Thursday, September 01, 2005
I Heart Colorado Part 1
Current Location: Pueblo, CO
Wednesday morning, I woke up and drove quickly to my first destination, Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde is an archeological national park, dedicated to hundreds of years of American Indian habitats, cliff dwellings and kivas. There were a lot of good hikes in the park, and a lot of history to learn. I spent a few hours going through the museums and historical sites and exploring the cliff dwellings. The park was very interesting, and was very similar to Bandelier outside of Santa Fe. You can view the photos here.
I noticed that in Colorado, people were extremely friendly. I met a lot of east coast transplants who have moved to Colorado to live the figurative cowboy lifestyle. Everyone has their own take and what they fell in love with in the state that prompted them to up and change their lives and move out there. I have loved meeting people on this trip, especially people with passion for life. Colorado is definitely a great place to live. Plenty of wide open land, great big cities, lots and lots of mountains for skiing, and crisp clean air.
I drove east across Colorado via US 160 which skirts the southern end of the Rocky mountains. I veered onto Colorado 112 in the town of Del Norte, so I could get to Great Sand Dunes National Park. Great Sand Dunes was very cool. At the very southern and western edge of the Rocky Mountains are these huge, immense sand dunes, they grow to an elevation of 400 feet. The sand blows in from the deserts in the west, and when it hits the Rockies, it has no place to go, so it has just been collecting for thousands of years. I got to Great Sand Dunes near sundown and I pulled up to the dunes and tried to walk out to them. The base of the dunes are about a half mile from the parking lot. I kicked off my flip flops and began walking and came to a river buried by sand. The water comes to the surface but there is not enough flowing water to create anything but wet sand.
The sand river
I started walking and walking out to the dunes, and the sand was very cold only about an hour after the sun stopped directly shining on it. It reaches 140 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, but it must have already been about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. The air was cold too, and the wind was blowing steady, at least 30 mph, with gusts much greater. The sand was very deep and it was difficult and slow to walk out there.
Walking out to the dunes
The sand was picked up by the wind and really drove hard into me. It was so thick, you could actually see the wind, and feel the sand. It felt like hundreds of pin pricks a minute. I got about halfway to the dunes, and I was so cold and so beat that I had to turn around. I couldn't even make it. The only problem now was, heading back to the parking lot, I was now heading into the winds, and the sands are so expansive, I wasn't even sure I was facing in the correct direction or heading towards the parking lot. I felt like I was on Arrakis, it was amazing. The spice must flow. Luckily I saw some people, so I headed towards them. Due to the increasing wind and difficutly walking, it took me about 15 minutes to walk the quarter mile back to the parking lot. When I got to my car, I had to brush myself off. I was covered in sand, it was in my eyes, my hair, my mouth, my nose, my ears, in my toes, clothes, pockets and even in my camera.
At this point, it was getting real dark outside, and the sun was going down. I couldn't see the sun, because it was west beyond the dunes, but I did get some nice sunset photos.
You can view the rest of the Great Sand Dunes photos here. Great Sand Dunes was the 11th national park in the past 10 days (Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Arches, Canyonlands, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, Saguaro, Petrified Forest, Canyon de Chelly, Mesa Verde and Great Sand Dunes). An amazing whirlwind. I continued east on US 160 to Walsenburg Colorado, then north on I-25 to Pueblo, where I stopped for the night.
Wednesday morning, I woke up and drove quickly to my first destination, Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde is an archeological national park, dedicated to hundreds of years of American Indian habitats, cliff dwellings and kivas. There were a lot of good hikes in the park, and a lot of history to learn. I spent a few hours going through the museums and historical sites and exploring the cliff dwellings. The park was very interesting, and was very similar to Bandelier outside of Santa Fe. You can view the photos here.
