Day 15: Grand Canyon

Got up early and rushed to the rim to catch the sunrise with a number of other folks.  I bundled up well since it was down into the teens (no more Tuscon summer.)  Sun rose at 7:13 and we met for coffee at Bright Angel at 8:00.  We are staying in the Thunderbird which is much nicer than where we stayed before.  It is very nice to be right on the rim.

We got on the bus around 9am and got off at the visitor center to look around.  Then we got on the orange line and took that out to Yaki Point (you can only get there by bus.)  The view was great as it is from everywhere.  We tried to keep T from getting close to the edge -- she likes to get off the path.

The rim trails and viewpoints all go right along the edge of sheer cliffs.  At some points there is railing, at others only rocks leading to the edge.  People are taking pictures everywhere and sometimes posing close to the edge.  Last time I was here I saw a Japanese man taking a picture of his wife as she was close to the edge and telling her to back  up.  Today, I saw several cases where parents put their kids on the rocks to take their pictures.  And a Japanese couple perched on a rock over the canyon.

Then when we were at Mather Point that juts out into the canyon, I saw some parents with a child way over the path, guardrail and one fence telling him to go out a little further.  T saw the horror in my face and pointed out to me that there was another fence on the other side of him as he grabbed a toy football he had presumably dropped.....

Later R pointed out to me that there was a thick book in the bookstore that described all the accidents where people had fallen over the edge (some in cars, some not).   We didn't get the book, but I understand how those accidents (and some suicides can happen.)

We spent the day visiting various vistas and hiking along the rim trail and the trail of time.  And had time to visit a few gift shops.  We met back at the room at 4pm and got into the car to take a ride out west to Pima Point.  We could see the Colorado River and some rapids from there.  We could even hear the rapids from several points on the trail.

We bypassed a stop called "the Abyss" and went on to Powell Point for the sunset.    There we met two couples from Nebraska that were traveling together.    We took turns taking pictures of our group and theirs and shivered in the cold wind as we waited for the sunset.  It wasn't all that good because of the clouds, so we finally gave up and went back to the lodge.

The only parking place we could find was a parallel on the left.  T was struggling with it because the car behind was about 3 feet over the line and T's backup warning buzzer was going crazy,  A hotel staff person saw our problem and offered to park the car for T. T didn't feel so bad when she had the same problem. She finally got parked and went back to the room for some local wine and crackers as we waited for 7:45 when we had dinner reservations at the El Tovar.

Dinner was great.  Their dinner special was 10 oz prime rib and T bargained with them for a 5 oz portion.  And they charged us half price.  It was delicious.  We split a chocolated covered strawberry cheesecake.  Yum.

Then we were off to pack and get ready to move on tomorrow after another early rising to catch the sunrise.

On to Zion tomorrow.

Day 14 : Sedona to Grand Canyon; 125 miles

After a good night's sleep, we had breakfast at the motel at 8:00 then packed up and left.  Before departing the area we took a drive up Upper Red Rock Loop Road for a spectacular view of the other side of Cathedral Rock.  Then we drove up to the airport viewpoint for a very impressive panoramic view of Sedona and the red rock formations.

We drove back through "Uptown" and onto the road through Oak Creek Canyon.  We saw snow beside the road, but fortunately the road was clear and the temperature in the high 40's.  It was a nice, clear, sunny day.  T manuvered a number of horseshoe curves as we winded up the canyon.  We stopped at a viewpoint at the top of the canyon which had an expansive view of the road and the canyon.  There were a number of tables at the viewpoint where Native American artisans were selling beautiful silver jewlery.  T bought some earrings.  It is nice to be able to buy from the craftsperson directly.

After our rest stop we skirted Flagstaff and got onto I-40 (the old Route 66.)  We stopped off  where R got a Route 66 coffee cup. We were only on R-66 for a short time until we arrived at the Grand Canyon exit and turned north for about 50 miles to the park.  We are staying at the Thunderbird Lodge on the South Rim.

We have been exploring the rim trail and the historic sights along the path.  It is partly cloudly and we are anticipating a great sunset.  We will be bundling up since the low for tonight is supposed to be in the teens.

More Grand Canyon tomorrow.

