Holbrook to Homolovi Ruins State Park to Dead Horse Ranch State Park to Prescott (Nov 7-17)

On Nov. 7 I headed from Holbrook west to Homolovi Ruins State Park. When I got there the visitors center was closed but this roadrunner was waiting in the parking lot to greet me.


The park has a really nice campground so I spent a couple nights there. I toured the ruins, which date from 1200-1300 or so. It was a huge pueblo type settlement - maybe as many as 2000 rooms, so it was cool to see, but there isn't a lot more than wall outlines left. I also took a few short hikes, saw neat desert and some more petroglyphs.

On Nov. 9, I headed southwest to Dead Horse Ranch State Park, near Cottonwood. On the way I drove thru Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon. Really nice scenery, but kind of too built up. A lot of ticky tacky resorts and spas that looked kind of pretentious. Mind you, I did drive thru on the Friday of a three-day weekend (Veterans Day) in what I gather is their busy season when days are not too hot and nights not too cold, so I might have seen it at its worst trafficwise.

Dead Horse Ranch is a really nice desert park on the Verde River.

I was getting sick of packing up every couple days so I settled in and stayed a while. There were a lot of nice short hikes in the park and some nice sites to see in the area. One day I went to Tuzigoot National Monument, another Native American Ruin. Another day I drove over to the V-V site, which has amazing petroglyphs. These ones look like turtles but are actually horned toads, which is the symbol of the water clan that was responsible for calendar keeping. The squiggle ending in a spiral is actually a solar calendar -there's a rock gap that creates a sun dagger across the rock art that lines up with the sharp bends on the solstices and the right days of the season to plant corn.


These are herons:


Another day I drove into Sedona to the Palatki site where there was more rock art- pictographs this time, which are painted on the rock, as opposed to petroglyphs which are carved into the rock. Some of the pictographs are thought to be a couple thousand years old.


There's also a cliff dwelling ruin there - the hike to the ruin has some really nice scenery.

Today I drove from Dead Horse Ranch to Prescott where I'm staying in the Hotel Saint Michael. Had a yummy burger and pint of IPA for dinner at the Prescott Brewing Company. Tomorrow I'm off to Joshua Tree National Park.

Cameron to Holbrook, AZ (Nov. 1-6)

On Nov. 1 I drove north from Cameron to Navajo National Monument. There I took a couple short hikes, one leading to an overlook on the Betatakin ruins dating back to the 1250AD or so.


I discovered the monument has a nice campground with running water, flush toilets in a very clean, heated bathroom - and it's free! So I picked a nice site with a view that justified the campground name of Sunset View.


It was pretty cold that night (32 degrees) and they don't allow fires, so I turned in early and cuddled up in my down sleeping bag. I woke up in the morning and got out of my tent, heading for that heated bathroom. Oh no! The door's locked! I knew this was too good to be true - I'm thinking they've closed the restrooms for the season. Then a man comes to put up signs saying the water's been shut off, and says it's just for the day, they're doing some work on the water line and it should be back on by that night. Of course, with a nice rest room with drinking water right there, I hadn't bothered to fill all my water bottles the night before, so I was thinking I barely had enough water for my morning coffee. But then I realized I still had my 5-gallon water jug about a third full from Grand Canyon, so figured I had enough water, and stuck to my day's plan and headed north to see Monument Valley. It's a Navajo Tribal Park on the Utah/Arizona border and is one of those places that it's just hard to believe is real.


The park has a 17 mile dirt road thru it with a lot of scenic stops - very bumpy in places, but worth every bump.


Then I headed back to the campground at Navajo National Monument. As I pulled in I saw ditches unfilled and started to worry about the water situation. Uhoh - the "water turned off" signs were still up, it's about 5:30 Friday evening and the workers are all gone. I'm thinking there's no hope of water over the weekend. I briefly debated moving on, but it was getting dark, and I'd signed up for a ranger-led hike to the ruins the next morning, so I decided to stay. Then 15 minutes or so later I here the heavy equipment start up. I'm such a pessimist - the workers must have just taken a dinner break. And around 7:30 or 8pm, the maintenance guy comes by and unlocks the restrooms - the water's back on! Yeah!!! Amazing how much you miss modern conveniences and appreciate them when you get them back.