I noticed that in Colorado, people were extremely friendly. I met a lot of east coast transplants who have moved to Colorado to live the figurative cowboy lifestyle. Everyone has their own take and what they fell in love with in the state that prompted them to up and change their lives and move out there. I have loved meeting people on this trip, especially people with passion for life. Colorado is definitely a great place to live. Plenty of wide open land, great big cities, lots and lots of mountains for skiing, and crisp clean air.
I drove east across Colorado via US 160 which skirts the southern end of the Rocky mountains. I veered onto Colorado 112 in the town of Del Norte, so I could get to Great Sand Dunes National Park. Great Sand Dunes was very cool. At the very southern and western edge of the Rocky Mountains are these huge, immense sand dunes, they grow to an elevation of 400 feet. The sand blows in from the deserts in the west, and when it hits the Rockies, it has no place to go, so it has just been collecting for thousands of years. I got to Great Sand Dunes near sundown and I pulled up to the dunes and tried to walk out to them. The base of the dunes are about a half mile from the parking lot. I kicked off my flip flops and began walking and came to a river buried by sand. The water comes to the surface but there is not enough flowing water to create anything but wet sand.
The sand river
I started walking and walking out to the dunes, and the sand was very cold only about an hour after the sun stopped directly shining on it. It reaches 140 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, but it must have already been about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. The air was cold too, and the wind was blowing steady, at least 30 mph, with gusts much greater. The sand was very deep and it was difficult and slow to walk out there.
Walking out to the dunes
The sand was picked up by the wind and really drove hard into me. It was so thick, you could actually see the wind, and feel the sand. It felt like hundreds of pin pricks a minute. I got about halfway to the dunes, and I was so cold and so beat that I had to turn around. I couldn't even make it. The only problem now was, heading back to the parking lot, I was now heading into the winds, and the sands are so expansive, I wasn't even sure I was facing in the correct direction or heading towards the parking lot. I felt like I was on Arrakis, it was amazing. The spice must flow. Luckily I saw some people, so I headed towards them. Due to the increasing wind and difficutly walking, it took me about 15 minutes to walk the quarter mile back to the parking lot. When I got to my car, I had to brush myself off. I was covered in sand, it was in my eyes, my hair, my mouth, my nose, my ears, in my toes, clothes, pockets and even in my camera.
At this point, it was getting real dark outside, and the sun was going down. I couldn't see the sun, because it was west beyond the dunes, but I did get some nice sunset photos.
You can view the rest of the Great Sand Dunes photos here. Great Sand Dunes was the 11th national park in the past 10 days (Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Arches, Canyonlands, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, Saguaro, Petrified Forest, Canyon de Chelly, Mesa Verde and Great Sand Dunes). An amazing whirlwind. I continued east on US 160 to Walsenburg Colorado, then north on I-25 to Pueblo, where I stopped for the night.
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Get Out Of The Heat
Current Location: Cortez, CO, N 37 20.961', W 108 33.525', elev. 6191 ft.
On Sunday morning, I woke up, grabbed some breakfast, and started heading south on I-17, but I quickly went off the main road, to avoid an accident backup, and also because my Dad wanted me to investigate the town of Sedona, AZ for him. I don't know, Dad, Sedona seems very touristy. I kept driving south, eventually hooking back up with I-17 and on into Phoenix. In Phoenix, I attended the Diamondbacks game against the Phillies at Bank One Ballpark. I parked for $7 and started walking towards the stadium, and met up with some really desperate scalpers. I ended up getting a $50 face value seat for $12 after a little bit of bargaining. My bargaining weapon was that I'd be able to get a cheap seat at the box office and wander around to better seats in the stadium.
Bank One Ballpark is a dome, but its the first dome I was glad to enter. As a purist, I generally don't feel baseball should be played inside on artificial surface. But in Arizona, it was 112 degrees Fahrenheit at 5 PM when the game started, so the indoor air conditioning was definitely welcome. I found my seat and settled in to watch the game a bit. I noticed that the team employs actual cheerleaders, young men and women who go around to the different sections getting people excited about the game. I also noticed that Bank One Ballpark has more disabled access seating than any other park, probably due to the high number of retirees in the area. Finally near the end of the game, which the D'Backs won 10-5, I did a final loop around the stadium and went to check out the pool in center field. I took a photo of the pool and got yelled at, because some mom thought I was taking photos of her kids. Whatever. View the photos here.
