Day 18 - Flagstaff, AZ

Monday, May 21, 2018

Weather:  Cloudy in the mid 60’s in the morning and clearing and 70’s later in day - seriously chilly once the sun went down though, and we didn’t dress appropriately to be stargazing at all!

Steps: Shaun - 15,667, Shannon - 14,706

 

The schedule for our day in Flagstaff was packed beyond packed, so we got an early start and drove to Sunset Crater, New Mexico before it even opened! Sunset Crater is the youngest volcano on the Colorado Plateau (erupting only 900 short years ago), and it’s amazing how many volcanoes are in the area if you know where to look. There is no hiking allowed into the actual caldera, but the lava flows have created a crazy landscape in the valley that has to be seen to be believed, so there is a Lava Loop Trail (1 mile round trip) that circles along the base of the mountain. It was an unbelievable landscape, and then to see that there is life growing from the charred black remains of the lava is truly amazing. Apparently, when the volcano erupted, the lava had nowhere to go at a certain point in its travels, so it backed up in the valley and cooled into its current state. We’re so glad we included this national monument in our trip because we’ve never seen anything even remotely like it.

After leaving Sunset Crater, we drove to the Wupatki National Monument where dozens of ancestral Puebloan villages are preserved.  We were able to walk through a wonderful ruin of a pueblo called Wukoki where the people of the Northern Sinagua, Cohonina, Kayenta, and Hohokam archeological culture groups lived between 1100 and 1250 CE when they mysteriously left the area. Other Pueblo sites within the Monument include Wupatki, Citadel, Nalakihu and Lomaki.

Our next destination was the visitor center where we briefly looked over the Wupatki ruins which included 100 rooms plus a ceremonial circle and ball court, but we were pressed for time and couldn’t hike down into the ruins themselves (which is a bummer because they were seriously cool—they apparently had been used by professors and other park employees in the last 100 years due to a housing shortage; how weird would that be?).

The drive back to Flagstaff took longer than we had hoped, so we had to make do with lunch from Del Taco that we ate in the car in the Arboretum at Flagstaff's parking lot (it was actually much worse than it sounds). The tour of the arboretum was short but informative about the efforts the staff is making in the area of studying how climate change is affecting plants.  The tour guide’s golf cart got stuck on a rock in the shade garden, so we were forced to finish the tour on our own. We looked through the native species beds, a constructed wetland area, an herb and medicinal plant garden, and also a greenhouse with a water tower system for temperature management.

There were lots of birds at the Arboretum, including hummers, swallows, and red-winged blackbirds.  Shaun was bummed that we didn’t spot the unique native squirrel with the tufts on their ears, and Shannon was sorry we didn’t see any javelinas.

Our next stop was at Riordan House where, around the turn of the 20th century, one of the richest dudes in Flagstaff built a house for he and his brother and their wives, who were sisters. The house was a rustic Arts and Crafts-style crazy big building that had a 6,000-square-foot section on the left and a mirrored one on the right attached to each other with a 1000-square-foot great room in the center. The house was designed to blend into the landscape by the architect of the El Tovar Hotel at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

We toured the east house which looks mostly as it did in the early 1900s. The house contains 4,000 books between the two houses, which had Shannon salivating. The west house is now a museum with exhibits about the family, the architect, the Arts and Crafts style, and Flagstaff history as a whole.

After leaving the Riordan House, we drove into Historic Downtown Flagstaff and browsed through some of the stores and then had dinner at a funky little noodle shop called Sosoba. Shaun was too scared to use chopsticks, but they had tons of stuff for her to eat, so a good time was had by all. To top it off, we found Cape Cod BBQ chips in a little party store, so we bought 3 bags! We also stopped at a grocery store and got a box to mail more stuff home for Shaun and some face cream for Shannon, who was having issues with the dryness of the air.

