Week 5 – Prescott Loop

September 17^th – September 23^rd 2012

This was somewhat week off for us. We did not feel like doing much (J. obviously worked her three days). Sometimes, things just have to get slower and more normal. We needed to catch up on few things as well. It happened.

On Wednesday, we took a drive to Prescott. We first drove to Sedona; J. was talking about apple season and cider, when I saw sign along the road:

It was just before Sedona (the town is like tourist’s trap), sadly. We went to small café/store, where we discovered, how expensive the cider was (we left empty handed). There was as well store with Indian jewelry. J. was checking nice looking earrings (price tag almost 1000 dollars). We again left empty handed. The weather (compared to Flagstaff) was significantly warmer. This time, we just drove through Sedona.

We stopped in Cottonwood (small town on the way to Prescott). It was pretty warm and sunny. We walked the main street (went to two stores) and left. It was nice, but nothing special. Next to this town, there was Tuzigoot National Monument.

Reconstructed (partly) settlement from old times. It was interesting, but we already seen many similar sites, some of them were breath taking, so this was rather lost it. Sorry. I can see how it would be really interesting and appealing for someone just visiting few sites, but we already saw too much.

We continued on road 89A (same road from Flagstaff) towards Jerome. There were many churches along the way. Otherwise very similar landscape as we got used to. Jerome used to be mining town (transformed into tourist town now days). As small as it was (it is build on the side of hill), it had pretty big main streets (as I said tourist town). We got off the car and walked around for a bit. It was actually interesting.

I liked this sign and site:

Next to the town (and next to the state park) was small site, which we visited. It was formal mining shaft with few artifacts around.

The hole in the ground had small structure around it and was covered with the glass. It was really interesting to look down. The mine was relatively small (and old), so the opening was probably 4x4 feet.

We left Jerome and started driving uphill. We discovered, that we had to cross some type of hills, so we had to drive curvy road for many miles.

Prescott. We stopped by visitor’s center and walked along Whiskey Row (apparently oldest part of town, formally known for bars and saloons). It was not really special.

It was as well mid afternoon and we were getting tired. We stopped by two stores (Trader Joe’s and Costco) to get some groceries. After that, we were heading back home.

 On Friday, we took walk/hike on the flatter part of Mount Elden. The weather was nice and I thought J. would enjoy the nature and some views.

It was nice, I just forgot, that it was pretty long. Oh well … we both enjoy pretty pleasant walk. We even saw some wildlife:

Week 4 – Grand Canyon

September 10^th – September 16^th 2012

Our next destination (about 90% chance):

Stanford, California (starting November 26^th).

9-12-2012

We took quick drive to the trail head of Old Crater Cave’s hike. It is quite nice to live in small city, nothing is too far. Another nice day (we really did not have bad weather days), there were some days that it was raining, but it did not last. We parked the car and started to walk. It was supposed to be relatively easy hike with just about 400 feet elevation gain. The top of the hill was covered with old craters (once upon a time “houses”).

Indeed, it was relatively easy hike. The views were different and incredible. The nature was green and pretty (so much for desert). So, nothing to complain about.

 We hiked on the top, looked around, climbed into the caves (more like bigger holes in the ground), and dissented on the other side of the hill. After that, we walked around to get back to the parking lot.

Our next destination was Grand Falls (as well called Chocolate Falls). We drove from town, there were some houses, but they were getting scarce. At some point, there was no civilization at all, just nice country. And nice drive, until we left paved road and turned onto Indian road nr. 70. Dirt road.

Really bad road, a lot of holes and really bumpy. And … we had almost 10 miles to get to the falls. I was wandering what the hell we got ourselves into. But we kept going. There was maybe 15 houses along the way (in distance). We were on the land of Navajos (I think). Surprisingly, we saw some cows in desert.

