Movin' On

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Grand Canyon to Sedona

It is tough to leave here, although we really feel as though we've made really good use of our time and seen a bunch!  Back to our restaurant for a last breakfast and Sue is our waitress!  We get more tips about Sedona, learn more about her, and find that there are lots of Floridians at the Canyon!  I'm feeling a bit more virtuous because I'm having yogurt and fresh fruit.  Of course it comes with banana bread, so maybe not so virtuous!

We pack, load the car, get ice and check out.  Another fun chat, this time with Scott at the front desk. He's got a degree in accounting and a minor in hospitality!  He tried working for the Ritz Carlton in Miami but had to come back to the Canyon!

Lobby of the Bright Angel Lodge, one of the few times it is empty!

On our way to breakfast we had run into the same family that was watching the elk with us.  They went to Desert View yesterday and say it is fabulous, so we change our route to Sedona.  It won't add much time to the trip and will actually work out better and save us a day down the road!

Loaded up, one last photo and we're off.  Our first stop is the Tusayan Museum and ruins  This was a small Puebloan site with about twenty-five or thirty residents.  Everything they used came from the plants around them.  They entered their dwellings through a hole in the roof which also vented the smoke from their fires.  They have living areas, storage areas and a kiva and central plaza.

Living area

kiva

Next stop will be Desert View, a tower build by Mr. Harvey in the style of the indigenous people to showcase their culture and provide a marvelous view of the Canyon

It turns out there are still a few more opportunities for Canyon views.  One can’t ever get enough of this unique and astounding wonder of the world!  Here are just a few last photos.  The ravens are having a ball and I just love to watch them skitter back and forth across the sky with the Canyon as their backdrop!

On, now, to Desert View…and there are still more chances to be overwhelmed.  There is a better view of the Colorado from here and the interior of the tower has some dramatic examples of Native art.

 Further down the road we stop at an overlook that we thought would be the Little Colorado River Gorge.  It wasn’t;  but it was interesting and on the way to the view we saw this gorgeous Eastern Collared Lizard!  He made my day, ‘cause I spotted him first!  Marilyn is always the wildlife spotter, so I was tickled!

Our next stop is the Wupatki National Monument.  It is a driving tour of several different ruins and also takes us past Sunset Crater Volcano. The final ruin is of a much larger community of about a hundred people.  It is quite impressive and reminds us of the Mesa Verde Monument.   I get to see cinder fields and lava flows!  Marilyn humors me even though it just looks like rocks to her!

These are all built above a box canyon.

Look how close this is built to the edge of the canyon!

We see another lizard;  but he isn't as spectacular as our first find!

This is the community that numbered about a hundred people!

Sunset Crater Volcano.  Two centuries later and you can still see the ash and cinder that helped hold the moisture and allowed the Puebloans to raise plants.

Lens cap for scale in the cinders

We take turns sniffing a Ponderosa Pine’s bark.  We’ve been told that if you scratch the bark gently it will smell like cinnamon or vanilla.  It does!

Marilyn is eager to show me Oak Creek Canyon, though which she drove last year with her mom and aunt.  It is more beautiful scenery!  Lots of red rocks!  We stop at one view point and she goes across the street to the Butterfly Garden Inn Market and Cabins to buy chips, and while she’s gone a man appears with his large dog.  He says there is a bird “in that tree that’s as tall as you are!”  I look where he’s pointing and see a dark silhouette of what appears to be a heron!  Wasn’t expecting that!

Marilyn returns and says the “butterfly” lady and her husband have just bought the place.  They came on vacation and fell in love with the place and the area!

We stopped to look at the flowers and then I spotted this little guy!

The further we go south the more lovely the mountains become.  The rocks are the most amazing color!  Sedona is surrounded by them!  At the end of the canyon we enter Sedona, crossing the Oak Creek bridge and look for our motel, the Whitehouse Inn.  Little did we know it would be on the west side of town, which Sue had assured us had all the good stuff!  As we drive down 89A we spot almost all the places she had recommended to us!

The manager upgrades our room and here’s the view from our back door!

How could we fail to enjoy our night's rest here?