I had another nice, but chilly night. In the morning at 10am I went with a group on a ranger-led hike down to Betatakin ruins that I'd seen from the overlook the other day. You can only go to the ruins on a guided tour to protect them. There were about 10 of us in the group and we hiked down into Tsegi canyon to the ruins. There were petroglyphs!


We got to go into the ruins, being careful not to touch the walls. It was neat to see them close up and the ranger told us all about how the ancestral Puebloans lived there.




The trek back up was steep - 750 feet elevation gain, with lots of steps and switchbacks. And of course this is all at 7000 or so feet elevation, where there really isn't enough air to start with. I huffed and I puffed, and was definitely the last one up, but I made it. I'm definitely getting in better shape with all the high-elevation hiking I've been doing, but I'm really regretting being such a couch potato the last couple years. So many of the hikes in this area are down into canyons. Unlike a mountain, where you go up as far as you can, here you get down and then have no choice but to make it back up. But there's always wonderful scenery to stop and admire while you catch your breath. I didn't get the best angle on this, but this rock looks a lot like ET.


On Saturday's hike I met a nice couple, Michelle and Nop, from Holland who are spending a year traveling, several months in the US. They invited me for a pancake breakfast Sunday morning - a yummy treat since I usually just do cereal and milk for breakfast. I'm slowly getting more into camp cooking, but the clean-up without a kitchen sink is such a hassle that I tend to stick with simple.

Then I packed up and drove over to Canyon de Chelly National Monument and settled into Cottonwood Campground there. Monday I toured Canyon de Chelly, which has a lot of ruins and is a beautiful place.


The canyon floor is inhabited and farmed by Navajos, so to protect their privacy as well as the ruins, tourists aren't allowed in most of it without hiring a Navajo guide (at $15 an hour, 3 hour minimum, too pricey for my budget). But there are a lot of scenic overlooks, like Spider Rock above, and there's one place where you can hike down to Whitehouse Ruins.


Another hike down into a canyon, but again great scenery to admire on the way back up.


I spent the night at the Canyon de Chelly campground. Today I went to Petrified Forest National Park.


I saw lots more petroglyphs.


The scenery is unworldly.


There are lots of petrified logs around - that's what all those little dots are in this photo.


Up close it really looks like wood, but it's rock.


Tonight I'm staying in a Best Western in Holbrook, Arizona. Aaah, the luxury of a bed, a tv, wifi, and most of all a shower. Thanks again to all my friends at the vigil. Tomorrow I'm off to Homolovi Ruins State Park, outside Winslow, Arizona.

Flagstaff to Cameron (Oct. 31)

Happy Halloween! No ghosts at the Hotel Monte Vista last night, tho.

After looking at maps last night, I rearranged my plans a bit. Instead of heading straight over to Petrified Forest NP, I decided to a loop north from Flagstaff, thru the Navajo Reservation to Monument Valley, east to Canyon De Chelly, then back south to the Petrified Forest. So today I headed north from Flagstaff to Sunset Crater Volcanic National Monument. Sunset Crater is a cinder cone that erupted in 1064AD, or thereabouts.

Then I continued north to Wupatki National Monument, where there are pueblo ruins dating from the 1100s or so.


A really fascinating place. Then I drove north to the town of Cameron where I'm staying at the Cameron Trading Post and Lodge. It's a nice place - my room has a view of the Little Colorado Gorge. I had some yummy enchiladas for dinner, then wandered thru the trading post. They have some beautiful Navajo rugs, if only I had several thousand dollars to spare I'd buy one.

It feels decadent to stay in a hotel two nights in a row, but there just aren't any campgrounds in this area - the few there are closed for the season in mid-October.

Tomorrow I'm headed up to Monument Valley.

Death Valley to Flagstaff (Oct 20 to Oct 30)

I'm determined to get caught up tonight. To pick up where I left off, with my new battery I headed back to my campsite. The weather forecast called for high winds, gusting to 45 or 50 mph that night, and they weren't kidding! I sat out a little to watch the sunset, but it was too windy, so I retreated to my tent to read. The wind was crazy - I kept thinking I was gonna wake up in the land of Oz. But I didn't. And the upside of the winds was that it drove off all the rowdy campers, giving me back my quiet campground.