Day 13: Oro Valley to Sedona -- Goodbye to summer and saguaro : 238 miles

We packed up and headed north today.  As we descended from Tucson (about 2,000 feet) to Phoenix (about 1,00 feet) we noticed that there were fewer and fewer saguaro and the earth became very sandy -- even more desert-like.  We passed by and through several Indian Reservations (Tohono O'odham and Ak-Chin) and passed through the Casa Grande area.  This area around Phoenix is known as the "Valley of the Sun" for good reason.

We got to Tempe which was originally a ferry stop across the Salt River, although we saw no signs of water  just dry creek and river beds.   Tempe is now the home of Arizona State University.

The Phoenix metro area has about 4 million people and is spread out in  the valley.  The highway system is described as "L.A. - like."  It is confusing, but R got us through and we headed north to the mountains above Phoenix.  This was higher ground (Sedona is at 4,500 feet).

Just before we got to the Sedona cutoff, we turned off for Montezuma Castle National Monument and discovered why there were so many people on the road and at the reststop.  This is President's Day weekend and the National Parks and Monuments were celebrating by making all three days "fee-free" at the parks.  We enjoyed the pueblo-like ruins of an ancient Indian village despite the crowds and the 15% President's Day discount in the gift store.

As we took the road to sedona we began to see those beautiful red-rock cliffs.  We stopped at the Ranger Station for recommendations and found some prickly pear syrup that I had been looking for.  The ranger recommended that we go to Chapel of the Holy Cross just before the Sedona interchange.

We stopped at Oak Creek for lunch and happened onto a local market and fair featuring belly dancers -- a surprise.

Then we headed out past scenic Bell Rock and others and turned off on Chapel Road and headed up a hill.  As we got half-way up we encountered a traffic jam (evidently the ranger had been telling everyone to go here.)  As the car forward car by car into the limited parking lot, I got out and took the ramp that went up several stories to the chapel which was perched on the hill.  T and R soon joined me for a magnificent view of Cathedral Rock in one direction, Bell Rock in another, and the red cliffs behind us.   The chapel was simple, but elegant.  We had a wonderful view in all directions.

Next we headed for "Uptown" Sedona -- the main tourist area.  We enjoyed browsing through all the shops and the view of the red cliffs behind the town.  Sedona is really a charming area.  Then off to the motel in West Sedona and a trip to Safeway for some lotion for T's sunburn.  Then early to bed for good night's sleep.

On to the Grand Canyon tomorrow.

Day 12: Oro Valley

Today we stayed close by.  In the morning T and I set off for a hike in near-by Catalina State Park.  It was forcast to be near 90 today, so we started off early.

We entered the park and drove to the "trail head."  there were a number of trails, all well marked, that started from this area.  We chose the Canyon Loop Trail which was about 2 and a half miles.  The trail started up an incline to a ridge  with a wonderful view of the Catalina Mountains.  Saguaros were everwhere and the scenery was awesome.

About halfway through the loop we encountered a number of steps going down to the river bed below.  There was a bench at the top with two very tired hikers who had just hiked up the stairs going the opposite way on the trail.  There were quite a few steps going down and we decided that we were glad we had started in the other direection.

Once we reached the bottom of the steps, we found ourselves walking along a creek bed and there was actually water in the creek.  It was cool and refreshing and made us once again appreciate the value of water in the desert.  Eventually we found ourself on hiigher ground inhabited by a number of majestic saguaro.

We noticed signs in front of some which gave the name of the saguaro, stating that the suguaro had been adopted.  We found a sign that said "crested" and sure enough that suguaro was crested (only the second one we have seen.)

After completing that trail, we drove to the trial head for the Romero Ruin Trail (.75 miles) .  This trail let up to an archaeologcal site that includes the remains of a Hohokam village dating back to about 500 A.D. It was very interesting.

It was getting warm so we opted for a hike through Walmart out of the sun.  And we found that the Walmart actually had shaded parking under a carport structure.  Most of the cars were parked out in the sun, so we had no trouble finding a shaded place.  We couldn't understand why more cars did not park in the shade.

We got some tortilla soup for lunch and when we arrived back to the condo for lunch found that R had taken a hike down the wash and seen another Cardinal.  After lunch we packed and spent some time out at the pool.  It was very relaxing after a busy week.

About 4:30 T and I started off for another hike.  We went to Honey Bee Canyon again (we were there yesterday).  This time we took the entire 3 miles (up and back).  We knew there were ancient petroglyphs somewhere on the trail.  The trail ended an a rocky area and we spent some time looking for the petroglyphs to no avail.  So we started back and about halfway back spotted a rock with ancient pictures carved into it.

