April 15 & 16: Sunset Crater & The Grand Canyon National Park, Part One

Friday, April 15th - Travel to Grand Canyon, Stop at Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument

We left Sedona at the crack of 11:00 for what was to be a short drive to the Grand Canyon. Bad idea, as we should have left much earlier, as I decided I found a few "must stops" along the way.

Tree Robbins, one of our friends back home, highly suggested we stop at Sunset Crater National Monument, which wasn't far off our route. I had never seen volcanic rock, so this was pretty exciting. Don, of course, had seen lots of volcanic rock when living as a teenager on the big rock in Hawaii. Sunset Crater is just north of Flagstaff and there had been a series of volcanic eruptions here between 1040 to 1100 that left behind cinder fields and lava flows --- lots and lots of pitch black rock. Driving up to the big volcano site it looked like someone had dumped hot black pavement in big waves along the sides of the road. The landscape was different than anything I had ever seen, but I seem to be saying that quite a bit on this trip.

 Our next stop was a scenic overlook at the Little Colorado River Gorge, which is controlled/maintained by the Navajo Tribal Park. Tree had also suggested this stop, especially if we wanted to look at crafts and jewelry made by the Navajos. I don't think we even noticed the view, as Indians had booths set up all over the place and the jewelry was shining brightly in the sunlight and luring us in for a look. We had fun learning about the making of horsehair pottery and watching young Indian girls stringing beads. We did purchase a few baubles.

We took Route 64 up from Cameron and entered the Grand Canyon at the Desert View entrance. The Ranger at the gate suggested we stop at the Watchtower for a quick walkabout before driving another 27 miles to the campground. Silly us. We still think that once we have reached a National Park, we are there. Not so in many cases, as many National Parks are huge and the Visitor Centers can be miles inside the park.

The Watchtower was built in 1932 and was our first glimpse of the Grand Canyon! Yes, this was a BIG WOW! Pinch me, are we really here and looking at this "GRAND" Canyon that we heard about all our lives? Lucky us!!! The Watchtower was designed by architect, Mary Elizabeth Colter, who we learned more about in a Ranger Talk the next day. Like Frank Lloyd Wright (and maybe many more architects of this era), she wanted "no discordant note against the time-eroded walls of this promontory," thus having everything blend into the natural setting. Inside the round Watchtower, which has the feeling of an ancient Pueblo kiva, are paintings on the walls by Hopi artists. I walked to the top of the tower, all 85 steps, to soak up the views which show the enormity and grandeur of the Grand Canyon, while Don took time to soak up Indian art on the walls.

View from top of Watchtower. Can you see the Colorado River snaking through the Canyon?

The clock was ticking and it was getting later and later, but how could we have missed any of these exciting stops? We arrived at the entrance to Mather Campground at 5:30 and had to wait in line to find our reserved campsite. When I had called to reserve the site, the NP reservationist mentioned that our site had been closed, but just recently reopened. When we pulled up to our site #169, it looked like it had just dried out with former campers leftover footprints in the mud. Since it wasn't due to rain while we were here, this site would be okay. The site was also quite small for our camper, but Don squeezed it into the site. Any closer to the left side and we would have opened the trailer door into a bunch of bushes. Parking the truck within the site's confines was another problem, but Don did his best to wedge it in and not have it stick out into the road too much.

We set up camp and then walked about a mile back to the campground entrance to check out the shuttle bus stop and routes around the park, as we wanted to get up early tomorrow morning catch sunrise over the Canyon. I think we were in bed a little after 8:00 PM.

Saturday, April 16th - Sunrise, Ranger Talk and Ranger Reprimands

Excitement about being at the Grand Canyon and knowing that we had to get up before the sun [sun-up around 6:35 AM], I woke about 4:00 and nudged Don to get up, too. We drove to Yaki Point and parked the truck on the side of the road, as others had beat us to the already filled parking lot. Since only buses are allowed to drive into Yaki Point, we put on our LL Bean LED hats, grabbed our packed backpack and Crazy Creek chairs and started walking. It was mighty dark out and we needed our lighted hats to find the road as we hiked about a mile into the Point.

