Monday, March 27 2006.  We have travelled through part of Route 66 and Interstate 40 and are now at a campground 50 miles before entering the Grand Canyon.  Tomorrow we will look around the area before enter Grand Canyon.

On Route 66, towards the Grand Canyon we went through the Town of Seligman.
Seligman is where town folks, especially, Mr. Degadillo started the Route 66 designation, and what an attraction it is today. "Get your kicks on Route 66"

This Lizard  was so friendly to allow us to take a picture of it.
 
Nadine showed me a flowering Beaver Tail Cactus.  Afterwards while hiking with Pierre and Judy we saw some more.  I guess they are just getting into blooming season.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006.  As we wait for the clouds to clear before we first see the Grand Canyon, we visited Sedona and Jerome. It was raining and foggy most of the day.  Sedona is such a beautiful "resort" City.  Everywhere you look there is a picture due to the sheer read cliffs surrounding it.  We will have to come back for better pictures.
The whole city is surrounded by this red rock formation. It is breathtaking and these pictures do not do it justice.  If I were to fly in for a vacation this would be the place.

This is the chapel of the Holy Cross and it was built right into the rocks.
 

 

  

 


This is the town of Jerome. An old copper mining town. It is built going up a mountain that is 7,000 feet high.  The streets are one above the other as you "switchback"  going from one street to the next. It is so steep, you look over the roof of the street below you on every one. Bow it's an "Artsy" town.

 
You can see two streets in this picture.  This switch back of streets goes on for about 10 blocks.  It is really scary driving through town. 

 

 
This is a picture of the "Central House" hotel. Now where have I seen another Central house?
     
Wednesday, March 29, 2006.  Today it snowed! We will be going to the town of Williams (end of  160 miles of Route 66) as tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and warm... I hope

 

We were 60 miles from entering into the Grand Canyon.

We have discovered that we do not miss the snow at all.





 

Thursday, March 30, 2006.     THE GRAND CANYON. CANYON

THE GRAND CANYON

There is a small village there with restaurants, stores, museums and a lot of history.  We are in trailer village site B7, from here it is a short walk to the bus stop.  They have buses running every 15 minutes starting at 4:30 a.m. until 10:00 p.m..  These buses take you to any place throughout the canyon village including all the lookouts, this is included with your entry fee.  The only time we have to drive is when we go out of the park to a small town called Tusayan for our helicopter ride and to do any WiFi.

Father and son on ledge.

 

Some of our views from a helicopter ride.  The window of the helicopter keep reflecting into our picture.  This is the best we can do.

Breathtaking scene from the air.
Another one.  Cannot capture in a picture.

This is a view that is along the "Rim Walk".
 

 

A sunset picture.  It is quite a task to get this picture....COLD.  Mornings are even harder.  You have to be up at 5:00 a.m...

 
The Grand Bend Village is just on the rim.


 
Do you see the people on that point?  Does it look safe to you?  That point is one of the most visited points in the park.
 
We decided to go on this little hike.  It goes all along the walls of the Canyon with switchbacks.  We made it to our destination call the Ooh Aah Point on the South Kaibab Trailhead.  It was only about 1 mile but very exhilarating.

 

This is a close up look of the trail.
 		 There is no sign at OOH-AAH- you will know you are there when the cliff to your right disappears, you descend down a series of steps and there is a U turn in the trail.  There are also large rocks that jut out into the canyon.  Welcome to a wonderful view!

This is part of the view.  See Denis holding onto that rock.  Does he look nervous.  He was.  We discovered he does not enjoy looking down the high cliffs.  He gets dizzy.
 

The only sunrise that we managed to get up at 5:00 a.m. but we did not pick a good spot to be in.
This is still my favourite view in front of the hotel.
 

This is the mule ride.  It is a 7 hr. ride with a 1 hr. break. I think it only cost a couple hundred dollars and you have to book a year in advance.  Can you believe this!
 
This walk was awesome.  It is to bad our camera is not good enough to capture the true depth of it.