We made it back just in time to experience the wonderful Tucson sunset.

Tomorrow we leave Tucson and head for Sedona.

Day 11: Tucson; Art and Science Day

After an unsuccessful attempt to duplicate the havelina sighting of yesterday, we got in the car around 9:30 and headed east to the DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun.  Ted DeGrazia is a famous Tuscon artist who believed in a simple life.  He moved out into the desert and without any construction training built a chapel, a house, and a gallery himself out of desert mud.

The area has since been surrounded by suburban Tucson.  He died in 1982 and his compound is now a historic site run by a non-profit that he set up to avoid a heafty inheritance tax.   Glad he did.  It is a beautiful gallery and has so many of his originals that they need to rotate exhibits.  They even had a painting he did of the San Xavier Mission.

DeGrazia was the son of Italian immigrants and grew up in a mining town.  He moved to Tucson to attend the University and stayed there. His first paintings were published in "Arizona Highways."  His rise to fame and fortune came when his painting "Los Ninos" was chosen as an Unicef greeting card  and sold millions.  He almost literally went from starving artist to millionaire overnight.  But money did not change his attitudes or lifestyle.  He has done a number of different style paintings  and a number of different media including pottery, fabric design, and jewlery.

We arrived at the gallery just in time to join a privately arranged tour which was very informative.

It was getting hot (they are having record setting temperatures this week)  so we decided to head out to the Biosphere 2, which is about 20 miles north.  We hadn't had lunch yet, but when we got there they told us to go down for the 1:30 tour and that the tour would be about an hour.  We noted  a cafe on the way down and figured we would have lunch after the tour.

It turned out that we had a large group on the tour (about 40) so the tour took  two hours instead of one.  At times we wondered if we were going to be involuntarily part of a new human experiment.

The tour took us through about 5 different habitats from foggy desert to rain forest all enclosed from the outside world.  They even had a small ocean.  Biosphere 2 was originally built in 1991 with donations from one individual to see if humans could live in an artificially created environment.  There was a 2-year human experiment followed by a 1 year experiment which ended early.  After that the Biosphere was opened up to tourists and used for earth science experiments by universities.  In 2011 the University of Arizona was gifted the facility and is using it for research.

Some facts about Biosphere 2  (note that Biosphere 1 is the earth itself):  It is a glass-enclosed facility of 3.14 acres, 91 feet tall at its highest point and sealed from earth below by a 500-ton welded stainless-steel liner.

We left the tour at about 3:30, tired, hot, and hungry.  After hiking back to the Visitor Center we discovered that the cafe closed at 3:00. Fortunately, we had brought along some emergency protein bars in the car.  We found some prickly pear syrup in the gift store and bought some to try with our margaritas.

We went back to the condo for a late lunch and rest before starting out at about 5:30 to find a local park named Honey Bee Canyon Park.  It was only two miles away, but hard to find the entrance to  the parking area (you can only get to it from one side of a divided road).  We drove slow and found it.  It has a nice loop trail through a wash (dry river bed).  It was close to sunset so we just walked a little way and hiked back to the parking area which was on higher ground to try and take a good picture of the sunset.

As we were looking for a good vantage point, T noticed a number of folks with cameras and tripods up a short trail on the other side of the lot.  Sensing a good photo opportunity, we headed that way and discovered their cameras were pointing away from the sunset at the mountains.  They told us they were waiting for the full moon to rise over the mountains just after sunset.  The moon took its time, but when it arrived, it was spectacular.

We headed home to our prickly pear margaritas feeling that this was a special day.

Tomorrow is a free day -- our last day in Tucson.

Day 10: Tuscon Gem Show - Part 2: Convention Center

About 8:30 t went out for a walk.  I left a little later and headed to the wash.  Just as I got to  the end of the parking lot, I spotted  havelina crossing the road.  then I spotted T standing there within 20 feet of the javelina.  It crossed the road and went down the path to the wash and then another appeared.  It went down to an area next to the condo complex.  t said that 6 had crossed the road and I ran back to the condo to get my camera figuring that the animal would be long gone by the time I got back.  He was still there and looked right into the camera (like he was posing) and then took off into the brush.

We slowly walked down into the wash and saw two animals on the path.  They took off into the bushes as we approached.  As we were coming back up the trail we saw several desert bunnies.  A good start for the day.

