Dawn on the South Rim

April 24

Wake hours before dawn...stare at the ceiling until 5...bundle up...it's still cold, but the forecast is sunny.   Go to Mather Point and join about 30 others awaiting the dawn.

The first shafts of light that hit the sidewall rocks throw off almost a candlelight glow.

Every moment, a new angle goes from darkness to brillance.

We feel we've earned breakfast at El Tovar.  This was terrific.  Rick ordered a southwestern hash and eggs...it really wasn't hash, but he loved it....more of a breakfast fajita. My blackened trout with poached eggs was wonderful (though I did have to send the eggs back once because they were almost hard boiled).

Back at the ranch, we settle in to read the morning paper, hoping a nap will envelope us...no luck on that front, but discover some visitors have dropped by.  These are mule deer....they're not the sleek, elegant deer we're used to seeing.  They're shaggy, unattractive, fearless, huge and everywhere!

Later in the afternoon, we get the bright idea we'll ride our bikes up the road to Hermit's Rest.This a a 7-mile stretch to the western end of the South Rim and, during the season which starts April 1, is only open to shuttle buses and bicycles.  We didn't get far...it was like trying to ride up the side of a building!  Tomorrow, we'll try a different plan of attack.

Freezer diving tonight produces bbq pork sandwiches on sour dough rolls, roasted garlic potatoes and cole slaw.  Getting down to the dregs!

The Desert View Drive

April 23

It's still snowing hard the next morning...we layer up, pack a lunch since we don't know what we are going to encounter and head east on the Desert View Drive. This road climbs through ponderosa forests to some of the highest elevations on the South Rim.

We get our first view of the Colorado River.

And as we're standing on the overlook, up pops a family of four that has just completed a six day hike down to the floor and back.  They're hugging and kissing and congratulating themselves and all the bystanders join in.  What I found most interesting was that they said it was like walking through all of the four seasons...from

the snow and cold at the top, to the 82 degrees and showy flowers on the floor.  They were one group of

happy campers!

Grandview Point is spectacular.  Love the variations on the size, color and shapes of these rocks.

Moran Point is stunning.

And the winter landscapes spotted along the way are picture perfect.

We walk alot, but it's not feeling like we want to have an outdoor picnic. So we park at a scenic overlook and enjoy a grand vista and a ham and cheese on rye that tastes far better than it has any right to.

Stop at the Tusayan Ruin and Museum . About 800 years ago, this small village was home to the Cohinina Anasazi. It truly is a ruin....very little left to get a feel for what it would have been like.

Mary Jane Colter

We were not familiar with the name Mary Jane Colter....we certainly are now and she was one amazing woman.  Imagine first a woman becoming an architect in the late 1800's and then being retained to design hotels and shops that were meant to evoke the southwestern experience.  Her buildings range from the rambling upscale El Tovar on the rim in Grand Canyon Village to more modest accomodations, to the famous Phantom Ranch on the canyon floor, Lookout Lodge, Hopi House and many other gift shops that were seemingly restorations of ancient Indian strucures. 

At Desert View sits The Watchtower, a 70 foot re-creation of a Puebloan observatory.  Built in 1932, it was always a gift shop, but one with not only an astonishing view from high above, but a feeling that this building has been there for centuries.

Inside, flanking the circular walls up to the observation level, are murals of historic Southwestern culture.

And on a clearer day, it's said you can see the Painted Desert from the top...but it was still pretty great as it was.

 Turns out there is a snack bar near the Watchtower....soup would've tasted good! 

As fascinated as I am with this pioneering woman, I'm equally intrigued by the  man that hired her.  Fred Harvey, a transplanted Englishman who believed creating a memorable experience through hospitality and food service was the future.  He, in conjunction with the Santa Fe Railroad, retained Mary Jane Coulter to bring this vision to life.  Seems to me he was an early day Walt Disney!  The saddest thing is that he did not live to see the completion of the jewel El Tovar.

Almost Sunset

Get back to village as it nears sunset and low and behold, it stops snowing and the sun is peaking out.  Run to the rim to get another view.

Tomorrow we're going to try the dawn patrol again.  Tonight's freezer diving expedition leads us to "designer sausages" (the chicken/apple, lamb/feta type).  Too cold outside to grill...slice in chunks on the diagnonal, saute onions and peppers, add sausages to heat.  Had a few fingerling potatoes....made a basil, scallion, garlic potato salad drizzled with olive oil.  Served with cole slaw.  We're making good use of the stuff we have and clearing out the fridge before we get to Boulder.

