Exploring Northern Arizona

Tara learned that one of her friends from Nepal would be in the states, and was going to be able to make it to the Grand Canyon.  We decided it would be a good time to make trip to meet her, and see some of beautiful northern Arizona while we were at it.  The timing was going to be a bit off, with a few days on either end of meeting her friend.

In typical form we settled on where we would venture on the way to the destination.  We had our eyes on the West Fork of Oak Canyon, and after chatting with a lady at the visitor center— who meant well, but had very little to add to the conversation other than some rather stale breath— we fairly arbitrarily settled on the West Fork.  The whole area seems beautiful, but West Fork seemed like It had a better chance for catastrophe with what was described as “mandatory swimming.”  We had one dry bag between us, so picked up some 5 gallon ziplocks at the hardware store.  Had we encountered any of this mandatory swimming, all of our stuff in the ziplocks would have been pretty soggy!  Not only do they rip if you look at them wrong, but they don’t really seal.

We hiked the crowded trail for the first three miles, and then proceeded to wade up the creek for the next three miles arriving at the sanctioned camping areas around dark.  The canyon did not disappoint.  It was gorgeous.  We were sad we only had one night to spend in it.

This is very similar to Subway in Zion NP.

Time to get wet!

Xoe had to do a lot more swimming than we did.

A nice spot to camp! Xoe suffers through her breakfast.

We headed up to Williams, AZ the next day thinking we would be meeting with Tara’s friend.  Well, there was some miscommunication, so we ended up seeing her later than we thought, but we had a nice chance to hike up Bill Williams Peak and hang out in the fire lookout tower with the lookout- very friendly individual!

The view from the fire watch tower.  It appears there is a fire.

A quick stop at Dogtown Reservoir

We spend a day visiting the south rim with Archana.

The Grand Canyon is a place you must see in person to appreciate fully.  It is truly mind-blowing every time I visit.

We also were hoping to swing into the Wave.  We assumed the lottery was going be pretty full, and we were right!  90 people had applied the day before, so needless to say there were no leftover permits for that day.

I would describe those cliffs as vermilion.

We visited Pipe Spring National Monument which was an old Mormon settlement where holdout polygamists ran to escape the gu’ment.  They also forced Indian conversions, and overgrazed the valley.  The operation was very impressive.  The patriarch kept his wives in the compound, and reproduced like mad so they had workers who were part of a grand Plan to make cheese and butter and send it to St. George where other Mormons were building a temple.  The folks worked hard!!  The compound held up to 60 people at one point, all part of a single family.

Our fearless guide.  He was taught to never go near this place when he was young.  Indians who went there never came out.

Mormon stove.

Mormon fortress.

Mormon cheese making equipment.

After that we made the 60 mile rally out to Toroweap.  This campground is basically on the rim of the Grand Canyon, but it takes a strong effort to get out there.  We went on a nice hike, and visited the overlook.  It rained now and then.

Sure is pretty!

Tara braves the winds at the overlook, and manages to look relaxed.

Checking out Lava Falls.  Not so dramatic from up here.

We also hiked up Mt Trumbull which was pleasant.  We dilly dallied at the top, and consequently got caught in a hail storm.  We huddled under a toppled tree with our raincoats on while the lightning crashed, and the hail tried its best to find exposed flesh.  Xoe was a sad puppy, but was happier once I hid her under my backpack.  As is common with hailstorms, the air temperature dropped about 30 degrees in a 10 minutes.  The rest of the hike out was pretty chilly (chili? Chile?), but there is something so beautiful about storms in the desert.  It is definitely one of my favorite things.

Post hail. Foggy desert.

We drove with the heater on to Nampaweap to check out some petroglyphs.  This may be the first time I turned the heater on in Arizona since moving here… I wasn’t sure what to expect at the petroglyph site.  All of the information showed the same picture, so I figured there was probably one set of glyphs on a boulder.  A quick hike brought us to the boulder shown in all the pictures, and then hiking along the edge of the “canyon”—more of a wash really we found another set of petroglyphs, then another, and another, and another.  I hike for probably about half a mile down the wash and saw literally thousands of petroglyphs.  It have never seen that many in one place, and been to a lot of the major glyph sites in the southwest.  Another interesting part of those glyphs is that they were carved into basalt rather than sandstone.  Eventually the petroglyphs started to thin out, but there were probably still more to check out if someone was so inclined.  Just as I was turning around, I spotted some critters!!  (Initially I thought they were coyote puppies, but have since been informed they were kit foxes! I had never seen those before).

Hmm?

"Hello, human.  You look  veeeery strange.  Unlike any kit fox we've ever seen."

"Hello, you funny little critters!"

Xoe is totally pissed she didn't get to attack the critters.

I had obtained an Arizona Strip map for the trip, which proved useful on a number of occasions, but not for our next adventure.  The roads out to Whitmore Canyon were shown to be unimproved on the map.  Some were more unimproved than others.  The road I chose indicated it was the shortest route, and after several hours of bumping along and sliding down lava covered slopes we reached a graded road that accesses the Bar 10 Ranch as well as Whitmore Point.  It would have taken us a number of miles out of the way to reach the intersection at the other end, but would have cut a couple hours out of the journey had we been able to rally at 50 mph instead of puttering through the pinyon juniper forests in low range.  On the bright side, we got to see the beginnings of a forest fire on a tree that had been struck by lightning.  The surrounding vegetation was just starting to light up.

Making our way out to Whitmore Point.

Tara expertly navigates Natasha over the rough road.

Anyways, we reached Whitmore Point.  The last several miles of the road are pretty dramatic.  It winds down a large side canyon that was covered in green vegetation.  The road crawls up onto massive lava flows and then stays on them all the way to the point.  There are towering piles of cooled lava throughout the canyon, and massive lava flows interrupt the red cliff bands where the lava poured over the cliffs, and piled up so high it now appears there is a gentle ramp to the top of tall cliffs.  Once at the point, we were just a short mile and a half hike down to the river.  It’s only 600 vertical feet or so, and looks so close especially when compared to the other overlooks we had been to in the past few days.  It was also pretty much blisteringly hot due to the drop in elevation.

Whitmore Point

Whitmore Canyon is pretty long. You can see where the lava flowed through the saddle in the background.

The lava had flowed down Whitmore Canyon, and had dammed the Colorado for approximately 20,000 years.  The high lava mark is still visible on the other side of the Grand Canyon.  We hiked down through cool lava formations to the river.  We were pretty warm by the time we reached the bottom, so we went for a quick swim before returning up the trail.

We enjoyed the cool water.

I really dig these lava formations. #geology

The drive out from Whitmore Point was quite a bit faster on the graded road.  We blasted out through the northwestern part of Parashant National Monument on smooth, fast roads, past ghost towns and grasslands intent on getting to camp.  The late afternoon sunlight made the grassland glow, and the hills turn a deep gold.  I couldn’t help but smile as I floated around the corners and gunned it down the straights with my favorite travel buddies, Tara and Xoe, while racing the setting sun to ends of the earth.  This is where I belong.

What trip to that area is complete without a visit to the Hoover Dam?