Phoenix look slike a nice town, easy to get around, but I didn't spend too much time there. i did get stuck in a tremendous traffic jam as the game was letting out. A freight train had arrived in town, near all the exits to the ballpark, and was thousands of feet long. It may have been over a mile. It just sat on the tracks for about half an hour, waiting to pull into a train depot, and in the meantime, it was blocking at least 8 streets where people were trying to leave the ballpark. When I finally did get to leave, it was about 8:30 PM, and I continued on south on I-17 until I reached the town of Casa Grande, were I stopped for the night.
Monday I continued south on I-17 heading close to Tucson. In Tucson I found Saguaro National Park (pronounced sa-wa-roh). Saguaro is a monument to the saguaro cactus tree, those famous cactus that grow arms. The trees live to be about 300 years old, and don't start sprouting those arms until they reach about 75 years old. Saguaro is arguably the most famous type of cactus, when you think of cactus, a picture of a saguaro is often what comes to mind. They may be famous and popular, but they actually only exist in a very small area in the whole world: the Sonoran desert of southern Arizona, and northern Sonora, Mexico. Not much to say about the national park, it is mostly a road through the Saguaro "forest". Here are the photos.
There was a lot I could have done in Tucson, but I was pretty sick of the desert and the heat, and definitely wanted to start heading back north into more temperate weather, so I met up with I-10 and headed east until I reached US 191, which I took north to US 70, in the town of Safford, AZ, which I took north and west to US 60, in the town of Globe, AZ, which I took north and east to Arizona 77 in the town of Show Low, AZ, which I took north, all the way back to I-40, in Holbrook, AZ, where I stopped for the night.
Tuesday, my first destination was Petrified Forest National Park, a desert monument containing many many interesting specimens of mineralized wood. Entering the park, it is made very clear that removal of objects from the park is a federal crime, and while this is true in any national park, in the Petrified Forest, there seems to be heavy enforcement, even vehicle checks. Petrified Wood can be found in every country, but the stuff in Arizona is some of the most beautiful and colorful. The northern end of the park includes part of the painted desert. The park road leads you right onto I-40. Here are the photos.
I continued east on I-40, meeting back up with US 191 only about 25 miles from the New Mexico border. I took US 191 north to the town of Chinle, AZ, in the heart of the Navajo nation, also passing into Mountain Daylight Time. Arizona is on Mountain Standard time the whole year, except the Navajo nation, which moves to Mountain Daylight Time when the rest of region does. Chinle is the gateway to Canyon De Chelly National Monument, which I investigated a bit, but not for too long, because of my ultimate destination for the day, which I'll get into in a minute. Here are the photos for Canyon De Chelly.
I continued north on US 191 until I reached the town of Mexican Water, AZ, where I headed east on US 160, taking me the Four Corners monument. Four Corners is one of just a few places in the world where 4 major territories all intersect. Four Corners (N 36 59.940', W 109 02.711', elev. 4856 ft.) is where Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado meet, and you can stand in all 4 states at the same time. Four corners is technically on Navajo land, and to enter the monument costs $3, but that is well worth it. I took a lot of photos in the monument, including of the monument itself, and looking into each state. Additionally, there are several booths selling Indian goods and foods. Four Corners is a very neat destination, and though it was close to closing time, there were quite a few tourists there. For some reason, some guy came up to me and asked "has anyone ever told you you look like Matt Groening? [the creator of The Simpsons]?". Can't say that anyone ever has, aside from that guy. I'm not even sure what Matt Groening looks like, but I do wish I had billions of dollars like him though. Here are the photos I took at Four Corners.