A Harried Trip to the Grand Canyon

April 21 ~ 22

White knuckles is the only way to describe the drive to the Grand Canyon. The skies were dark and the wind was kicking  up when we left Sedona.  But we pushed on.  Then it started to rain.  That turned to sleet and snow. The visibility was about 100 feet.  Serious accidents were everywhere.  Scared is the operative word.

Stop at a truck stop for about an hour…have some soup…trying to find a gap in the storm. Rick’s tracking it on his iPhone. He thinks a little respite is coming. We leave. It’s a bit better, but quickly gets worse.

There is nowhere to stop…not even pull off the road. We press on…..very, very slowly. Rick does as marvelous job of keeping us safe and we make it to the Grand Canyon Trailer Village and pull into a very snowy site. This is certainly a bare bones place, but its big selling point is it's a half-mile from the rim.  Next closest place with hook-ups is outside the park and miles away.

We hook-up real fast and race to the rim for our very first ever view of the Grand Canyon.

I’ve used up most of the superlatives for the sights of Sedona. But Holy Moley….even under cloud cover I understand the reason they call this canyon Grand! I really think some of the individual formations in Sedona are more striking, but the sheer expanse of this wonder challenges words.

Walk around a bit….check out El Tovar, the upscale hotel on the rim where we have dinner reservations on Sunday night. Then head back to Gigantor for a drink, an early dinner and an early evening. We’re exhausted.

Freezer Diving

I hate wasting food and find  no good reason for it….really great things can be put together with what you have. I call it “freezer diving”. I have vowed to use all the bits and pieces we have in our freezer and fridge before we get to Boulder in about another 10 days. It’s amazing what wonderful things you can come up with. Bought bunches of fresh produce in Sedona and will play Iron Chef with all the “secret ingredients” we have in the freezer!

Tonight was easy. Had a pork loin….marinated it in a hoison garlic sauce, stir-fried carrots and a bit of broccoli with some ginger and made some rice. Really good and simple.

Sunrise on the South Rim

Awake before dawn so we decide to go to the rim to view the sunrise. It is 24 degrees and we don’t have clothes for this kind of weather. Layer, layer, layer. Get to the rim……unfortunately the clouds are still hanging over the canyon…but we get one little shaft of light.

Walk for about a mile around the rim and are glad we are seeing the canyon in this weather…though, we are hoping it gets nicer sometime before we leave.

Tired and freezing, we go to the Bright Angel Lodge and order a big, belly buster, breakfast. Should have ordered one of their “Sizzling Skillets” and split it. This is Rick’s country fried chicken with gravy, eggs and potatoes! My corn beef hash and eggs was equally behemoth!

Back to Tor ...settle in to read the morning paper and wake up three hours later!  Feeling much better.

Still snowing, but decide to go back to the rim and see what we can see.......not much of the canyon...but is a treat to see some of the wonderful winter scenes that have been created.

Even though it's freezing, after that breakfast bonanza, we long for a salad for dinner.  Pull out leftover satay, sliice the meat, arrange on a big plate of greens and sprinkle with sliced scallions and peanuts.  When I originally made the peanut sauce, I doubled the recipe....for two reasons.  First so we'd have it around when we needed to make something quick, but mostly because doubling it used up a full can of coconut milk and a small jar of peanut butter.  Defrosted a little sauce, thinned it with milk and it made fabulous salad dressing.

Forecast for tomorrow is dreary.  Plan a trip of the "Desert View" drive...about 26 miles towards the eastern entrance to the park.

Birds, Baubles & Ancient High Rises

April 19 ~ 20

Rancho Sedona RV Park  (ranchosedona.com) can't be called a luxury resort, but we liked it.  It's of the mid-tier variety, right in the heart of town and has a very good vibe about it.  The "executive sites" back up to Oak Creek which provides a lovely sleeping background.

One incredibly unique characteristic is that it has unwittingly become a nesting ground for blue herons.  I think of those huge pre-historic looking birds on the water....not in trees.  It is quite a sight.  Six pairs (down from 29 last year) were keeping watch until their newborns could fly. 

The nests weigh up to 100 pounds and are built with heavy-duty sticks.