Our final stop for the day was Lowell Observatory, where we listened to a Stars and Galaxies talk that used a cool curved projection screen to make it 3D. The talk lasted about 45 minutes, and then we listened to a constellation origin talk, looked at the moon through a modern telescope and Jupiter through a historic telescope (it was hazy, so only 2 telescopes were available for viewing), and also got to see the International Space Station fly by (Shaun’s favorite part). It was really cold, though, and we didn’t have enough outerwear, so we headed back to the townhouse and prepped to leave Flagstaff (bummer). What a day we had, don’t you think? Did we pack enough stuff in?

Day 16 - Fredonia, AZ to Flagstaff, AZ

 

Saturday, May 19, 2018

Weather:  Sunny and low 70’s up north, then increasing clouds and a few sprinkles as we headed further south with decreasing temps to the mid-60’s once we arrived in Flagstaff.

Steps: Shaun - 10,229, Shannon - 10,415

Breakfast was served early at the ranch (which was fine with us since we weren’t really sleeping anyway!), so we got on the scenic route to Flagstaff earlier than expected.  It was a beautiful day, and our route took us north through Kanab and then back around through Page again.  We stopped at a seriously cool sporting goods/bookstore/coffee shop in Kanab run by some major hippy freaks, so naturally we never wanted to leave.

We drove back through the Vermillion Cliffs and then arrived at the eastern entrance to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, commonly called the Desert View. The most outstanding feature of this entrance is called The Watchtower that was designed by Mary Colter (who built several of the key architectural features at the South Rim as well).  The tower itself was constructed in 1932 to resemble a Native American buildings of a much earlier time.  Inside is a circular staircase that winds up through five levels of galleries with paintings and pictographs based on the art of the Pueblo Indians from nearby Hovenweep and the Round Tower of Mesa Verde. It was absolutely amazing, and there was a wonderful gift shop where Shaun bought a sweatshirt and water bottle with replicas of the artwork.

Desert View offered some really beautiful overlooks into the canyon that are quite a bit different than can be seen from the North or South Rims. Our favorite was called Grandview, but the light was weird when we were there because the clouds were rolling in.  It was very atmospheric though, so we enjoyed it immensely. 

On our way out of the park, we seized the opportunity to take some close-up shots of our ubiquitous friend, the raven.  These birds are so amazing, and we really gained an appreciation and an affinity for them over the course of this trip.  Finally, while sitting at a stop sign just outside of the rest area, Shaun glanced to her left and said, “What the heck is that big thing standing over there?”  Do you know what it was?  A humongous bull elk is what it was!  Seriously, he was just nibbling on the grass in the median of the entrance road with all the cars piling up on either side of him.  It was amazing!

At the junction of Highway 69 and 84, there sits a crazy store called the Cameron Trading Post.  We were moved to go in by our bladders, and 2 ½ hours and many hundreds of dollars later, we finally left the store behind.  We went away with some absolutely awesome stuff though, and we were so happy we stopped.  They had reasonably priced Native American crafts including gorgeous jewelry and handmade rugs.  Shaun bought a small rug and an earring and necklace set made from orange and purple oyster shells that she’d been lusting after at every store we went into.  Shannon bought a Navajo vase and lapis and silver earrings.

Not only did Cameron’s fulfill our retail jones, but we also had a wonderful lunch there.  Shannon had Navajo beef stew with fry bread, Shaun had a hummus plate, and we shared a guacamole to round out the meal.  The rugs hanging all over the walls and the baskets sitting on the gigantic stone fireplace were absolutely insane!  We were amazed by the craftsmanship surrounding us, and we only wished we had a boatload of money because we would have each snagged a basket and rug that would have set us back several thousand dollars (but would have been so worth it!).

It had started sprinkling when we left Cameron’s, and we were treated to a lovely rainbow. Once we got to Flagstaff, we had Thai food for dinner in the beautiful townhouse we had rented for the next 3 nights aptly called “The Nest”. It had 2 bedrooms, 1 ½ baths, kitchen, living room, dining room, fireplace, deck, and washer and dryer which we were in critical need of. It was fantastic, and we wished we could have stayed there much longer than we did. As it was, we had to do laundry really fast and get all our crap sorted out to prep it for shipping (which was no mean feat, let me tell you!).  Tomorrow we will be spending the day in Sedona.

Little Grand Canyon