I continued east on US 160 until I reached the town of Cortez, CO, where I stopped for the night. I was very close to the Rocky Mountains, and the temperature was already much cooler and more comfortable.
On Sunday morning, I woke up, grabbed some breakfast, and started heading south on I-17, but I quickly went off the main road, to avoid an accident backup, and also because my Dad wanted me to investigate the town of Sedona, AZ for him. I don't know, Dad, Sedona seems very touristy. I kept driving south, eventually hooking back up with I-17 and on into Phoenix. In Phoenix, I attended the Diamondbacks game against the Phillies at Bank One Ballpark. I parked for $7 and started walking towards the stadium, and met up with some really desperate scalpers. I ended up getting a $50 face value seat for $12 after a little bit of bargaining. My bargaining weapon was that I'd be able to get a cheap seat at the box office and wander around to better seats in the stadium.
Bank One Ballpark is a dome, but its the first dome I was glad to enter. As a purist, I generally don't feel baseball should be played inside on artificial surface. But in Arizona, it was 112 degrees Fahrenheit at 5 PM when the game started, so the indoor air conditioning was definitely welcome. I found my seat and settled in to watch the game a bit. I noticed that the team employs actual cheerleaders, young men and women who go around to the different sections getting people excited about the game. I also noticed that Bank One Ballpark has more disabled access seating than any other park, probably due to the high number of retirees in the area. Finally near the end of the game, which the D'Backs won 10-5, I did a final loop around the stadium and went to check out the pool in center field. I took a photo of the pool and got yelled at, because some mom thought I was taking photos of her kids. Whatever. View the photos here.
Phoenix look slike a nice town, easy to get around, but I didn't spend too much time there. i did get stuck in a tremendous traffic jam as the game was letting out. A freight train had arrived in town, near all the exits to the ballpark, and was thousands of feet long. It may have been over a mile. It just sat on the tracks for about half an hour, waiting to pull into a train depot, and in the meantime, it was blocking at least 8 streets where people were trying to leave the ballpark. When I finally did get to leave, it was about 8:30 PM, and I continued on south on I-17 until I reached the town of Casa Grande, were I stopped for the night.
Monday I continued south on I-17 heading close to Tucson. In Tucson I found Saguaro National Park (pronounced sa-wa-roh). Saguaro is a monument to the saguaro cactus tree, those famous cactus that grow arms. The trees live to be about 300 years old, and don't start sprouting those arms until they reach about 75 years old. Saguaro is arguably the most famous type of cactus, when you think of cactus, a picture of a saguaro is often what comes to mind. They may be famous and popular, but they actually only exist in a very small area in the whole world: the Sonoran desert of southern Arizona, and northern Sonora, Mexico. Not much to say about the national park, it is mostly a road through the Saguaro "forest". Here are the photos.
There was a lot I could have done in Tucson, but I was pretty sick of the desert and the heat, and definitely wanted to start heading back north into more temperate weather, so I met up with I-10 and headed east until I reached US 191, which I took north to US 70, in the town of Safford, AZ, which I took north and west to US 60, in the town of Globe, AZ, which I took north and east to Arizona 77 in the town of Show Low, AZ, which I took north, all the way back to I-40, in Holbrook, AZ, where I stopped for the night.
Tuesday, my first destination was Petrified Forest National Park, a desert monument containing many many interesting specimens of mineralized wood. Entering the park, it is made very clear that removal of objects from the park is a federal crime, and while this is true in any national park, in the Petrified Forest, there seems to be heavy enforcement, even vehicle checks. Petrified Wood can be found in every country, but the stuff in Arizona is some of the most beautiful and colorful. The northern end of the park includes part of the painted desert. The park road leads you right onto I-40. Here are the photos.