After getting to the Canyon rim, we found a spot facing east and settled down in our chairs with our hot tea and bagels to wait for sunrise. We had a private spot, so it was a truly personal experience to be here at the Grand Canyon awaiting this early morning show. We were not disappointed!

We returned to the campground and reorganized ourselves and grabbed the shuttle bus over to Verkamp's Visitor Center for a Ranger-Led History Talk: People and the Canyon. Arriving early we had a few minutes to chat with young, cute Ranger Kristi, who was going to speak about the Canyon's famous architect, Mary Colter. We later learned that Kristi was given the nickname, "Special K," and that she had just landed a permanent Ranger position here at the GC. Kristi told us that she  previously had planned to be a mathematics professor at a college, as she had two high level mathematics master degrees, but after spending time as a seasonal ranger for a few summers, she decided the alter her career plans. Special K was quite an impressive young woman - full of life and enthusiasm!

 Ranger Kristi, in her talk, pointed out that many buildings around the Canyon have Mary Colter's  obsessive (compulsive?) hand in their designs. Ms. Colter was rather upset when she designed the bar area of the El Tovar Hotel and President Teddy Roosevelt gave a gift of a moose head to be hung in the guests' gathering area. She ranted, "There will be no moose here, as it will throw off the balance of the room." But how do you refuse a gift from a president? They resolved the problem by procuring a second moose head to achieve the balance Mary so desired. Special K said, "When tourists ask where can they find moose in the park, she sends them to the El Tovar. There are NO moose in the Grand Canyon." We did see some elk though.

Mary Colter's "Lookout Studio"

More Grand Canyon elk.

 After the tour, we took a mile hike along the rim of the Canyon, just to continue to soak up that special feeling of awe -  just the being here and seeing what we are seeing. Wish there was a way of bottling this feeling and keeping it close forever.

We returned to our camper, grabbed a quick lunch and decided to take a nap. Within less than an hour of zzzzzzzz's, this beautiful day started unraveling. Snoozing away, we were awaken by a banging on the trailer. Don got up to see an unhappy Ranger at our door. She firmly informed him that his truck was not properly parked and had to be moved immediately. Don went out and snuggled the truck even closer to the camper on more of an angle, trying to get it out of the road.

We both tried to get back to sleep, but I failed. Grabbing my book, I went out and set up a chair around the back of the camper near the muddy footprints and sat down to read. I watched kids playing hide and seek among the trees and listened to the birds and read some of my book. An hour later, up pulls another Ranger in a truck, so I walked out to the road to meet her. She was sweet and smiling as she told me that our truck had to be moved a mile away down by the showers, as all four wheels of the truck "must be on the paved area of the site." As we constantly get items in and out of the truck, I told her that parking it so far away from our campsite would not work. I asked if it be possible to get a bigger campsite. Still smiling, she said, "The campground is full and you MUST move the truck." There was no other solution to this issue. She handed me a warning and left.

I'm already tired and now I'm quite upset. Don comes out from his nap in the camper and finds me near tears. He heads down to the camp check-in area to see if there's another campsite or in search of another resolution. Happily he returns a half hour later to tell me we are moving to an outstanding site and that mistakenly we should never have been given the muddy site, as it is a tent site, not a camper site. The guy at the camp check-in was amazed that Don was able to get a camper our size into that little site. Geez. So when I booked our reservation at National Headquarters, the woman failed to select an appropriate site, even though I had told her we needed a 22 foot trailer site. How would we have known this was a tent-only site and why didn't either Ranger know this? Arguhhhhhh.

A moving we will go ---- About an hour plus later, we have a new, beautiful campsite and we are so done for today. We had hoped to go watch sunset over the Canyon after our nap, but that wasn't going to happen tonight. Don made a campfire and sang to me, while I made dinner. All was right with the world once again!

April 14: Around Sedona - Indians and Cavalry

Thursday, April 14th – Montezuma’s Castle, Fort Verde, and Tuzigoot 

Don writes:  While the beautiful mesas, canyons, gulches, and arroyos are all wonderful to behold, I really enjoy seeing the historic human connection to these features.  Today was devoted to the old Indians and the cavalry. 

