Grand Canyon / Page / Antelope Canyon / Lake Powell (April 25)

Odyssey Unlimited description of today's activities: 

Arizona, gateway to the imposing Glen Canyon Dam and its reservoir, Lake Powell. After reaching Page early this afternoon, we have lunch on our own then visit the winding – and spectacular – Upper Antelope Canyon. We travel onto Navajo land to reach this slot canyon, known to local tribes as “the place where water runs through rocks” – and one of the most photographed slot canyons in the world. Our tour through this stunning passageway reveals red-orange walls of “flowing” rock rising to heights of nearly 120 feet – the narrow canyon’s hard edges smoothed away by eons of water and sand erosion. We check in at our lakeside hotel this afternoon then enjoy dinner together there tonight.

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Leaving the hotel, we re-entered the park, driving along the rim until we came to the Desert View Watch Tower where we had a short stop.  I discovered three flights of stairs taken quickly at this altitude are more demanding that three at sea level.

Leaving the tower, we proceeded east out of the park heading into Navajo Nation paralleling the impressive canyon carved by the Little Colorado River.

We made a comfort/souvenir stop at the Cameron Trading Post.  It was quite a complex, designed to be sure that when you pulled back onto the highway you had you left some money behind.

Back on the road headed for Page, AZ we learned about Navajo Indians who served as Code Talkers in the Pacific Theater during World War II.  I was an interesting piece of history.

We arrived in Page, AZ about noon.  Our group disbursed for a 90-minute lunch break at various eateries.  Several of us chose a burger place called Slackers which was obviously popular based on the length of the line to place an order. Since we were not in a hurry this was not in a problem until it became a problem because we were in a hurry.  

It looked like a scene from a movie as all our phones lit up with a group text advising that the tour company for our next event has advanced our arrival time, cutting our lunch time from 90 minutes to 50 minutes.  

With various degrees of indigestion from inhaling our food, everyone got back to the bus on time and we were on our way.  We arrived shortly after 1:00 PM only to be told that having checked in, we had a 40-minute wait for our tour to begin.  

Time passed and eventually we queued up to board pick-up trucks, sitting fore-n-aft on bench seas.  A Native American named Abraham, rattled off instructions on how to set our cameras and/or cellphones for pictures, then drove us along a dirt road and across a dry riverbed to an opening into Antelope Canyon.  

Antelope Canyon being with the Navajo Nation, it is completely under their control.  It limits the number of people who can visit the canyon at any one time.  Several Navajo companies have allotments.  Collectively, it seemed like a lot of people to be there at once.  Fortunately, we were one of the first groups into the canyon.

Once inside the canyon. It was no more than two people wide in many places.  It was windy.  It has walls that went up a hundred feet or more allowing little light to find its way to the canyon floor. It was amazing.

We emerged at the upper end of this section of the canyon.  As we were preparing to re-enter the canyon for the return trip, the wind began building.  Clinging to the right wall (and with no stopping for pictures) we worked our way down pass hundreds of people still working their way up.  From above, sand whipped up by the rising wind started to fall down on those of us on the canyon floor.  At first it was just a bit of a nuisance, but soon it was cascading down so that no one daring look upward.  

When we came out at the parking area, the wind was swirling the sand around.  We walked back to the truck keeping our heads bent, only occasionally raising them to take a quick glimpse forward to get our bearings.  

We rolled back to our bus in howling wind, flying sand and even a few rain drops.

Given the backlog of people that built up in the canyon and the change in weather conditions, we were all appreciative that we had been one of the first groups through the canyon.

We subsequently learned that a tour of Antelope Canyon is so popular that it should be booked a year ahead of time.

Leaving Page, we soon came to the Glen Canyon Dam that holds back the waters of the Colorado River.  This formed 180+ mile long Lake Powell. We got off the bus, walked across it bridge near the dam, then re-boarded the bus for the short trip to our hotel.

This is the spillway below the dam.  The boats circled in red are each over 30' long.  

 The Lake Powell Resorts and Marinas was only a short drive upriver from the dam.  After getting settled in our rooms we gathered in the main dining room to watch the sunset while enjoying a nice dinner.

view from window table in dining room

There was a bit of confusion about dinnertime. Arizona is on Pacific Daylight Time, but we were still within the boundaries of Navajo Nation which remains on Pacific Standard Time.  Our hotel, however, was within the Wahweap Nation Park which being federal land, was presumably on PDT, not PST.  This proved to be correct.

Grand Canyon (Wednesday, April 24)

Odyssey Unlimited description of today's activities: 

It’s a day to remember as we visit one of the country’s most famous natural landmarks: the Grand Canyon. Considered a wonder of the natural world, this UNESCO site stretches nearly 300 miles through and 10 miles across the Arizona desert. We see truly awe-inspiring vistas: banded layers of rock rise to plateaus and bluffs thousands of feet overhead, while the mighty Colorado River rushes one mile below. On our guided tour, we learn about the canyon’s geological history, and also about human history here: it dates back some 10,000 years and includes native peoples, explorers, miners, entrepreneurs, conservationists, and of course, visitors – who today number some six million annually. Then we have time for lunch on our own and an afternoon at leisure to appreciate the magnitude and beauty of the six-million-year-old canyon as we wish. After this bucket-list attraction, we return to our hotel; dinner tonight is on our own.

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There is so much I could write about the Grand Canyon, but it has all be written, so I shall limit this post to our experience there.  

We arrived at the Visitors Center on the south side of the canyon about 9:30. The weather was perfect.  

