Grand Canyon - Week 13

November 12^th – November 18^th 2012

This was our last week in Flagstaff, Arizona. It was really good time in here. Who knew (probably a lot of people) that Arizona is not just a desert with a cactus. J. had her last day of work and I started to get our stuff together and packing. On Wednesday, we decided to drive to Grand Canyon and see sunset (after small walk down the canyon). It was not super warm, but it was nice and sunny day with few clouds. And snowy San Francisco Peaks in distance. We will miss this majestic view.

An hour and some change to drive there. One intersection (and really classy buildings etc). And more driving towards the canyon. Tacky (and ugly) village and the gate to the park.

We were not stopping by visitor’s center and hoped to park close to the Bright Angel Trail (it goes all the way down to the canyon). J. got a phone call regarding housing, so I drove a bit around trying to find the way (it is partly one way) and parking spot. Done. Looks like we have the apartment in San Mateo, we just need to get the keys. Shorter walk to the edge of the canyon and that great view. It is still big canyon.

There was not as many people as last time (week day and colder). We planned to walk the Bright Angel trail to the first rest house (mile and a quarter). There were some people going up (and down). Even before we stepped on the trail, we passed many signs warning people about possibility of injury or death. They were saying not to attempt to go down and up in one day.

When we started walking, it was really nice path. The views were incredible and it was kind of magical to start descending into the canyon. It got as well colder. And we realized one more thing, the sun sets on the other side (not over the canyon). Just few minutes of walking and we found something interesting. Look …

There were two places, where “door” had to be made in the rock. It looked really cool from top and bottom. There was as well a lot of mule’s shit.

Another interesting thing were people going either down or up and seeing them in distance. We passed some people in both directions, there was even older couple climbing up from the bottom (they said they left at 5 am).

It was amazing, slowly descending and looking down the canyon and as well seeing Kolb studio (historic house on the rim) getting smaller. The sides of the canyon were incredible as well, to say it simply, it was a lot of rock.

It was actually pretty nice walk going down. We reached the rest house (small shelter with the board warning against too much hiking. The other structure was the outhouse. And small “parking lot” for the mules. Really nice. And we had to start walking back, we passed a girl going down (a point coming later). It was not really steep, but it was not completely easy. At one point, we saw some animals.

It got really cold, our shoes and pants were dusty (most of the path was dusty). We passed some older people, but got passed by the girl (the one we saw going down). J. was going pretty slowly. Almost at the top, we got passed by a family with two children. Oh well … nothing I could do. I was cold. We were cold. Few more looks and we finished our walk.

We figured (we had about half an hour) we would drive to another point to see sunset. It was small geological museum (and gift shop). Again, nice old building standing on the rim of the canyon. And it really got cold. We were glad to step inside. The side of the canyon had one huge window (and some binoculars) to look down. That was amazing. And quote (on the window) from FDR.

It was time of sunset, unfortunately, it was a bit overcast and the sun was going down on the “boring side”, so it was not so impressive. The views of the canyon, the colors, and the size of it were magical. The cold temperature was kind of damaging the atmosphere, but nothing we could do about that.

It was dark, when we got back to the car. We had an hour and half (more less) to get home. It is pretty nice, flat and straight road, so it was not so bad.

 On Friday, we drove down to Sedona. It was again nice day (the nights and mornings are cold) and sun was coming up. The drive was normal (we drove this way few times). We stopped on the beginning of the town, where is long row of stores. It was relatively early, so it was not crowded. We walked quickly around (J. felt a bit sick from the drive) and found it pretty sad. The stores were mostly selling “junk” for the tourists (jewelry, t-shirts etc). Kind of sad. Including the art.

J. wanted to go to the T. square (it is too difficult name to remember), where was big cluster of galleries and art shops. It was weird. It was (trying) looking like Spanish (or Mexican) old time village, but at the end it was just too tacky and trashy. Sedona was established in 1902. One interesting thing, there was a lot of art, but the first thing we saw, was the bear (price 36000 dollars).

So … that was something special. From this place, it was just couple of miles to Cathedral Rock trailhead. There were some people, but we still found a parking spot. It is smaller parking lot of dead end street. We could see the red rock (Cathedral Rock), it was nice view. At one point, I saw people climbing up on the rock (you could somewhat walk it, but it was pretty steep).

There was plenty of cactuses. I will miss those. We will as well miss the traffic. It is nice and quiet in here and we are moving to the Bay Area (probably one of the busiest places we could pick up). Life is change.

It was about .7 miles, but half of it was basically steep rock, so it was pretty slow. Yet, the views were unreal. We slowly walked up, enjoyed the views and really nice weather.

Again, trying to be nice, here are the pictures of us:

Finally, without the injury, we made it on the top (well, not the real top), it was a space between the parts of “cathedrals”. It was probably about 6 feet wide and you could walk along the rim a bit. The views were wide open both east and west. Really great.

We relaxed for a while and then follow some family onto different platform. It was steeper and pretty narrow. We climbed it and there was a guy sitting. We ended up talking for almost half an hour. He was a talker (I would make sexist joke, but …). And it was cold there. And the way down. It was not really easy. Pretty slippery.

It got warmer. Really incredible place. We got back and drove to visitor’s center. J. thought she had the name of restaurant to have lunch, but could not find it. We asked about it, but they did not know (lost in translation). He recommended some other places, so we drove to one Mexican restaurant, that was supposed to be cheap. We looked at prices and realized, that he and us have different definition of cheap. So we drove and hoped we will see something along the way. We then ate at small diner and it was good. After decent lunch, we wanted to take another hike, but the road was closed and the alternate route added almost two miles, so we gave up. We drove through the town and were heading home to Flagstaff. We stopped at the canyon viewpoint. It was nice. Really nice.

J. bought earrings. We stopped in town to exchange the t-shirt. J. bought me t-shirt with sign “I hiked Humphreys”. Our time in here is almost over.

On Saturday, we took a walk from Buffalo Park. There was supposed to be a trail loop, but when we got there, it looked different and there was no loop. So we just took a walk (about two miles). We enjoyed the views and relative silence of the place. It was our last time in this park. It was really pleasant.

In the evening, we finally went to the Lowell Observatory. It was (obviously) dark and pretty cold. Quick drive (oh, we will miss that in Bay Area) and pretty full parking lot. It was surprising. On the way up (the observatory is on the hill) we saw some pretty views of the town. Unfortunately, J. forgot to take the camera, so we did not get any pictures. There was the exhibition about Mars with some 3D pictures. In other building, they were talking about meteor shower (and some games for kids). Planet Pluto was discover in Lowell. We looked through smaller telescopes (I did not see much) and then waited to go into different building with big telescope. It was bloody cold when we waited in the line. It took forever. We looked through the telescope and again, I did not see much. It was like small dot or two. Too bad. At least, we bought those two things (and took picture later at home).

On Sunday, J. had day off and took it very easy, while I tried to clean the house and finish packing. In the evening, we went to have dinner with another nurse-traveler. Flagstaff being relatively small and options limited, we ended up in Olive Garden. To my (our) surprise, the place was packed. When we were leaving (after having really good time) there were people waiting for the table (who knew?)

GOOD BYE FLAGSTAFF.