I continued east on I-40, meeting back up with US 191 only about 25 miles from the New Mexico border. I took US 191 north to the town of Chinle, AZ, in the heart of the Navajo nation, also passing into Mountain Daylight Time. Arizona is on Mountain Standard time the whole year, except the Navajo nation, which moves to Mountain Daylight Time when the rest of region does. Chinle is the gateway to Canyon De Chelly National Monument, which I investigated a bit, but not for too long, because of my ultimate destination for the day, which I'll get into in a minute. Here are the photos for Canyon De Chelly.
I continued north on US 191 until I reached the town of Mexican Water, AZ, where I headed east on US 160, taking me the Four Corners monument. Four Corners is one of just a few places in the world where 4 major territories all intersect. Four Corners (N 36 59.940', W 109 02.711', elev. 4856 ft.) is where Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado meet, and you can stand in all 4 states at the same time. Four corners is technically on Navajo land, and to enter the monument costs $3, but that is well worth it. I took a lot of photos in the monument, including of the monument itself, and looking into each state. Additionally, there are several booths selling Indian goods and foods. Four Corners is a very neat destination, and though it was close to closing time, there were quite a few tourists there. For some reason, some guy came up to me and asked "has anyone ever told you you look like Matt Groening? [the creator of The Simpsons]?". Can't say that anyone ever has, aside from that guy. I'm not even sure what Matt Groening looks like, but I do wish I had billions of dollars like him though. Here are the photos I took at Four Corners.
I continued east on US 160 until I reached the town of Cortez, CO, where I stopped for the night. I was very close to the Rocky Mountains, and the temperature was already much cooler and more comfortable.
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Grand
Current Location: Flagstaff, AZ, N 35 13.056', W 111 35.640', elev. 6822 ft.
Friday morning I woke up and drove south on US 89. Part of the trip was through the Navajo Nation reservation, and there were a few roadside stands selling jewelry, pottery and other Indian crafts. I got down to the other end of US 89A and took that west through desert and rocks, crossing the Colorado river, and then driving up onto the Kaibab Plateau, the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Driving up there, I popped a Bob Dylan CD into my stereo, because something just felt right about listening to Dylan while driving through the desert and up to the plateau.
Upon reaching Arizona 67, I drove south into Grand Canyon National Park (North). The surprising thing driving into the canyon from the north side, is you pass through miles and miles of the Kaibab National Forest. It was very strange to see forest in Arizona, especially after being surrounded by barren desert and rock lands the previous few days.
As I was driving through the forest, I remembered that as of tomorrow, I have no medical insurance, and no chance to sign up for COBRA, as tomorrow is the three month anniversary of my last day of work. I have no medical, dental, or vision insurance, no life insurance, no insurance on any of my items in storage, or any items in my vehicle (includes laptop, camera, etc.). In fact, the only insured item I have is my car. It feels strangely liberating. Plus, who likes insurance anyway? Insurance companies are like opening presents on Christmas day. Only the presents are all bags full of weasels, and you get a bill two weeks later for upkeep of the bags and the security of the weasels. Of course, I'm probably jinxing myself by writing this, but I've had pretty good luck so far. I also forgot to mention this, but I went over 20,000 miles for the trip when I was driving from Denver to Crested Butte with Keith.
Anyway, back to the Grand Canyon. Driving in was amazing, seeing forests, trees, and large open meadows, probably with lots of wildlife. The temperature was nice and cool, high 60's, a very refreshing break from the heat of the Utah and Arizona deserts. I got to the canyon itself and... its impressive. Its huge, its massive, its 10 miles across. And I was only seeing a small section of the canyon, it extends 280 miles to Nevada. Impressive as it was, grand as it was, it didn't strike me as being extremely beautiful. Please don't get the wrong impression, I'm not downplaying the effect of seeing the canyon at all, it really was beautiful, but my personal opinion is that Canyonlands National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park were prettier to look at and photograph. That didn't stop me from taking hundreds of shots of the canyon. The sheer size of it was overwhelming.
