified Forest National Park. This park was formed to preserve the remnants of an extensive deposit of petrified trees that had been picked through for decades by settlers. If these are the remnants, the original must have been incredible! We talked to the rangers, and to nearby residents, who said that much more petrified forest in the vicinity is yet to be uncovered by erosion or excavation. Once through the park, we returned to the mineral shops
After leaving Hollbrook, we drove south through Snowflake / Taylor, an affluent couple of towns that seem to cater to the retirement set. These were very green after the sere high plains around Winslow and Hollbrook, but still extremely dry.
We avoided Show Low by driving through a nearby state park area, and then headed south to try to get on the Mogollon Rim drive south and west. This road was also closed due to the extemely dry conditions, so we continued down to Carizo and Ft. Apache, where we diverted briefly to see the Kinishba ruins, which show signs of recent habitation (tarpaper and concrete in the front part of the ruin) as well as a long history. The White River provides welcome moisture to the valley, providing for the prosperous community farms. The walls of the valley have strange blocky building-like protruberances, and north of Fort Apache and Whiteriver, evidence of the fires from the 1990's were quite apparent.
As we travelled north back toward Pinetop / Lakeside, a resort community east of Show Low, we began to see what looked like a cloud on the western horizon. We stopped for a break in Pinetop, and could now see the base of the billow, down in the forest we had just left. People were talking about the start of a forest fire, and as we drove towards Show Low, announcers on the radio described efforts to bring firefighters onto the scene, and that no extensive call-up was needed.
Boy, were they wrong! Over the next week, this fire grew to be one of the largest in Arizona history.
Rather than stay in the Pinetop / Show Low area, we opted to drive west to Payson, about 90 miles from the fire. We found Payson to be a delightful little town, with a climate that permitted forest growth. Near Payson is the Natural Bridge State Park. The natural bridge was formed when water eroded away the limestone that comprises the structure in that area. The erosion formed a bridge rather than a gully, and travertine ribbons and sheets are populated with cliff swallows. The creek is accessible only through a strenuous (for Carol, at least) climb down a steep trail on one end, and down a broad but long set of steps at the other end. We managed to step from boulder to boulder in the creek, and really enjoyed the cool, clean air. We climbed back out to the blacktopped parking lot on top of the bridge, and immediately felt the sweltering heat of the summer sun.
Unfortunately, Arizona's budgetary woes have caused the closure of this wonderful state park.
Our next stop was the Scottsdale Princess resort, for Carol's participation in the annual International Cat Fancier's Association meeting. Carol spent her time there giving presentations on the American Shorthair breed, and accepting awards. The kids and I spent our time at the pool! The resort has a miniature water park, and movies are shown nightly while the audience lounges in the water or poolside.
It's hard to not eat Mexican food while in Arizona. Somehow, we managed :-( We did find Sushi on Shaw, a really nice Japanese restaurant, and ate there two or three times.
One very very hot afternoon, the kids and I visited Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West. Greg was inspired by the architecture, enjoying it far more than I expected. My impressions about Frank Lloyd Wright's self-perceived infallability, cultivated by visits to the Robie House and other Wright structures in the Midwest, were confirmed. It wasn't that I feel he was wrong, necessarily, but just not terribly considerate of the people for whom he was doing arcitectural design.
We connected up with my cousin, Nancy Blumenstein, who moved from Chicago to Fountain Hills a few years ago. We'd been corresponding for 25 years, but hadn't met for 35 or more. Nancy is even more cheerful in person than in her writing.
Carol and I visited the Arizona Botanical Gardens one morning. I really enjoyed the architecture and xeriscaping ideas, and Carol really enjoyed the birdwatching and planting ideas. We had a very pleasant discussion with a retiree who was doing volunteer work at the Botanical Gardens, and a very pleasant walk through the grounds.
Last Updated Tuesday, August 13, 2002