We drove off for Tucson about 9:30 and got to the Convention Center just after it started at 10:00.  We made a wrong turn and ended up at the Convention Center parking area, but decided it was worth payinng $8 for parking and went in.  there weren't many places left, but we had no trouble parking.

We got in a short line to get our tickets and had no line at all to get into the show.  It was a grand show and we spent the day wandering through the multitude of venders.  It was nice to be able to talk to the folks that actually mine the stones and make the jewlery.  We found a table outside in the food court and got some lunch.  Pretty soon a couple asked if they could sit at our table.  The wife went off to the food court and the husband talked to us.  He was a volunteer at the "free  booth."  This is the booth where youu can get free raffle tickets.  We told him we had tried that two years ago, but didn't win anything.  He encouraged us to try again.  So after lunch we went down to the free booth and got our free raffle tickets.

We had a great time but no luck with the raffle until the last one of the day at 5:00.  They called out my number.  I was so suprised.  I went to the free booth to claim my prize.  I won an Ethiopian opal.  They told me it was donated last year but no one had claimed it so they gave it away this year.  They gave me the booth number of the donor so I could go and ask about my prize.  They were nice people, surprised because the show did not tell them last year that the prize was unclaimed.

We left the Convention Center about 5:30 and headed downtown for a coffee.  Most of downtown seemed closed up but we found a small pizza slice and coffee place next to the tourist information booth which was closed.  we had some coffee and then followed the tourquoise line from the information center back to the Convention Center parking, found our car and headed home.  We stopped off at Safeway looking for some prickly pear liqueur we heard about from our tour guide yesterday.  They didn't have any, so we settles for some pre-mixed berry margarita mix and headed home to our left overs.

 Tomorrow we are off to the De Grazia Gallery in the Sun.

Day 9: Tucson: Agua Caliente and Sabino Canyon

Today was a nature day.  We packed water and protein bars and headed east to
Agua Caliente County Park.  T and I remembered the park from our last trip as a beautiful oaisis.  Anything with water is a big attraction out here in the desert.  They are definitely having a drought.  All the riverbeds and washes are dry now.  Evidently the rainy season here is in July and August, described as monsoon season.  There are plenty of signs near the dry wash areas warning not to enter the area if wet.  I guess the rains can get intense.  But this is the dry season.

Agua Caliente is an old ranch that was originally located near the source of two springs, one hot and one cold.  One of the series of owners wanted to increase the flow in the springs and blasted into the rock,  The result is that now the property has one warm spring.  Because of the water, this area was a stopping off point for many humans and animals during the years.  It is now a park with the spring feeding into 3 ponds.

Because of the drought, only one pond had water and the level was quite low.
One of the previous owners planted a number of date palms around the ponds and property.  They are not native because they need too much water, but they seemed to thrive here and were very beautiful reflected in the pools.  Ducks and water birds were active in the shaded areas and we saw some woodpeckers pecking on the tall palms.  Sign of note : " Beware of venomous creaturees."

After taking a hike around the dry and wet ponds, touring the ranch house with a guide, and a little bird watching we headed back west to Sabino Canyon.  R's "golden pass" got us into the parking lot and we bought tram tickets for the ride to the top of the canyon.  There are 9 stops and you can get on or off at each one and take the road or various trails back down.  We trammed to the top with an informative guide/driver.


R has been looking for a Red Cardinal since we left California (they don't have them there.)  Immediately after we got off the tram, we saw one.  And then another.

We walked down to station 2 where R and I sat down to wait for the tram.  T walked on down to the visitor center. We planned to meet there.  In the meantime a tram came by stop 2 going up and informed us that the tram coming down was full (due to a tram breaking down).  He suggested we get on his and go back up, then down.  So we went on the tour for the second time -- it was still interesting.  We tried to call T but had no reception in the canyon. So T became a little concerned as 3 trams emptied and we weren't there.  Finally as we were in the home stretch, my phone rang.  "Where are you?"  I told her we would be there soon.  "I have a Dr. Pepper for you," she said.  And there she was on a bench as we pulled up.  We spent some time in the Visitor Center and Gift Shop and headed home.

We went out to a local restaurant for dinner.  The food was excellent, but we had to wait nearly an hour for our food.  They apologized and offered us a free dessert.  Turned out they meant one free desesrt and not a free dessert for each person inconvenienced.  So after two hours and two deserts we didn't expect to pay for, we left for home.  We did get enough in our takeout boxes for dinner tomorrow.

Tomorrow we are off to the big Convention Gem Show.