Sunday Oct 21 I was still a bit afraid to get off the beaten path, in case my battery wasn't charging correctly. So I went to a couple of well-traveled spots I hadn't been to yet - Dante's View:


and Zabriskie Point:


Then I went to Furnace Creek Ranch Hotel to have a shower. For your $4 you get access to their pool as well as the showers - it's spring-fed, so no chemicals and 81 degrees. So after getting clean, I had a long float in the pool. There's something decadent about floating around a pool in the middle of the desert - but it sure was nice!

Monday, Oct. 22, I packed up and drove to Pahrump, Nevada, where there's a jeep dealer and a Best Western. The Jeep dealer couldn't fit me in Monday, but I got a 7:30 am appointment for Tuesday. So I went and checked into the Best Western (thanks to all my friends at the Peace Vigil!). I got on their wifi briefly, then it stopped working. I called the front desk, she said she'd look into it, and I headed out to do some grocery shopping at non-national park prices. When I got back I still couldn't get the wifi to work. So I called the front desk again, a different person curtly referred me to the Best Western toll-free tech support number. I couldn't convince her the problem was their network, so I called the tech support and wasted half an hour talking to them - they were of the opinion that the hotel's network was down, had been for a couple of days and would be until the next day when some replacement equipment arrived. The front desk then claimed to have a work-around, but I never got it to work. So again the blog fell behind.

Tuesday, Oct 23, I went to the Jeep dealer bright and early and my electrical system checked out fine. Yeah!!! So I headed off to the Grand Canyon, thru Las Vegas, over the Hoover Dam, and across Arizona. I arrived around 5pm, just in time to see sunset over the Canyon.



Wednesday, Oct 24, I had a lazy morning at my camp site and then walked along the canyon rim for a few miles, from Mather Point past Yavapai Point. The Grand Canyon is just an amazing place, every corner you turn, there's an even more amazing view. I took tons of pictures, I'll just post a few of the best.


Wednesday evening I had a visitor to my campsite, not entirely sure what he is, a mule deer maybe?


Thursday, Oct. 25, I walked a few more miles along the rim, from where I left off to Hopi Point.




On Friday, Oct 26, a herd of elk came by my campsite for breakfast:


During the day I did more scenicing along the rim, went to Yaki Point:



Then I walked from Pipe Creek Vista to Mather Point. I watched the sunset from Yavapai Point.


On Saturday, Oct 27. I drove out to the East Rim, to the Watchtower. The Watchtower was built in the 1920s as a rest stop. It was a partly cloudy day, so the light was amazing.



The Watchtower, as seen from Lipan Point:


On Sunday, Oct 28, I hiked along the rim trail from Hopi Point to Pima Point. Much of the rim trail is paved and has railings when it goes near the edge, but not this section. Parts were really narrow and perched right on the edge with nothing between you and that 5000 foot drop. Definitely challenged my fear of heights, but I didn't really get any pictures that show it. The scenery was of course amazing.


On Monday, Oct 29, I decided it was time to get beneath the rim, and I was as acclimatized as I was gonna get to that 7000 foot elevation lack of oxygen. So I headed down the South Kaibab trail. No, I wasn't crazy enough to think I was gonna make it all the way to the river and back. I just went to the first viewpoint, the aptly named Ooh Aah Point.

It was still quite a trek back up. At this point I was saying 'Where's that elevator?'


Today, Tuesday, Oct. 30, I packed up and left Grand Canyon, driving south to Flagstaff. Tonight I'm staying in a historic hotel, the Hotel Monte Vista. It supposedly has a few ghosts, so I'm keeping an eye out - tomorrow is Halloween after all.

Tomorrow I'm off to Petrified Forest National Park. And finally, I'm caught up on this blog. Yeah!!!