We started with Montezuma Castle National Monument, a pueblo built into a cliff by the Sinagua tribe early in the 1100s.  Early settlers assumed it was an Aztec ruin, hence its name.  Located 100 feet above the valley floor, visitors are not allowed to go into the ruins. However, even viewed from the valley, it is very impressive.  There were additional ruins at the site from an earlier time, but they are now badly deteriorated.  One interesting feature near the old ruins was an active bee hive in a small recess in the cliff.  Honeycombs hung from the roof of the small cave while bees busily flew in and out. 

Can you see the beehive at top left?

Leaving the old pueblo, we headed a little south to the Fort Verde State Park.  Fort Verde was an old cavalry outpost established in the mid-1860s to protect settlers in the region from Apache and Yavapai Indians.  Interesting to note that the fort had no stockade walls built from sturdy logs like we all saw in the old westerns.  As a matter of fact, most Army forts in the old West didn’t have the stockade walls.  Indians didn’t so much attack the forts as they did the patrols that went out from the forts.  Fort Verde was closed in 1891 since the Indian Wars had ended almost 10 years before in 1882. 

The fort and museum pointed out that Army life in the old West was pretty desolate and rough.  While officers could bring their wives and children, the enlisted soldiers were discouraged from doing so.  Quarters were sometimes available for the officers’ families, but enlisted families made do in tents or sod homes.  If an officer came to the fort who was senior to one who occupied one of the officers’ quarters, his family would “bump” the next junior officer and so on down to the most junior officer whose family could end up in a tent.  Life wasn’t easy on the frontier.

We visited another set of Sinaguan ruins at Tuzigoot, a village that was built on the summit of a long ridge above the Verde Valley sometime between 1125 and 1400.  These ancient folks farmed in the valley.  At its peak, the pueblo probably housed some 200 people.  Their homes were permanent with water nearby and food from the fields and from hunting local game.  Sounds like they had it better than the soldiers whose accommodations were subject to Army protocol and who had to depend on supplies from the outside world.  Unfortunately, the burgeoning population and a long drought forced the Indians to abandon their pueblo sometime around 1400.

Leaving Tuzigoot, we headed up highway 89A back to Sedona.  We had been told to take the Oak Creek Valley drive to the north of Sedona for its spectacular views.  We got about halfway up the canyon before realizing that we were too tired to appreciate the scenery.  Time to turn around and head back to the campground for evening cocktails.

April 13: Sedona, Arizona

Wednesday, April 13th - Travel to Sedona, a Chapel, a Hike and a Sunset

We left Tucson at 8:30 AM and arrived at the Rancho Sedona RV Park around 1:00 PM. When making plans, we almost stayed in a military campground in Flagstaff, but the RV reviews about the campground were mixed. Thank goodness we selected Sedona instead or we would have missed out on a truly spectacular experience.

Driving into Sedona surrounded by red rock mesas and rock formations was breathtaking. I had been here probably twenty years ago with a tour group during one of Don's trade shows in Phoenix, but Don had never been to Sedona. It was fun getting to the town with Don pulling the camper, as there are at least eight round-about traffic circles to navigate. Okay, it wasn't that much fun.

The campground was full and our campsite was tight and expensive, but rather picturesque. The landscaping at Rancho Sedona around each campsite, as well as in common areas, was very well done. Flowers were in bloom all over the place, and I especially enjoyed seeing the violets and lilacs. The flower thief struck again with some lilacs, my favorite flower, ending up in our camper.

After setting up camp, our camp host suggested we go see the Chapel of the Holy Cross and then take a hike out to Cathedral Rock. The Chapel was designed by a sculptor, Margurite Bruswig Staude, with help from Frank Lloyd Wright. Cathedral Rock is one of the most photographed rock formations in the world. So off we went.

In 1932, when Margurite Staude was in New York City, she looked at the newly constructed Empire State Building from a certain angle and thought she saw a cross down the middle. She then wanted to build a structure with a cross at the building's core in order to "glorify her creator" and as "a thanksgiving for all her family had received." She looked around Europe for a location, but after vacationing with her husband in Sedona, she realized this was the place. Frank Lloyd Wright helped her with the sketches of the building, as Margurite had been one of his former students.

