North Rim Grand Canyon, Zion National Park and on.

We visited the North Rim of the Grand Canyon on Friday, stayed in a cozy little cabin in the woods that night in Jacobs Lake, AZ, and Saturday arrived in Henderson, NV after an awesome ride through Zion National Park. Any of the photos I attach to this blog do not do justice to the beautiful places and natural wonders we have seen. I hope you enjoy the photos, and maybe some of them will entice you to take advantage of the great places of beauty in this country.

We arrived at the home of old friends in Los Gatos, California Sunday evening, May 23rd. Our mileage total is now 4,239 miles since May 4th. All I can say is, Life is Good and take time to smell the roses.

We left Page, AZ, the site of the Glen Canyon Dam and of Antelope Canyon, last Friday morning and arrived a short time later at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I suggest that anyone over age 62 go to a national park and get the lifetime senior pass for $10.00. Mine was a gift from my daughter Kara, and so far has saved us $60.00 in entrance fees. The entrance fee to the Grand Canyon was $25.00, but free with our pass. Again, pictures are worth a thousand words so I will yield my words to the photos.














The North Rim of the Grand Canyon, at 8000 feet, is over 1000 feet higher than the South Rim. It is also more remote which translates into less visitors, less commercial activity and more freedom to move around. The lodge is quite nice and has a good restaurant too. A park ranger gave a very interesting half hour program on the geology of the canyon and surrounding region. This included rock samples from the different layers and great maps of the changes over the millennia. Oh, yes, there are remnants of snow in the high alpine meadows.



We left the canyon rim and drove north about 50 miles to Jacobs Lake, AZ to the Jacobs Lake Lodge. This places has many different types of accommodations but since we tend to decide at the last minute which place we will stay we don't always get the best choice. Our cabin was rustic. No TV, phone, internet access and only one working electrical outlet; nevertheless, the bed was nice, the shower hot, and there were no evening noises except for nature's.


The next morning we left Jacobs Lake and drove north, just over the Utah border, then turned west on SR 9 to Zion National Park. The difference between Zion and the Grand Canyon is that the Grand Canyon is viewed from the top. It is huge and vast. Zion National Park is a deep canyon and you drive through it on a twisty road that snakes down and through and you are very close to the giant rock walls. It envelopes you, much like a thick forest that does the same with the closeness of the trees. Peg liked Zion more then she liked the Grand Canyon, I think because she was so close to everything.

Again, we saved the $25.00 entrance fee because of my senior pass. Even without it though, it would be worth the entrance fee. Leaving the canyon west through town was crowded with cars, tour buses and campers. The park's visitors center is on the west side and most visitors come from that side, probably because of Zion's close proximity to Las Vegas. There were a lot of cars and tour buses, commercial establishments and short tempers in the crowded parking lot. We were fortunate to be traveling against the traffic towards Henderson, NV to visit with my nephew, John.







We had a very nice and long overdue visit with my nephew in Henderson, NV. The lodging, a Marriott Town Suite was easily 180 degrees from our cozy mountain cabin. It was very nice. So, we left Henderson, and drove west into California's Mojave Desert. I am not sure, but I think it was close to Zzyzx, CA that we came upon this unique piece of architecture in the middle of no-where. Any guesses?



We continued on to Bakersfield, CA for a delightful lunch with my favorite niece, Lily. We have not seen Lily for several years and it was nice to see the beautiful and poised young lady she is. After a wonderful and delicious lunch at Marie Callender's Restaurant (www.mariecallenders.com) we did hugs and pictures, Lily back to LA, and us for five days with friends in Los Gatos.

Monument Valley, UT - Page, AZ

Here it is, May 20th and we arrived Page, AZ today after spending yesterday at Monument Valley Utah. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, and the scenes we saw on the road from Santa Fe to Monument Vally, then beyond to Page AZ, are worth much more. Now, you all know I am a man of intricate, verbose, and over descriptive narrative, but I will try to be kind and just show a lot of photos, with short titles, to fill this particular post. It will not happen all the time though.

Remember, you can double-click on the photos to enlarge them.