Diamond to Death Valley (Oct 16-20)

Tuesday Oct. 16 I drove south from Diamond, OR, thru French Glen and Fields. That's definitely cattle country and it was the time of year that they move the calves to market, so those "cattle on road" signs really meant it:


From Fields I continued south into Nevada, thru Denio, Winnemucka, and Battle Mountain and stopped for the night in Austin, NV. The weather was threatening rain and/or snow so I checked into a little motel in Austin, the Lincoln Motel. If you're ever in Austin, NV, do NOT stay there - it was a real dive. The room wasn't particularly clean - so much so that I brought in my sleeping bag and my own pillow and slept on the bed rather than getting in their sheets. But I got laundry done that evening and didn't have to camp in the rain or snow, so it worked out OK.

On Wednesday Oct 17 I continued south over a mountain pass, driving thru a few snow flakes with a dusting along the road, so I was glad I hadn't camped. I went thru Tonopah, NV and down to the north entrance of Death Valley National Park, near Scotty's Castle, a 1920's mansion.


I drove thru the park to Furnace Creek where the main visitor center is and bought my annual pass for national parks - actually nowadays it's one pass, good for all federal lands. I set up camp at the Texas Springs Campground and had a lazy evening.



Thursday Oct 18 I went sight-seeing in Death Valley - what an amazing place. I sure had succeeded in following the sun - it was hot, in the 90's, and I was slathering on the sunscreen to protect my fish-pale Oregon skin. I went to Badwater, the lowest point in the US, 292 feet below sea level. It's one seriously bleak and hot spot.


Then I hiked to the Natural Bridge, about a mile up a really neat canyon. I sure drank a lot of water on that short hike! It was well worth the effort tho.



I took the Artists Drive which goes past some amazingly colored rock formations. There's one spot called Artists Palette where there are red, orange, yellow, green, pink and purple rocks. Picture's just don't do it justice tho so I won't bother posting any. I also hiked about 2 miles up Golden Canyon, which was a really nice desert canyon.

After all that hot desert hiking I was dusty and sweaty, so I went and payed the Furnace Creek Ranch Hotel $4 for the privilege of a shower. That was one of the best showers I've ever taken - it felt so good to be clean! (Might have been one of the longest too...) Then I stopped by the visitor center and asked the ranger on duty where in the park I could see petroglyphs. He told me about a nice panel of petroglyphs at Klare Spring, on the Titus Canyon Road - a 27-mile long, one way, four wheel drive road from just over the state line in NV, thru Titus Canyon to the main Death Valley park road. I'd be fine in my old Jeep he said, even tho I have highway tires on it. He assured me it wasn't really rough, tho they recommended only high clearance vehicles take it. Well, anyone who knows me and petroglyphs, knows I went for it.

Friday morning, Oct 19, I started out with a stop at the visitor center to get online and get a little caught up with my blog. But I only had a little power in my battery, so I posted what I could, then headed off to see the petroglyphs. While I drove I plugged my computer in thru an inverter to my cigarette lighter to charge. I drove up the highway to the turnoff for Titus Canyon Road, and unplugged the computer at that point since I couldn't secure it very well while it was plugged in and didn't really want a projectile computer on the bumpy road. The first part of the road was fine, washboardy but fairly level. Then it started climbing up the mountains, thru Red Pass. The road got steeper, and narrower, and bumpier, on these tight switchbacks perched on the side of the mountain.


I'm not very good with heights and at this point I was creeping along at 5 miles an hour, saying to myself "Aaargh, what have I gotten myself into?" In the picture above, the road switchbacks off to the left, to give you an idea. I made it tho, slowly inching thru the scary parts, and got down from the pass. I had earned my petroglyphs!



I took lots of pictures, but of course photos of petroglyphs rarely come out very well. After admiring the petroglyphs for a while and hiking around Klare Springs a bit, hoping but failing to see the big horn sheep the ranger said might be there, I continued on down the road. It went into the Titus Canyon narrows, which was just unbelievable. The canyon was barely wider than my jeep in some places and kept going around tight bends. I felt like I was in a twisty turny maze (for those of you who ever played that old computer game). Imagine my surprise, when I came around a tight bend in the canyon and there were hikers in the road in front of me - they looked a bit surprised to, and had to stand up against the edge of the canyon for me to get by. Half a mile or so on I came to the parking lot on the park road side of Titus Canyon Road - I'd made it!

