One day while I was at the Grand Canyon, I visited the Desert View Watchtower and the Tusayan Ruins.

The Watchtower was built in the 1930s to provide a good view of the Grand Canyon, but to also fit into the landscape. You can go inside and climb up -- although it smelt funny to me inside. There's a good outlook outside to look at the canyon.

On the way, there was the Tusayan Museum -- I think Anasazi ruins -- and a small interpretive site. I'm a sucker for ruins of any type -- I'm not sure why -- they are all sort of the same -- old walls, old stones -- regardless of whether they are Roman, Etruscan, Native American, etc. But I still always like to go look. I think it is interesting to me that they have survived for thousands of years. What will our structures look like in a 1,000 years?

Desert Watch Tower

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I hiked a trail which started across the road from the Oak Hill Snowplay area, off one of the exits just a few miles east of Williams. It leads to a partly dried up watering hole surrounded by rocks. On the rocks are petroglyphs that are estimated to be about 1,000 years old.

It was an easy walk. I was all alone, except for the Bobcat that I saw. Although I loved the solitude, being alone actually made me a bit uncomfortable because I was thinking that if I had gotten hurt somehow, there wouldn't have been any one around to help.

It was sort of cool to see the glyphs because they are so old, made by the people that are ancestors to the American Indians / Native Americans of today. I liked the one of the person and snake.

Petroglyphs

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Here's the map marker.

Another day that I visited the Grand Canyon, I started near the Desert Watch Tower and came back east.

The canyon is wider down towards Desert View than it is around Hermit's Rest.

Grand Canyon

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Here's a couple more vidclips --




And for some bad news. I ended one day by watching the sunset at Hopi Point. I had run out of space on my memory cards, so I was using my small 32Mb "emergency" card.

But when I got home, I couldn't find that small card. So, I can only assume that the card fell out of my camera bag somewhere.

You'll just have to take my word that the sunset was gorgeous! I had a couple of good pics of it too. I guess I'll just have to go back and take some more :)

Before I went to the Grand Canyon, I knew that I wanted to see both sunrise and sunset.

When I got to Williams, I decided that my first view of the canyon would be at sunrise. Williams is about an hour south of the Canyon, and sunrise was supposed to be around 5:15AM -- so you do the math. I had to get up at the crack of dawn -- O-dark-hundred -- and get myself dressed and into the car.

On the way, I saw some deer and I think I saw an elk out of the corner of my eye! I slowed down a bit because at that hour, they were all sort of hanging out at the edge of the road, like they were going to jump at any moment.

When I got to the canyon (around 4:29 AM), there was nobody manning the gates, so I didn't have to show the pass I had bought (it's $25 for a 6 day vehicle pass into the state park).

I had wanted to watch the sunrise at Yaki Point, so I drove that way -- when I got there, I found out that it is closed to vehicles other than the shuttle buses. In retrospect, the shuttles start at 4:30, so I think I could have caught one to get to Yaki Point in time.

What I ended up doing was finding a pullover near there and then climbing over the stone wall and finding a ledge to sit on to wait for the sunrise.

It was SO COLD -- it started out at something like 38° F that day on the rim. Luckily, I wore jeans and had a fleece jacket and hat. But it was windy, so I still was sitting there bouncing to keep warm, waiting for the sun to hurry up! The high that day was around 74° F, so I was able to pack up the fleece pretty early in the day.

Sunrise at the Grand Canyon

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After sunrise, I drove the car back towards the Grand Canyon village and parked. Then, I walked around most of the south rim trail that day. I stopped at most of the lookout points, plus a few other spots that just had good ledges for standing on. Once I got too tired, I started taking the shuttles from lookout to lookout.

That first day, I walked from Yavapai Point to Hopi Point, then took the shuttle for the rest of the points west.

The Grand Canyon was very impressive in size (it still didn't beat Sedona for me, lol). One thing I'd like to do next time is to actually hike down into the canyon -- either to camp or to stay at Phantom Ranch.

Here's a vidclip from just before sunrise --

I figured I would stop off in Flagstaff as I made my way from Sedona to the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, most of the things I chose to do here were not my favorites and I probably would skip them in the future.

Downtown Flagstaff

Downtown Flagstaff was pretty nice -- it's one of those downtowns that has been rehabilitated into a collection of shops and restaurants. So, it was pleasant to walk around in. One warning -- although the parking on the street is free, the parking underground is NOT free -- and once you take the turn to go down into it, there's no easy way to avoid going all the way in.