 
Denis on the path and very close to the edge. We are trying to show you how close our walking path is to the edge with a drop of 1 mile.

 

An earlier resident of the Grand Canyon.
 

 
 
We met Andy and Sammy from Toronto at the Canyon.  Andy says it is her dream to see all the these beautiful sites, I wish for her dream to come true as ours have been.

A better view of the Condor, sunning on the rock.  Thanks to Robert Walthall we have this picture.  It was nice meeting you, Donna.
This is another picture he has provided to us.  A full grown condor could have a wing span about 9 1/2 feet.  They will eat dead animals and to keep cool they urinate on themselves.  So they really do not give off a good odour.
Denis took this picture of the Condor while sunbathing on a cliff in front of the hotel and the Raven dropped by for a visit.
Tuesday, April 4, 2006.  Sadly we are leaving the Grand Canyon today.  We believe everyone in their lifetime should visit.  Just reserve lodging/flying a year in advance and fly down.  You do not need a car when you are here because they provide free transportation.  There is walking, hiking, sightseeing galore. It was also really nice to have electricity and hook-up to water for the first time since January while we were in Tucson for Christmas. It is nice to be a pig with water and heat. We are heading to Lipan Point (another part of the Grand Canyon but closed for camping) for tonight.  Then we will head to Navajo Nation, Canyon de Chelly Monument.  It looks like we will miss going to Zion and Bryce.  Denis is determined to go this route.  It will have to be another day.
Wednesday, April 5, 2006.  We have started our trip to the North and have met with snow all the way.  Not impressed, especially at 5,000 to 7,000 latitudes.  We have just gone through the Hopi Indian Reservation.  They do not allow pictures up close.  A lot of them still live in their ancestral homes high up on top of the Mesa around 500 feet. They use to live on the foothills but moved up to them for protection against attack, years ago.  The homes were all made of small stones and mud that they would haul up. They had to haul up everything.  Anyways a lot of the homes have been renovated but they still have that old look to them.  There are no industries so I think all the young are leaving to go to school and the staying in the cities. 

We went through a rain storm then a sand storm.  You should have seen our truck and trailer.  It was covered with red sand and as luck would have it there was a car wash just past that area. I think there must be a wind tunnel in that area. Talk about taking care of the tourist.

 
This is on the way to the top of a Mesa.  We wanted to have a tour of it but was told to come back the next day.  There are 3 small communities live here of about 500 people.
It snowed last night and we are on the way to the Mesa for our tour. There are no pictures allowed.
It's a isolated life style in which belief's are handed down even to-day. You would have to go there to see it.
Thursday, April 6, 2006.  We are now in Navajo Country at Canyon de Chelly.  We were so happy that for once we did not have to pay to stay in this park.  Another thing different about this park is that the Navajo are still living here, since this is in their reservation.  There are a lot of ruins here dating as far back as 300 to 1200 A.D..  We cannot see them up close unless we hire a guide and go down the canyon.  We can see one ruin on the 1 1/2 mile walk down the canyon.  Since we blew too much money at the Grand Canyon, we will not be hiring a guide.
White House Ruins was occupied by the Anasazi Indians between 1065 and 1275 A.D..  It is named for the long wall in the upper dwelling that is cover with white plaster.  Even in those days there was a White House.
A frontal view of White House Ruins.



 

Spider Rock, name after Spider Woman.  A Navajo folklore said to have shown women how to weave.  This is one of their holy places.  This rock powers 800 feet in this canyon which also has farmer's fields.
Our walk down to the canyon floor. Check the sandstone formations and how they spiral.

See the high walls falling sheer to a sandy floor.

 

 
Navajo's living and farming here. 

 

 

 
This is a Hogan.  At one time the family use to live in it but then they moved into regular houses.  They use the Hogen's for special occasions and celebrations.  There are still some Navajo's who are still living and building Hogans.
On  March 11, 2006.  We will head to Monument Valley.

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