On the north side, I met a lot of people. I'm not sure what it is, but in the national parks, people are friendly, virtually everyone says hello and wants to have a conversation. I met a family from Manhattan who saw my Connecticut license plate and struck up a conversation, and later on, I saw some New Jersey plates and struck up a conversation with a couple, though I found out the car was only a rental, they were actually from St. Louis, but had been in most of the same places in the past week as me. The north side was not very crowded at all, there were actually very few people, probably because the north side is pretty far from anywhere.
Getting near dark, I didn't stick around for the sunset, because I wanted to take a few photos of the forest on the way out of the park. Plus, I was planning on going to the south rim the next day, and it is a very long drive. Even though it is only 10 miles across the canyon, it is 225 miles to the south rim by car.
By the time I got out to the heavy forest area it was getting dark, but I saw a critter up in the road and slowed to find out what it was. It was a porcupine! The first time I have ever seen one of those in the wild, so I tried to get a few photos. Since I have never seen one, I actually got out of my car, and probably made a great site running across the street and following the porcupine, happily chasing it through the mountain meadow for a photo.
Bad photos of porcupines
I left the park pretty much the way I had come in, Arizona 67 to US 89A, to US 89 which I took south to Flagstaff, Arizona and stopped for the night. On saturday, I drove back north on US 89 until I reached Arizona 64 which headed west to the park. This was all through Navajo land, so it was nice to see during the day. In fact, there were a lot more Navajo boutiques on this side of the canyon, though I didn't stop at any. Arizona 64 takes you through the south rim of the canyon, and about 25 miles worth of the park road. I immediately found that the south side of the Grand Canyon (N 36 02.311', W 111 50.234', elev. 7435 ft.) is not as nice as the northern side. Not that its bad, just not as nice. For one thing, you are at a lower altitude, (about 9000 ft for the northern rim, about 8000 ft for the lower rim). This causes hotter weather, which causes less trees to grow, which causes less shade which causes hotter weather. Additionally, the south side is a lot more accessible, there are more airports, and Flagstaff, Phoenix, and even Las Vegas are relatively closer to the south side. More accessibility means a lot more tourists, which also makes the south side less nice.
I still took a lot of photos, and in general, spent more time on the south rim than I had on the north rim.
Desert View Tower
I noticed that a vast amount of the tourists were European. While I don't have a problem with Europeans in general, the ones I saw that day all seemed to be very rude. They didn't seem to care if they were in your way, (whether you were taking a photo or simply walking), they didn't seem to have a sense of awe about what they were seeing and to be honest, they seemed to have an overdeveloped, overactive sense of entitlement. Yes even 500 years after the discoverer-conqueror-colonizer phase, Europeans seem to think everything is theirs and have a ho-hum attitude about it. The least they could do when coming to this country is be awed by the Grand Canyon rather than have their pompous, Avant Garde attitude. They don't have to like the inhabitants, the politics, etc, but at least enjoy the Grand Canyon, something completely natural and something completely breathtaking. I came to one canyon overlook, called Grandview point, and when I first walked out to the overlook, there were very few people, but within minutes, I was overwhelmed by a throng of Europeans, and didn't see one American in the crowd. The Europeans with their loud chatter, yelling, screaming kids and other touristy behavior really ruined the overlook for me. I ended up taking photos of them, rather than the canyon.