Now that I was back on pavement, I plugged the computer back in to charge some more, and did a bit more sightseeing. I stopped at Stovepipe Well and hiked out to the sand dunes.


Then I headed back to my campsite for a nice relaxing evening. Not fated to be - I hadn't really thought that Death Valley is weekend driving distance from LA. The nice quiet campground had been invaded by the hordes. A large, rowdy group had moved in a few sites over from me. Oh well, such is life I said. And at least they didn't stay up too late. Saturday morning I packed up my camp and was thinking about camping in the back-country, on another 4WD road where there were more petroglyphs. But the ranger said they were expecting really high winds that night, so I thought it might not be a good idea to be by myself in a really remote spot, and set up camp on the other side of Texas Springs Campground from the rowdy group.

Then I drove over to the Stovepipe Wells General Store to see if they had a better selection of food then the Furnace Creek store, with the computer plugged in and charging the whole way, so I could update my blog that evening. I really wanted a steak or chicken breast to grill for dinner, but their selection was as pitiful as Furnace Creek. I bought some ice and went to put it in my cooler. Some idiot had parked on my passenger side, only about 6 inches from me. There were plenty of other spots in the lot too - Aaarrgh! I couldn't get to my cooler, so I moved my Jeep to another spot where I had room and put the ice in my cooler. Then I got in my Jeep to drive off and sightsee some. Click, click, click. Oh, #&*@$! I sat there cussing for a minute. I'd bought the blasted thing new tires, new brakes, had its oil changed and all its fluids checked before heading out on my trip. But had I thought to have it's battery checked? Of course not. And here I was driving around in 90+ heat, with a 6 year old Oregon battery, the AC blasting, the stereo on, and my computer charging. Am I an idiot or what? Anyway, there's a resort next to Stovepipe Wells General Store, and their security drove up in their golf cart and jump started me. I headed back to Furnace Creek where there was a full-service Chevron. It's 3 or 4pm Saturday afternoon by the time I get there, and the regular mechanic is off for the weekend. No, they don't have any way to verify that it's just my battery, and not the alternator or anything else. The cashier looks at my battery and doesn't think they even have one the right size. I must have looked pitiful, cuz he went and looked and found one that'd fit and installed it for me. He didn't really know what he was doing, he hands me a washer saying he can't get it back on the battery mounting bracket cuz the new battery is a bit taller than my old one. Well, on a Saturday afternoon in Death Valley you take what service you can get and are grateful to have your car running again. Mind you I wasn't entirely confident that I didn't just have a new battery with enough juice to start the Jeep a few times. So I didn't dare plug in the computer to charge til I got it checked out. And that's why I didn't get caught up with my blog in Death Valley.

I'm gonna go sightsee now - it's getting chilly sitting in the shade, I need some sun! More tomorrow.

John Day to Diamond (Oct 14-16)

I'm still way behind - have a feeling that may be a familiar refrain on this blog. Why I didn't get caught up at Death Valley will become apparent later - right now I'm at the Grand Canyon and have about 20 minutes left on my battery, so I'll get as much up to date as I can.

I left Dunstan homestead on the afternoon of Sunday Oct 14, stopped in the town of John Day to do some grocery shopping, then drove south towards Burns, and camped at Idlewild NFS campground in the Malheur National Forest, about 20 miles north of Burns. I pulled in around 5:30 and was the only person in the whole campground - would have been cool, but maybe a little spooky if it stayed that way, but a couple RVs pulled in later in the evening.


Monday Oct 15 I drove thru the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge - very cool place, tho part of the time I was driving thru an area where they were just finishing a prescribed burn. I know it's a great management technique, but driving on a washboarded gravel road thru smoldering fields isn't that much fun. I saw some neat hawks tho and several ring-necked pheasants.


Monday night I stayed at the Diamond Hotel in Diamond, Oregon. Thanks to James for the recommendation. It's a neat old hotel, and they serve a wonderful family-style dinner. If you're in the Steens area, stay there!

Oops - almost out of power - more tomorrow.