First though, I am going to quote verbatim, from a pamphlet we were given by the Native American owners of the View Motel. www.monumentvalleyview.com regarding the geology of the region.

"Monument Valley was created beneath the Earth's surface. During the Paleozoic Era - about 570 million years ago, the entire Colorado Plateau was underneath the Gulf of Mexico, which brushed against the young sediments of the Rocky Mountains.

Uplift from the Earth's mantle caused the ocean floor to crack while the sea subsided west during the shifting of the Pacific and North American Plates. At the end of the Jurassic Period - about 65 million years ago, the mud from the ocean floor became sand stone held together by the Organ Rock formation and the mountain sediments such as limestone. In certain places you will see ancient volcano plugs that turned into Basalt- an igneous rock formation. With continuous erosion from water and wind, you are seeing one of the most amazing places in natures creation." On this map, Monument Valley is just north of Kayenta, AZ on the border between the two states.

The Drive to Monument Valley From Santa Fe.






View from our room at the Mountain View Lodge. Words, even mine, can not describe this place.










The trip from Monument Valley UT to Page AZ. Page is a city built at the time of construction of the Glen Canyon Dam 50 years ago, so everything is fairly new. You can see in the photos how steep the canyon walls are and also, how low the water level behind the dam is.












The next group is of Antelope Canyon. This very narrow and twisty formation is caused by a lot of water building up in a small box canyon and over millions of years, finding a way out by eroding the weaker parts in the soft stone.

We are off this morning, Friday May 21st, to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. There will be plenty of awesome photos from there. At 8000 feet, one thousand feet higher then the south rim, we expect to see some wonderful sights. I will share them with you in my next post.

Two Weeks OnThe Road

It's been two weeks since we left Hickory, and 2738 miles on the car when we arrived Santa Fe. Peg has not even thought of leaving me out in some remote arroyo in the New Mexico desert. I think!

We left Roswell Monday morning for Santa Fe. What a ride. US 285 from Roswell to Santa Fe, you don't realize because you don't see mountains or other references, but we were steadily increasing altitude from 3000 ft above sea level in Roswell to 7000 feet in Santa Fe.


We crossed I-40 at Cline Corner, NM. It was the first time we crossed I-40 since we left it going south to Chattanooga our first day. At this point, US66 paralleled the interstate. Our route, US 285, is a long, flat, 4 lane road with posted speed limits of 75 mph. All we saw was sparse landscape and cattle. Not many of them either because it takes so much land to support each cow. We did see an antelope beside the road and two wild pigs.

I was doing about 10 miles over the speed limit, but some times I found my self doing 90 to 98 mph. One time I was at 85 in the right lane and a state police car, with its lights flashing, came up on me in the left lane and passed me by doing at least 100. I thought I had had it. Breaking rocks for me. Never did see him again though. My car handled superbly at these speeds.


We arrived Santa Fe in the early afternoon of the 17th and stayed until the 19th. It is a beautiful 400 year old city at an elevation of 7000 feet, which makes it the oldest and the highest capitol city in the US. Many years ago the city fathers implemented building codes that required all buildings to be in conformance with the modern Pueblo type architecture.

It is the home of artists of many talents. Painting, sculpting, and pottery the most popular. The dollar revenue from artwork in Santa Fe, is second only to New York. This says a lot for the quality and quantity or artisans here. We have met several locals who visited this charming city years ago, one from NYC, and have eventually made it their home.




The food is equally good, from northern New Mexico chili influenced dishes to superb French cuisines. We had lunch the first day at an outdoor French cafe, dinner at "The Shed" an old and popular local restaurant, and on the night before we left, I had a meal of a ralleno served with green chili, a blue corn enchilada served with red chili, a beef taco, Spanish rice and re-fried beans.
An of course, a great frozen Margarita. It was a local favorite restaurant in the refurbished railway station district. Tomasita's of Santa Fe is a must for any visitor.





Retirement Date 05.19.2010 - Warp Speed 1. in order to cruise slow enough for photo taking. We will be heading to Monument Valley, UT today, Thursday, and will have a new post soon.