Downtown Flagstaff Map Marker

Arboretum

The Arboretum in Flagstaff was not worth the effort to get there. I did not think that it had that much to look at. And, there was this long 2 mile gravel road to get there! This was the second gravel road I ran into in Arizona (and not my last).

Luckily, I got in for free because of my Lewis Ginter Park Botanical Garden membership.

Flagstaff Arboretum

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Flagstaff Arboretum Map Marker

Sunset Crater

After I got here, I realized that a volcanic crater is essentially a mountain surrounded by black rock.

There was one steep hill that I hiked up -- I had to stop every 100 feet or so and catch my breath -- the air was SO much thinner than I'm used to! And the hill was made up of volcanic sand, so it was difficult to make headway anyway.

But I got to the top...and it was just a lava flow -- a flat space of black rock.

There are also Indian ruins (Wupatki Indians) further up, but you have to drive 20 miles (!!) on a gravel road to get there. The total road length is 30 miles, but only 10 is paved. I had no desire to drive 20 miles on gravel -- especially not in that PT Cruiser (ugh).

Crater near Sunset Crater

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Sunset Crater Map Marker

I did a little more window shopping at stores at an outdoor center called Tlaquepaque Arts & Crafts Village. It was a nice atmosphere, and I was pleased to find a rose garden with a Buddha in it.

Afterwards, I watched my last Sedona sunset from the airport mesa.

Sunset

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Tlaquepaque Arts & Crafts Village Map Marker

I got a very late start the morning that I hiked the Bell Rock trail, so I was out there in the heat. I actually had only brought about 2.5 liters of water with me, which was not enough -- I stretched the water out to match the length of the trail instead of drinking all that I wanted! Because there was no real shade, I really wished I had started earlier!

I began the trail at the Bell Rock trailhead, but it is a long dry walk until you actually get to Bell Rock itself. I later saw some parking that was closer, so maybe I could have saved myself some walking out in the heat. I started the trail here. But I think there was parking here also.

Once you get to Bell Rock, you can scramble up higher, past where the trail actually leads you to. There's a sign -- the Bell Rock "trail" is where you can get up onto the rocks. The Bell Rock "path" is what loops you around the base of Bell Rock.

Bell Rock

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Bell Rock Map Marker

While I was walking, I had noticed a Y in the trail that led to what looked like a bike trail. I had ignored it the first time since I wanted to stay on the Bell Rock trail...but when I came back, I was really drawn to that Y, so I walked it a while. I found a place that I really liked that was very peaceful to me. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay there long because I was already hot and tired, but I was glad I found the place.

Here's a small vidclip of the surroundings of that spot.

The Chapel of the Holy Cross is a church designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. As with all of his works, the building seems to grow out of it's environment -- if it wasn't for the different color walls and the glass, the shape of the chapel could easily be mistaken for another rock outcrop. The church seems cut into the side of the mesa.

Chapel of the Holy Cross

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Map Marker

One day, I visited Red Rock State Park -- the trails were really easy to walk. They started out near Oak Creek, so it was very lush, then they climbed into the desert.

While there, I ran into the first of several graveled, unpaved roads that I would run into in Arizona. They seem to have a lot of unpaved roads.

Before I went on the trails, I decided to drive the "loop" road -- which turned into gravel for several miles before the pavement started again. The PT Cruiser (did I mention how much I hated that car?) was not very fun on gravel!

Flower at River Rock State Park

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Map Marker

One of the things I made sure while I was out west was to watch as many sunsets as possible. These pictures were taken while I was sitting 1/2 way up the airport vortex mesa.

Sunset

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Vortex

The New Agers say that there are energy vortexes around Sedona. There are maps online and instructions on how to get to them.

Being open-minded and curious about these things, I decided to hike the trails around a couple of them.

The first one I visited was the vortex near the Airport Mesa -- the vortex is supposed to be located on the mesa that is in between the two others. I heard someone say that this mesa is supposed to be masculine/extroverted while the others are feminine/introverted.

It was pretty looking out from on top, although I didn't have any sense of any particular energy flux. However, I did have one realization -- I'm afraid of heights!! Just climbing up the mesa made me tense!