They all just seem to be standing around, not really enjoying the view
You can view the rest of the photos here. Anyway, I got out of there pretty quickly, took a few more photos at various other view points, and went to the general store and giftshop in the main Grand Canyon village in search of one or two gift items I had in mind. I didn't really find what I was looking for in the gift shops, which meant I had to go back to the Navajo shops on the side of the road leading up to the canyon, rather than heading directly south on Arizona 64 to Flagstaff (because the Navajo lands are only on the eastern side of the canyon). So I drove back east on Arizona 64, backtracking on everything I'd seen, until I departed the canyon where I started coming to the roadside stands. I stopped at most, picking up a few items, purchasing a few trinkets to give out as gifts, and actually shrewdly haggling for the first time in my life, because the marked prices were a little higher than I had assumed. I stopped at several places and all the merchants were friendly and most wanted to talk, especially about where I was from and why I was in Arizona with Connecticut plates. I love chatting up with people, telling them about what I am doing. Can you imagine, me? Me loving to talk all about himself over and over? :) That is sarcastic, since its pretty obvious I am narcissistic and love to hear myself and love having this outlet to do it. And its quite possible that the Navajo I talked to were thinking of me what I had been thinking about the Europeans earlier. Anyway, it was pretty late, and it was dark by the time I made it back to Flagstaff, but I was able to take a few sunset photos on the Navajo nation.
Friday morning I woke up and drove south on US 89. Part of the trip was through the Navajo Nation reservation, and there were a few roadside stands selling jewelry, pottery and other Indian crafts. I got down to the other end of US 89A and took that west through desert and rocks, crossing the Colorado river, and then driving up onto the Kaibab Plateau, the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Driving up there, I popped a Bob Dylan CD into my stereo, because something just felt right about listening to Dylan while driving through the desert and up to the plateau.
Upon reaching Arizona 67, I drove south into Grand Canyon National Park (North). The surprising thing driving into the canyon from the north side, is you pass through miles and miles of the Kaibab National Forest. It was very strange to see forest in Arizona, especially after being surrounded by barren desert and rock lands the previous few days.
As I was driving through the forest, I remembered that as of tomorrow, I have no medical insurance, and no chance to sign up for COBRA, as tomorrow is the three month anniversary of my last day of work. I have no medical, dental, or vision insurance, no life insurance, no insurance on any of my items in storage, or any items in my vehicle (includes laptop, camera, etc.). In fact, the only insured item I have is my car. It feels strangely liberating. Plus, who likes insurance anyway? Insurance companies are like opening presents on Christmas day. Only the presents are all bags full of weasels, and you get a bill two weeks later for upkeep of the bags and the security of the weasels. Of course, I'm probably jinxing myself by writing this, but I've had pretty good luck so far. I also forgot to mention this, but I went over 20,000 miles for the trip when I was driving from Denver to Crested Butte with Keith.
Anyway, back to the Grand Canyon. Driving in was amazing, seeing forests, trees, and large open meadows, probably with lots of wildlife. The temperature was nice and cool, high 60's, a very refreshing break from the heat of the Utah and Arizona deserts. I got to the canyon itself and... its impressive. Its huge, its massive, its 10 miles across. And I was only seeing a small section of the canyon, it extends 280 miles to Nevada. Impressive as it was, grand as it was, it didn't strike me as being extremely beautiful. Please don't get the wrong impression, I'm not downplaying the effect of seeing the canyon at all, it really was beautiful, but my personal opinion is that Canyonlands National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park were prettier to look at and photograph. That didn't stop me from taking hundreds of shots of the canyon. The sheer size of it was overwhelming.
On the north side, I met a lot of people. I'm not sure what it is, but in the national parks, people are friendly, virtually everyone says hello and wants to have a conversation. I met a family from Manhattan who saw my Connecticut license plate and struck up a conversation, and later on, I saw some New Jersey plates and struck up a conversation with a couple, though I found out the car was only a rental, they were actually from St. Louis, but had been in most of the same places in the past week as me. The north side was not very crowded at all, there were actually very few people, probably because the north side is pretty far from anywhere.
Getting near dark, I didn't stick around for the sunset, because I wanted to take a few photos of the forest on the way out of the park. Plus, I was planning on going to the south rim the next day, and it is a very long drive. Even though it is only 10 miles across the canyon, it is 225 miles to the south rim by car.