The Chapel of the Holy Cross is built into the side of a red rock mesa, which like many of Wright's projects, blends harmoniously into the surrounding landscape. As you approach the Chapel and look up, you know you are about to see something very special. The winding road took us up to a parking area and from there we walked up a curving walkway to enter into the back of the Chapel. The weather was a perfect blue sky and sunny day, and the early afternoon shadows made the rock colors "pop." Entering into the peaceful Chapel a few days before Palm Sunday lent itself to a quiet time of prayer and thanks. I lit a candle in memory of all our loved ones and said prayers for our friends and family.

A few miles from the Chapel was the trail-head for Cathedral Rock. We grabbed our hiking poles and followed the trail until the point where we would be scrambling on hands and knees to climb higher. The wild rock formations and colors were fascinating and we couldn't believe our good fortune at having such a pleasurable afternoon hike, with zillion dollar views, after a day of travel.

Sundown wasn't far off by the time we returned to the truck, so we headed over toward the airport which supposedly was the best place to view sunset in Sedona. At another trail-head near the airport we met a local man walking his dog. He kindly said, "If you want the BEST view, hop this guardrail and follow the trail to the 3 water tanks and find a good place to sit." We pulled out our Crazy Creek Chairs from the back of the truck and climbed over the guardrail. After a half mile trek, we found two level spots and settled in to wait for sunset. We were rewarded.

Hiking back to the truck with evening shadows closing in, we realized we were starving. We found a local haunt, Oak Creek Brewery, and had fish and chips and a microbrew. Yummy way to end a perfect day in Arizona.

April 12: Tombstone, Arizona - The Town Too Tough To Die

Tuesday, April 12th - OK Corral, Gunfight, Cowboys, etc.

Don writes:  I spent too much time as a kid watching cowboy movies and TV shows to pass up a chance to visit Tombstone.  The drive there took us over desert scrubland full of cactus, yucca, cholla, and, of course, tumbleweeds blowing across the highway.  Riding through the rolling countryside punctuated with mesas, draws, and gulches, it was easy to imagine cowboys riding toward town in the 1880’s hoping that the Apaches weren’t hiding behind the next scrub brush or in the next arroyo. 

Tombstone was founded in 1879 and was named after a silver mine.  A prospector named Ed Schieffelin had been told by the soldiers at nearby Fort Huachuca that the only thing he’d find prospecting in that area would be his tombstone.  When he struck it rich, he named his mine the Tombstone Mine and the town adopted the same name.

Many of the buildings in town are original having been built in the 1880’s.  We started our tour with the old Tombstone Courthouse that was built in 1882.  We saw lots of great exhibits describing town life, local citizens, and the legal system as it was in the late 19^th century.  The gallows in the back courtyard was a re-creation, but it showed where a number of bad guys got their necks stretched.

From the courthouse, we moseyed down Allen Street to Big Nose Kate’s Saloon & Restaurant.  The building dates from 1881 when it was the Grand Hotel.  Big Nose Kate was Doc Holliday’s girlfriend and he and the Earps used to frequent the saloon.  Legend says that she got the nickname from her tendency to poke her nose into everyone’s business.  (Judging from the pictures of her, that might not have been the only reason.)  We had a tasty lunch while being entertained by a couple of hombres singing and playing guitar and fiddle.  I spent a few minutes at the bar soaking up whatever Earp and Holliday essence might still be left.  Not much, I’m afraid.

Following lunch, we decided to take a stagecoach tour of the town.  Our coach was modeled after the old Overland coaches that used to bring people to Tombstone from Tucson, a 17-hour trip.  The driver was our tour guide pointing out the different historic buildings and sites using a not-so-original wireless PA system mounted in the coach.  Interesting ride.  I learned that I wouldn’t want to spend 17 hours, or even 1 hour, riding in a stagecoach. 

