10/28 - 11/3/05 Cliffs, canyons & mesas - Across Northern Arizona |
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10/30 - It rained most of the night Thursday night & much of Friday morning, so we decided to give up on Zion & head on across Arizona. Rather than take the required escort to get Gypsy through the East Zion tunnel, we back tracked to Hurricane & headed out on SR59. The route parallels Zion canyon for a while, giving a good view of the back side of the peaks that make up Zion's south wall. They sprout up out of the desert landscape & are beautiful from this side too, just not as grand as from the canyon floor.
A bit farther on, we drove into a huge storm cell, black in all directions.
At first we had showers, then a heavy downpour that I slowed down for.
Lightning started striking all around, sometimes so near that there
was no thunder roll, just an immediate explosive crack. We pulled into
Fredonia, AZ, & while taking a break there, I checked for any RV
parking. Yes, there was space at the Crazy Jug Motel, Restaurant &
RV Park. Since this was the closest RV park to the North Rim of the
Grand Canyon that was still open, I decided to stay an extra day &
take in the GC from the north.
I left Timmy behind to "guard the trailer" & headed south
from Fredonia & on up to the Kaibab Plateau. Near Jacob Lake I started
seeing lots of available dispersed camping sites & several RVs scattered
along. I would like to do that another time, a little earlier in the
year. The main part of the plateau is forested with ponderosa pine &
aspens along with many large rolling meadows. I'd love to see it in
spring or early summer, but it's beautiful in winter form too, with
the white bark of the bare aspens adding highlights to the evergreen
background. 
The atmosphere at the canyon was misty & quite hazy, not the best for taking photographs. But it was still spectacular, with many different viewpoints & vistas, so I shot about 70 anyway. It's quite a different perspective from the south rim, definitely worth going out of your way.
Today we moved on, taking US89 to Kanab, UT, then back down to Page,
AZ, finally heading east on US160 & SR164 into Hopi country. Along
the route we passed mile after mile of multi-hued cliffs & mesas.
A spread out version of the Grand Canyon, displaying many of the same
layers, but in greater detail. What a range of colors. Maybe it was
because it was lunch time, but I couldn't help comparing them to food
& drink colors: cream, latte, milk chocolate, espresso, blackberry
milkshake & salmon. What a smorgasbord! I could have stopped every
mile & taken a different picture.
We're spending tonight at Pumpkin Seed Point, on a finger of Third Mesa & just across from the Hopi village of Orabi. I learned tonight that this pueblo has been occupied since 1050, the oldest continuosly occupied settlement on the continent. We'll pay a visit tomorrow.
10/31 - Happy Halloween. No trick-or-treaters here on Pumplin Seed
Point tonight. I visited Orabi this morning, not knowing what to expect.
It's obviously a poor village & despite its antiquity, it's not
much in the way of a tourist stop. Most of the remaining original dwellings,
stone mortered with adobe, are in disrepair. There are probably only
20 or 30 homes in the village, streets are very limited & rough.
Some homes have cinderblock additions & a few have been rebuilt
completely using cinderblock. There is one Hopi arts shop & no other
tourist facilities. Visitors are permitted to stroll the streets, but
no photos, no souveniers (except from the shop) & no wandering into
kivas or to the ruins of an old Anglo church. I was told that the ruin
had been hit by lightning, a very bad omen for Hopis, & it had not
been purified. To visit it could bring more bad medicine. I noticed
in front of each home quantities of corn, still on the cob, drying in
the sun. It has always been their staple of life & I'm sure still
plays a major role in their ceremonial life.
Most of the Hopi have dispersed from their villages on the mesas to
the lower elevations. At the Hopi Cultural Center & Museum down
the road at Second Mesa near Shongopovi, I learned that the Hopi originally
moved en-mass to the mesas in the 16th century as a defense against
Spaniard rule. The Museum included numerous displays of history, culture,
arts & many Curtis photos from the 19th century. Worth the visit.
On our walk around Pumpkin Seed Point this afternoon, Timmy & I
found a ceremonial circle on a large flat sandstone rock. The stone
circle was crossed by stones pointing to the 4 directions. In the center
was some kind of offering, bound stems on a swatch of felt, held down
by a large stone. Otherwise the Point is mostly barren, eroded sandstone
with cliff rose, sage & other desert plants. It's also pretty trashy.
I gathered up three bags of plastic, cans, bottles & garbage; my
payment for using the facility.
11/2 - As we were taking one last walk around Pumpkin Seed Point Tuesday, I discovered some Hopi petroglyphs on a large vertical rock not far off. They appear genuine, judging by their stylizing that seems to be the same as samples of rock art I saw in the museum. Cool.
We headed off for Canyon de Chelly (pronounced "de shay")
arriving early afternoon after a bumpy ride up US191. IMHO, one should
not be forced to slow down on a US highway to avoid damage to ones vehicle,
but I slowed to about 50 on 191. The canyon is located just east of
Chinle, a small mostly Navajo town. We're parked at Cottonwood Campground,
just at the mouth of the canyon. Quite nice & very showy right now
with the cottonwoods in blazing fall amber.
We took a mini-tour of the south rim yesterday afternoon, getting our bearings. Today I hiked the only publicly accessible trail down into the canyon to the White House Anasazi ruin. It's a great hike, taking 1 1/2 hours down 600' through the red rock to the canyon floor, then across to the ruin. All other access to the canyon requires a registered Navajo guide. I brought back another bunch of images; another gallery on the way.
As we pull out of here tomorrow, we'll be ending this adventure & moving on to New Mexico for a couple of weeks. I do love these cliffs, canyons & mesas!
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