Seeing those huge birds standing in the trees feels like you've been tossed into Jurassic Park.  And those babies!  They're the size of turkeys!  Watching them daily was a treat....and one morning when a hawk tried to lunch on a baby, you would swear a pterodactyl was chasing him.

Tlaquepaque

Time for a little shopping.  Tlaquepaque (tlaq.com), pronounced ta-locky-pocky, is a lovely shopping area fashioned after Guadalajara.  I don't love shopping all that much, but this was terrific....for the first time in my life I bought Christmas presents in April. Particularly liked Cucina Sedona for kitchenware and Renee Taylor Gallery for very distinctive jewelry.

Didn't get to try it, but hear Rene is a very good French restaurant.

Montezuma Castle

Montezuma Castle (nps.gov) is about a 45-minute drive from Sedona.  It's a five-story, 20-room dwelling set into a recess in a cliff about 100 feet above the valley dating to the early 1100's. 

The Southern Sinagua tribe lived and farmed there for over 300 years.....and suddenly disappeared....they still haven't figured out why.  There's a very interesting diorama which nicely depicts what daily life must have been.  For some strange reason they have placed it after you pass the "apartment house".  We got a far better grasp of the structure after viewing this.

By the way, it has nothing to do with Montezuma, the Mexican emperor.  When it was first discovered, it was thought it had an Aztec influence and that it must have been for Montezuma.  It wasn't, but the name lives on.

Tomorrow we are going to one of our ultimate destinations....the Grand Canyon.  Neither of us have been there and have only seen it from 30,000 feet.  We can't wait.

The Stunning Red Rock Formations

April 17 ~ 18

Awesome mystical, jaw-dropping, magnificent!  Heap any string of superlatives together and it still won't adequately describe the Red Rock Formations. They seem to just rise out of nowhere...the surrounding area is pretty uninteresting.  Then you hit Sedona and wow!

The area is pretty compact, so it's not hard to see pretty much the best of the best in a day or two.  Any map shows where the big ones are, then you just weave and bob in and out of neighborhoods to get up close views.  There are also plenty of scenic overlooks, but you don't get as up close and personal and just driving around. The west side of Sedona offers plenty of places off Route 89A.

Here's Coffee Pot Rock.

One of the best vantage points is at the airport....it's on top of a mesa and there are several overlooks and trails to wander.

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South on 179 you'll find Cathedral Rock, supposedly the second most photographed rock in the world...the first is something in Australia.

But my personal favorite is Bell Rock...it's much smaller than many, not that imposing, but it has a certain elegance to it that I favor.

A really striking sight off Rt.189 is manmade and sits high above the road seemingly wedged into a cliff.  The Chapel of the Holy Cross (chapeloftheholycross.com) was built in 1956 by Marguerite Bruswig Staude to honor her Creator and in thanksgiving for all her family had received.  It's now a part of the Diocese of Phoenix, but holds no Masses.  It is called a Frank Lloyd Wright design, but their literature doesn't really explain what that means.  Don't think he actually oversaw the construction.  But it is striking.

You can recognize the Lloyd influence in the "bringing the outside in".  The view from the chapel showcases the formations outside.

An interesting thing to do while in Sedona, is visit the same places during different times of the day..the light changes everything.  Bright daylight, when most of these photos were taken, really take out the richness of the color.  One evening, we had a delightful visit with some friends from DC who moved out here about 8 years ago.  This is the view from their home at about 6:30 in the evening.

Oak Creek Canyon is a highly tauted short trip north of the village of Sedona.  We were underwhelmed.  Very handsome....but nothing like these red rocks. The first overlook on the road up the mountain is actually the most interesting.

Stopped at a very good deli called Indian Garden Deli up the road where they compose very good and pretty sophisticated sandwiches.  We opted to split a Gobbler...turkey breast, avocado, sprouts.  Will find a picnic spot along the way. The jewelry store next door, Garland Indian Jewelry (garlandsjewelry.com) has stunning pieces....with stunning prices! But what a treat to wander through.

Reached the summit through a series of switchback roads....do not take an RV through here! 

Found a picnic spot on the way back.  But everywhere we walked we encountered billions of large red ants!  This is what we had to do to avoid them.

Rick dropped an sprout from his sandwich....watching an ant cart it off the his Queeen turned out to be the best entertainment of the day!