By the time I got out to the heavy forest area it was getting dark, but I saw a critter up in the road and slowed to find out what it was. It was a porcupine! The first time I have ever seen one of those in the wild, so I tried to get a few photos. Since I have never seen one, I actually got out of my car, and probably made a great site running across the street and following the porcupine, happily chasing it through the mountain meadow for a photo.
Bad photos of porcupines
I left the park pretty much the way I had come in, Arizona 67 to US 89A, to US 89 which I took south to Flagstaff, Arizona and stopped for the night. On saturday, I drove back north on US 89 until I reached Arizona 64 which headed west to the park. This was all through Navajo land, so it was nice to see during the day. In fact, there were a lot more Navajo boutiques on this side of the canyon, though I didn't stop at any. Arizona 64 takes you through the south rim of the canyon, and about 25 miles worth of the park road. I immediately found that the south side of the Grand Canyon (N 36 02.311', W 111 50.234', elev. 7435 ft.) is not as nice as the northern side. Not that its bad, just not as nice. For one thing, you are at a lower altitude, (about 9000 ft for the northern rim, about 8000 ft for the lower rim). This causes hotter weather, which causes less trees to grow, which causes less shade which causes hotter weather. Additionally, the south side is a lot more accessible, there are more airports, and Flagstaff, Phoenix, and even Las Vegas are relatively closer to the south side. More accessibility means a lot more tourists, which also makes the south side less nice.
I still took a lot of photos, and in general, spent more time on the south rim than I had on the north rim.
Desert View Tower
I noticed that a vast amount of the tourists were European. While I don't have a problem with Europeans in general, the ones I saw that day all seemed to be very rude. They didn't seem to care if they were in your way, (whether you were taking a photo or simply walking), they didn't seem to have a sense of awe about what they were seeing and to be honest, they seemed to have an overdeveloped, overactive sense of entitlement. Yes even 500 years after the discoverer-conqueror-colonizer phase, Europeans seem to think everything is theirs and have a ho-hum attitude about it. The least they could do when coming to this country is be awed by the Grand Canyon rather than have their pompous, Avant Garde attitude. They don't have to like the inhabitants, the politics, etc, but at least enjoy the Grand Canyon, something completely natural and something completely breathtaking. I came to one canyon overlook, called Grandview point, and when I first walked out to the overlook, there were very few people, but within minutes, I was overwhelmed by a throng of Europeans, and didn't see one American in the crowd. The Europeans with their loud chatter, yelling, screaming kids and other touristy behavior really ruined the overlook for me. I ended up taking photos of them, rather than the canyon.
They all just seem to be standing around, not really enjoying the view
You can view the rest of the photos here. Anyway, I got out of there pretty quickly, took a few more photos at various other view points, and went to the general store and giftshop in the main Grand Canyon village in search of one or two gift items I had in mind. I didn't really find what I was looking for in the gift shops, which meant I had to go back to the Navajo shops on the side of the road leading up to the canyon, rather than heading directly south on Arizona 64 to Flagstaff (because the Navajo lands are only on the eastern side of the canyon). So I drove back east on Arizona 64, backtracking on everything I'd seen, until I departed the canyon where I started coming to the roadside stands. I stopped at most, picking up a few items, purchasing a few trinkets to give out as gifts, and actually shrewdly haggling for the first time in my life, because the marked prices were a little higher than I had assumed. I stopped at several places and all the merchants were friendly and most wanted to talk, especially about where I was from and why I was in Arizona with Connecticut plates. I love chatting up with people, telling them about what I am doing. Can you imagine, me? Me loving to talk all about himself over and over? :) That is sarcastic, since its pretty obvious I am narcissistic and love to hear myself and love having this outlet to do it. And its quite possible that the Navajo I talked to were thinking of me what I had been thinking about the Europeans earlier. Anyway, it was pretty late, and it was dark by the time I made it back to Flagstaff, but I was able to take a few sunset photos on the Navajo nation.