We walked along the rim from there to the Village, a distance of about 2.5 miles.

One of the highlights of the day was having two California Condors glide by directly over our heads.  At that moment I had a wide-angle lens on my camera, so rather than try to execute a quick lens change I decided to stay in the moment and just enjoy watching these magnificent birds which can have a wingspan of up to 9 1/2 feet.

Unfortunately, every year people fall over the edge of the canyon wall.  There was one such death yesterday.  Given the number of people who venture off the trails for a better look, have their picture taken or take a selfie, the question that came to mind was how many people barely escape falling.

This guy was hanging out at the Village.  There was not the usual container
for tips, but it was too coincidental to be anything but staged. 

At the Village, our group split up.  Some members remained in the park for the after-noon.  Others opted to go back to the hotel for a while, returning at 5:00 PM to see the sunset and have dinner. Pam and I were in this group.

Returning to the park to see the sunset and have dinner at the famous El Tovar Hotel, we saw some elk grazing.  When we got to the canyon rim, the sun being lower in the sky changed the lighting of the canyon.

The dinner in the main dining room was great.  Our table of 10 had fun.  One or another of us kept scooting outside to check on the sunset, returning with reports that enjoying our food and conversation was the better option.

The sunset was less than awesome which was not a surprise but nevertheless a bit of a disappointment. Rather than light up the canyon with a magical glow, the lower the sun got in the sky the longer the shadows in the canyon since light does not bend. It might be fascinating the see the canyon at night under the glow of a full moon, but we were near a new moon.

There was some confusion on whether the public transportation back to our hotel was still running (which we subsequently discovered it was), so not wanting an ugly surprise when we got the transfer station, our group had a van take us back.  The driver was pleasant, stopping along the way to point our mule deer and elk hunkered down for the night near the barns.

Phoenix / Sedona / Grand Canyon (Tuesday, April 23)

Odyssey Unlimited description of today's activities: 

We leave Phoenix today, bound for the Grand Canyon. First, though, we’re headed to Sedona, one of the most striking spots in the American Southwest. Famed for its range of towering red sandstone formations, Sedona ranks as a popular destination for artists, filmmakers, photographers, hikers, and mountain bikers. We have time for lunch on our own and to do some exploring before we encounter this dazzling landscape in style, as we take a Pink Jeep tour for an exciting offroad excursion. Winding over dirt roads, we enjoy stunning panoramic views and learn about the region’s cultural and geological history. We also visit the Honanki Heritage Site, a 700-year-old Sinaguan cliff dwelling. Then we continue on to the Grand Canyon and our nearby hotel, where we dine together tonight.

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Bag pull was at 7:30. We were on the bus and rolling out of the resort shortly after 8:30 on route to Sedona. The forecast called for possible morning showers with party sunny skies in the afternoon.

Our group is 22 people.  Happiness is a almost new, 56-passenger bus with Wi-Fi, electrical outlets, USB ports and a toilet.

Soon after climbing past 3000' the Sujaro cacti suddenly disappeared, leaving nothing but low vegetation in all directions. While still hilly, the terrain became noticeably flatter. After cresting at about 4700' we started a 1500' descent into the Verde Valley. As the name implied, the vegetation got greener (and in places tallest).  

We continued on to Sedona,  our first stop being on its outskirts of the city to view one of the red and white sandstone buttes for which the area is famous. We learned that red sand was carried in by water and white by wind.

On our way into the center of Sedona, we stopped the nicely laid out arts and crafts village of Tlaquepaque.

The center of Sedona had changed a lot since Pam & I were here 17 years ago.

Literally every parcel of land that could be built on has been built on.  Sedona is surrounded by National Forest Service land. It cannot expand outward.  The only way to build something new is to tear down something old. 

With 90-minutes to browse and eat before our afternoon excursion began, we wandered passed gift shops, crystal shops, places to eat, etc. 

Apparently a lot of non-mainstream beliefs, ideologies, spiritualities and philosophies intersect in Sedona. There were a number of healing crystal shops.  We were told something about "vortexes" and other things that did not stick with me.  Hey, as long as everyone seeking a path plays nicely with others, hopefully whatever they chose works for them.

More in the mainstream were expensive vacation homes, high-end art galleries, etc.

Eventually we worked our way to...

...which when translated from fundraising item to company name was...

Our driver Duff loaded us aboard and off we when, first along the paved streets of downtown Sedona, then the paved roads outside of town and eventually over dirt roads.  The speed did not change as the road quality declined.  The latter part of the trip was a bumpy ride.

 We arrived at the Honanki Heritage Site, a 700-year-old Sinaguan cliff dwelling people who lived along what is believed to have been a trade route.  I will leave it to the Wikipedia links embedded in the previous sentence to expand on both, limiting myself to adding a few pictures.

Petroglyphs

There is apparently considerable variance in the interpretation of the meaning of the symbols which I took to mean that everyone has an idea best categorized as an (un)educated guess.

We rumbled our way back over the dirt road to the paved one, then cruised the rest of the way back to town where we transferred to our bus for the two-hour ride to our hotel in Tusayan, AZ (which is located about 5 minutes from the main entrance to the south side of the Grand Canyon).

It was about 8 PM when we ate dinner. By 9:00 we were headed back to our room doing some unpacking before rolling into bed.

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This post needs some serious work, which I do not have time to give it now. I am several days behind on posts and am trying to get caught up so think of this one as a draft.  The next few posts will also be written in somewhat abbreviated form.  After we get home, I look expanding them.  And of course I will be happy to respond to any question you send me.