Driving and suffering. In about 9 miles, we saw the car parked on the flat surface. We pulled next to it, rolled the window down and they asked about the falls (they were foreigners). We did not know. They left, we stepped off the car and walked around. I walked onto the hill hoping to see something. There was dirty (red soil) river, water. And in sight drop, or something. We walked there and found the falls (and saw why they would be chocolate). It was amazing view. Really strange, all around was flat landscape with pretty much nothing. And then you saw small dirty river, which got much wider and then created falls. There was not much water and we could see two smaller falls. Still, it was more then unreal view.

We did enjoy the views and incredible work of nature. We even saw the guy from the other car, he appeared on the top of hill (running), took some pictures and run away. Weird. We walked slowly back, looking on the nature’s wonder. The river was quite small, there was slab of concrete as a road. Luckily, we did not have to drive further. And our filthy car.

And we had to go back, driving on that horrible road. With nice views. Trade offs.

9-13-2012

Again, it took longer than planned to leave the house (still getting use to it). We drove through Flagstaff and headed towards Grand Canyon. We were hoping, that going there on Thursday will make it less crowded. Really nice drive, again.

It is about hour and half (or 80 miles) from Flagstaff on nice paved road. On the intersection (one road from Flagstaff, one road from Williams), there was gas station and other establishment. (Really horrible view). We passed the entrance (5 stations), that looked like border crossing. And then got into the Village. The civilization, shopping and other. So sad …

We parked (it was pretty busy), walked through visitor’s center ground towards the canyon. And we saw it. (With so many people around.) It was incredible, amazing and unreal. Perhaps, it was too big to enjoy it, to absorb it and realize what you are looking at.

We walked around a bit, visited the center and were not really happy about so many people around. We moved towards the beginning of Hermit’s road (no driving there). Possibility of hike (7 miles one way) or park’s bus. We took bus (again full of people) towards Hermit’s rest.

We got off on different points, enjoyed the views (there is about 8 stops, bus runs every 10-15 minutes). We slowly made our way to Hermit’s rest. We even saw a bit of river (dirty one).

Smaller building, really cramped (toilets, water, sidewalk), the trail to the bottom of the canyon. It was interesting, but …

We took the bus again, we wanted to get off about 1.8 miles from the beginning and walk. So we did. Hoping for some peaceful (and less crowded) time. At that point, we saw some wildlife.

And this is us walking and enjoying the rim of the canyon:

We got back to the starting point, J. had phone call about possibility of Stanford job. We wonder through the lodge / settlement. It was strange, there were some art studios and shops on the rim (ehmmm…), we wandered through the lodge, next to the cabins (strange).

We drove through the village (there was school), and headed towards the east entrance of the park. We stopped few times on the “vistas”, but our final stop was Desert view. There was Watchtower (now housing gift shop). We walked up and looked around. There were some interesting views.

We were getting tired. We as well discovered, that we had about 80 miles to go (I thought it was less). We hit the road and started driving. Not a bad drive.

 9-14-2012

Relaxing day. We were going to grab breakfast in town and then visit Arboretum. J. received phone call from Palo Alto / Stanford. They called her for interview at 8.25 am (she agreed to be submitted for job yesterday around 3.00 pm). It was incredible turnaround time. She spent almost an hour on the phone talking to the manager from Stanford. It looked promising (she said, she was interested in J.). Already from car, J. called her recruiter and informed her about interview. And talked about possible details.

We had quite bad breakfast. Where is our standard from Michigan???

About three miles of dirt road, then we saw Arboretum sign, hiding in the forest.

It was interesting and different. I guess in this area, the landscape and what can grow is quite different. It was somewhat cold. We did enjoy the arboretum, the landscape, and some flowers.

Flower from Arboretum Flagstaff:

There was again this sign, informing us about snowfall in Flagstaff. More than Denver, for example.

And some wildlife (sort of);

We drove home, I washed the car, J. accepted the job from Stanford, and we had rest day off. J. got a bit emotional, so it made for a bit strange day. There are some details of contract and other “monkey business”, but very likely, at the end of November, we will be in California.