Good Bye

All good things must come to an end.  Some rain moved in which was a welcomed treat for the forest fire fighters.  We closed up camp to get an early start on the long drive back to Denver.  For a last memory we had dinner in the Grand Canyon Lodge; which was wonderful.  Just looking at the stone, wood work and the windows all around the room was captivating.  Then we said our good bye's and departed.


I hope you enjoyed following along on my vacation!  Good Bye!

Grand Canyon Part 4

Even though you saw the same thing a few hours ago, you keep getting drawn back in to see more.

Grand Canyon Part 3

The north rim of the grand canyon is a remote area.  Its high up, open only a few months of the year and in a forest.  The forest has these HUGE ponderosa pine trees with beautiful red bark and are very fragrant.  Here are a few pictures.

Grand Canyon Part 2: ALICE!!!!

What would a trip to the Grand Canyon be without a trip a mule ride?  Just like the Brady Bunch!  We didn't go down into the Canyon, the kids didn't get lost, and we didn't have a celebratory dinner around a campfire hosted by a tribe of Indians, but it was still great.

 

Grand Canyon Part 1

The Grand Canyon is beautiful. There was an active forest fire not too far away and part of our planned stops was unavailable.  I setup camp and began cooking dinner; hamburgers and hotdogs.  After dinner drove over to the North Rim visitors center and the North Rim Lodge.  The Lodge was built from the local rock and trees found in these parts and it was very impressive.  Just like the Old Faithfull Inn.

some video

    

The drive to the Grand Canyon

Just like South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming, there's nothing in Northern Arizona.  It is somewhat unnerving driving hundreds of miles with nothing around.  No mechanic, no auto parts store, no traffic lights, no gas stations, no restaurants...nothing!  If you come across a gas station you have to fill up because you don't know if you'll meet another one before you run out of gas.  There's a pit in my stomach praying that nothing goes wrong.  It takes strong people to live out here.  I don't know how they do it?


So we're driving, driving, driving and finally get close to the Grand Canyon.  The temperature outside is 100 degrees and we start climbing this mountain into the Kaibab National Forest.  You seriously need a truck out here because these mountains will burn up a cars transmission.  We get to the only road into the Grand Canyon NP and the temperature is now 72 degrees.  The elevation here, 8200', is the same as it is in the ski towns in Colorado.  In fact, the road is closed from early October to mid-May due to snow which accumulates over 8' high.  I'm somewhat drained by the "I'm so screwed if something goes wrong".  Had I known what I know now, I would've packed my tool box and some auto parts.


The drive into the Grand Canyon was beautiful.

Four Corners

Four Corners is only about 40 miles from Cortez.  The road to the Grand Canyon passes right by it, so we stopped in. To our surprise it was private property owned by the Navajo Nation and they charge $5 per person to enter.  This was really neat.

Mesa Verde National Park

After leaving Canyonlands we arrived at Cortez Co around 3pm. Checked into our hotel and then raced over to Mesa Verde NP.  After you leave the visitors center at the entrance of the park you have to drive up this mountain with many switchbacks.  The village ruins are around 25 miles away from the visitors center.  It was a long and slow drive.  To take a tour of the ruins you had to buy tickets.  But since we arrived late in the day no tickets were available.  So we could only see the ruins from an observation point looking down.

   
Is that all there is here? Back down the mountain, got a pizza and returned to the hotel around 8pm.  I was tired.  And somewhat dreading the long 350 mile drive to the Grand Canyon.