Here's a little vid clip while I was standing on the mesa. You can hear the planes coming overhead (the airport is on the larger mesa that is the first thing in the vidclip).

Here's a pic of the vortex mesa as I'm scrambling up it. You can see a person standing on top (little white clothes in the middle).

Mesa with the Vortex near the Airport Mesa

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Airport Mesa Loop Trail

There is a trail that leads you up and around and on top of the mesa that has the airport on top, then back down and around the other side of the mesa. It starts here.

It was a pretty easy hike. But it was a one person trail with an open chasm to my left -- and my fear of heights really took hold during a couple of spots on the trail.

Those of you without a fear of heights probably don't understand -- there's no conscious thought involved -- what happens is that I tense up and get off balance -- and that is exacerbated by the weak ankle from the unfortunate incident from a few years ago...

So, the problem with the trail (at least from my perspective) is that sometimes the dirt part stopped and you had to scramble over a rock to get to the trail again -- remember, there's is an open chasm to my left, and you can see how that might concern me, lol!

Here's a picture of one of the rocks that you scramble over. You can see the trail pick up on the other side of the rock.

Rock on the Airport Mesa Trail

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There were some good views from the trail, and I'm glad I went. It took me longer than some -- partly because I was going slow and partly because I took pictures.

I also just really liked the physical exercise of hiking. One thing I noticed was how much THINNER the air was -- any slightly strenuous climb up and I found myself breathing hard.

One logistical point -- to park in the lots around almost any of the trails, there is a "red rock pass" required -- daily pass that costs $5 per day. You get them at the Chamber of Commerce in uptown. You can park in the lot, but you take the chance of a ranger coming by and ticketing you.

When I first arrived in Sedona, I thought it was pretty, for sure. But I didn't realize how much I would like the scenery.

As I was driving up 89 into town, it wasn't until I went down the hill towards the "Y" that I realized just how gorgeous the red rock formations are. When you go down the hill, you get a really nice first view of the rocks.

It turns out that Sedona ended up being my favorite place on the trip. I just couldn't get enough of the red. And the somewhat kooky nature of the local New Agers was fun too -- many, many crystal shops.

Here are some pictures from my first arrival in Sedona. I took some of these from the airport overlook.

Sedona - First Evening

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Click here to open the map marking the airport overlook where I took some of the pictures.


One of the first things I did was to go to the shops in the area that I believe they call "uptown."

Now, since I was in Sedona, I figured I should do something "New Agey". So, I had a picture of my aura taken, lol!

Here's the result --




I have to admit that I was a bit embarrassed to be doing this, but here's how it worked.

In the crystal store, she shut a curtain behind me to block out the light from the street. Then, I put my hand on the sensors -- a bunch of metal buttons that I had to completely cover with my left hand.

Then, based on what -- heat? electrical pulses? -- the computer decided what color my aura was. Then, the computer generated a picture of me with a cone of that color around it.

As you can see, I was yellow to orange with mostly yellow. It was a fun thing to do during my first time in Sedona, lol!

I wanted to visit some of the pueblo ruins of aboriginal peoples in the US. So, on the way from Phoenix to Sedona, I stopped at both Montezuma's Castle and Tuzigoot. They are different types of sites.

Montezuma's Castle

Montezuma's Castle is up on the cliff -- you can't go in, and the only reason it has been preserved is because it is under an overhang, which kept the rain and elements off of it.

It is misnamed for Montezuma because the Spaniards thought the Aztec king Montezuma had built it. It was actually believed to have been abandoned around 1,000 years ago and built by what are termed Sinagua ("without water") Indians.

Living so high up...you'd certainly have to watch your step!

Click here to open the map showing Montezuma Castle.

Montezuma Castle

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Tuzigoot

Tuzigoot is built on top of a mesa, not on cliffs. You can actually walk up the mesa and look around at the ruins, including going inside one part.

It was also abandoned by the people called Sinagua Indians.

Click here to open the map showing Tuzigoot.

Tuzigoot

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Here's a small clip from on top of the mesa at Tuzigoot --

One last thing I did while I was in Scottsdale was to visit the shops at Fifth Avenue in Scottsdale.

Most of the shops had closed by the time I got there, but it was a nice walking area -- mostly high priced tchatchki type of merchandise. I walked around and did some window shopping.

Click here to open the map showing the location of the 5th Avenue shops.