By the time we finished our ride, it was getting close to time for the daily reenactment of the Gunfight at the OK Corral.  What baby boomer American boy doesn’t remember Wyatt Earp from the TV show of the same name?  And haven’t many of us seen at least 2 or 3 movie depictions of the most famous gunfight in U.S. history?  This was a MUST SEE part of Tombstone!  Of course, it has become a bit commercialized.  I doubt that the Earps and Doc would have really gone after the McLaurys and the Clantons in front of a grandstand full of 200 or so rapt onlookers.  But I digress.

Our price of admission got us into the OK Corral area which contains a number of exhibits showing livery stable accoutrements, information about the gunfight participants and a prostitute’s crib.  (Haven’t really figured out how the crib got into the OK Corral, but it was interesting.)  It turns out that the gunfight wasn’t actually in the corral, it was behind the corral in a vacant lot just outside C.S. Fly’s Boarding House where Doc Holliday lived. 

The show started at 2 PM.  (Whatever happened to high noon?)  Everyone was admitted to the gunfight arena where we took our seats in a covered grandstand area.  Nice touch since the sun was mighty bright and hot.  We faced a vacant lot in front of Fly’s Boarding House and the back of the OK Corral.  The gunfight was staged as a vignette starting a while before the confrontation to set the stage for what was to come.  It was very entertaining with the McLaurys and Clantons portrayed as slightly buffoony, inept bad guys who worked themselves into a lather against the Earps for real or perceived slights.  The Earps and Doc Holliday were cast as lawmen who were fed up with the hooliganisms and petty rustling of the cowboy element in town represented by the McLaurys and Clantons.  Of particular note were the soliloquies of sickly Doc Holliday who waxed poetic and comedic during the show.  The Earps were the tall square-jawed handsome menacing good guys that you expected them to be.  It’s a good thing that the run-up to the gunfight was included in the reenactment since the gunfight itself lasted about 30 seconds.  It was loud and dramatic and the “good guys” won.  (I wonder if they’ve ever considered doing a reversal on April Fool’s Day?)  Got to admit that we were left with the impression that the Clantons and McLaurys never expected to have things get that far out of hand.  Once more, it’s the old “Watch out what you ask for” syndrome.

Doc Holliday

Lin and the Earp Brothers

Following the gunfight, we visited the Tombstone Epitaph, the west’s most famous newspaper.  Founded in 1880, the paper continues to be published to this day.  We picked up a copy of the paper that was published following the OK Corral skirmish.  It contained an interview with the town sheriff who was not a fan of the Earps.  Seems there was some controversy over who started the fight.  However, the Earps were eventually cleared of any malfeasance by a local judge.

From the Epitaph, we sashayed on down to the Bird Cage Theatre, Tombstone’s most authentic attraction.  Opened in 1881, the Bird Cage was a saloon, performance hall, gambling casino and brothel.  It was reputed to be the “wildest, wickedest night spot between Basin Street and the Barbary Coast.”  This place is truly authentic.  It is dusty and dingy and the artifacts displayed are most certainly originals.  When we talked to one of the attendants to suggest that things might need some restoration, preservation, and general TLC, we were told that the owner would rather leave everything just as it is with the original 1880’s dust.  Whatever.  Got to admit that the place feels like it has been untouched since it closed in 1889.  The performance hall still has balcony cribs with the original red velvet drapes that would be closed when the prostitutes entertained their clients during a performance.  And the performances were noteworthy with some of the biggest names in show business making their way to this small town in southern Arizona.  Lillian Russell, Eddie Foy, Sr., Fatima, the Lillian Langtree all performed in the Bird Cage and many of the original playbills are on display.  The card room downstairs still contains the faro table where Doc Holliday dealt the cards.  And things did get wild.  There are many bullet holes throughout the theater lending credence to the claim that 26 men were killed here during its operating years.  This place is definitely part of the real Old West.

By the time we finished with the Bird Cage, the day was pretty much done.  We took one last stroll up Allen Street soaking up the ambience and were happy that we come to visit. The town of Tombstone has successfully maintained many of the buildings from the old cowboy days. A lot of them have been repurposed into western wear, souvenir shops, art, or jewelry stores, but it is easy to see what the old town must have been like back-in-the-day.