Fountain

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I went to the Desert Botanical Garden while I was in Scottsdale. The nice thing was that I got in for FREE! Most of the botanical gardens seem to reciprocate with other gardens -- so that if you are a member of one, then you get in for free (or discounted) at another.

Since I'm a member of Lewis Ginter Park Botanical Garden, that got me in -- they just had to check "the list" and make sure that LGP was on it.

Before I went, I was wondering whether I would like it. I thought "What will there be to see? Just desert??" But it was actually very enjoyable -- lots of plants and blooms.


While I was there, I started talking to a guy who was VERY knowledgeable about plants and animals. He seemed nice (and my gaydar kicked in). He was quite young though (like really young, like I wasn't sure if I really should be talking to him!), so I didn't ask him to dinner or anything. But he was a pleasant companion while I was there, and I was glad he and I met.

He even knew something of East Coast plants and animals -- I would comment that such and such looked like a plant back in Virginia, and he usually knew the differences between the species.

He pointed out a roadrunner to me -- a smallish (8" or so) bird that mostly runs along the ground -- not the color of the roadrunner in the cartoon, but evidently, it can run 15 miles per hour.

We walked around for about an hour through the rest of the garden. Evidently, he comes there pretty often.


One thing that was really strange to me is to walk around and not know any of the plants around me -- I usually can identify a good percentage of the plants in Virginia -- but not here in the desert!

Click here to open the map showing the Desert Botanical Garden marker.

Desert Botanical Garden

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There was a film crew there. As we walked by a woman who was on the crew, my companion mentioned that he didn't know what they were doing but that they had been there for weeks. So, being me, I just blurted out to the woman we had just walked by -- "What are you filming?"

She said they were from Canada filming a documentary in high def of botanical gardens of North America.

So, you know my next question -- would they be coming to Richmond? She said yes, they would be coming to Lewis Ginter Park later this year.

One thing I did while in Scottsdale was to visit Taliesin West, one of Frank Lloyd Wright's houses / studios.

He lived in Taliesin in Wisconsin during the summer and in Taliesin West in Scottsdale in the winter.

There are still students there -- evidently, each student is expected to arrive and build his own accommodation to live in -- as a learning exercise. The good ones are kept from year to year, and they are used on a first come first serve basis. The bad ones are torn down to be recycled by another student next year.

There were different tours -- the one I took was pretty decent -- I think the "Panorama" tour.

Evidently, there never was phone service while Frank Lloyd Wright lived there -- the phone company refused to run a line that far out for just one customer. Of course, now Taliesin West is completely surrounded by developments!

Originally, there was no power either. FLW called this his "winter camp," even though it had permanent structures.

There originally also was no glass -- the openings were covered by canvass. But one of his wives requested that he put in glass to keep out the desert, so about 10 years after it was built, glass was installed.

I liked the house -- as far as how it melded into the desert -- I think if I were to live in a place like that, I would not want the walls inside to be so rustic -- I really do like my plaster walls :)

I've created a Google Map which I will use to mark the spots that I visited. Click here to open the map.

Taliesin West

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Here's a small clip at Taliesin West --

Instead of posting a day by day journal of my time out in Arizona, I've decided to center the posts around what I did.

I flew from Richmond to Dallas/Ft Worth (DFW), then to Phoenix. I liked the DFW airport -- everything was rounded -- walls, etc. -- sort of "Jetsons"-like. And the above ground tram system was nice too -- I liked being outside and seeing the airport as I was shuttled around. Of course, the tram was also curvy -- it wound in and out around the airport.

They really do wear big hats in Texas :)

I could barely understand the guy I sat next to at the bar.


I was in Phoenix for one full day. Really, I stayed in Scottsdale. I was saving on expenses, so I stayed in cheap digs and rented the cheapest car they had -- which turned out to be a PT Cruiser -- boy did I HATE that car -- it didn't turn worth a crap and the windows were too small -- I couldn't see out of the thing!

As I was driving from the airport to the hotel for the first time, I realized I was definitely out west -- the Interstate signs pointed one direction for Los Angeles and the other direction for Albuquerque!

Phoenix looked like I expected -- very spread out and lots of cars. There's something just a bit unnatural about that many cars and people out in the middle of the desert!

It was easy to drive around in -- I found the Trader Joe's to buy groceries from -- I tried to save some dough by eating fruit, etc. for breakfast or buying sandwich fixings and making lunch sometimes.