We are home - wrap up

 We left Chinle, AZ on Wednesday, April 23. After five full days of driving, we arrived home on Monday. We drove approx 350 miles per day, but one day we went almost 450! We stayed at two Cracker Barrels, one casino and had 2 nights in hotels. Good beds and a shower 😀. We are VERY happy to be home.

 We were away for 10 weeks, Feb 23-April 28.

Our towing mileage total was 5,750 miles.

Our total driving (towing and not towing) was 7,674 miles.

Average mpg - 12 

Cheapest gas $2.55

Most expensive gas $3.49

Most expensive campground $55 

Least expensive: Free! (love those)

We covered a lot of ground that we had already been to. That's OK. My favorite new place would have to Canyon de Chelly. I would go back there and explore more. I also really liked the county campground outside Tucson.

I don't know when our  next long trip will be. Probably not for a while. But I will let you all know when that is....

Thanks for traveling along with us. 💖

 

Nancy and Steve

 

 

Our last two stops - lots of photos

 To catch up, we were supposed to move onto the Navajo reservation last Thursday. The weather for our tour day,rain and snow were predicted. So as not to impose more on our hosts Sharon and Kyle, we got a campsite nearby. And boy it is a good thing. It rained all day Friday at the lower elevations, but it snowed in a lot of places!  I17 north through Flagstaff was closed, as we I40 east near Winslow. There was snow and rain on the tour on Friday. I am sure it was beautiful but....I am glad we waited.

The San Francisco peaks, Flagstaff, 12k'

Snow at 7,000'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We hiked a bit around the campground, went to Jerome, another old mining town on a hill (like Bisbee) and did a few other things. We left the Verde Valley on Sunday, a beautiful day.

The drive to Canyon De Chelly is north on I17 through Flagstaff, gaining about 2,500 feet, then back down to about 5,000' east in I40, then north again on some tribal roads. We were worried about how they would be, but it was fine. 

This is a tribal campground we are in, called Cottonwood. It is located at the Thunderbird lodge. The Canyon is technically federal land. But since both it and Monument Valley are located completely within the Navajo reservation, the tribe runs everything. Lodges, tours, gift shops etc. Our guide Elton said the tribe owns and runs everything. The only thing the Park Service owns are the ruins, petroglyphs and pictographs. 

Our tour started at 9am on Monday, a nice sunny day - not too hot, not too cold. There were 3 couples in the military vehicle Thunderbird Lodge uses for their tours. 

The Canyon is huge - each arm is about 20 miles deep, box canyons. One way in, one way out. We took the shorter 4 hour tour. Because of all the rain and snow there was plenty of water in the canyon. We saw lots of pictographs, petroglyphs, and both cliff and pueblo dwellings. Some of the ruins are from  BC600-800, some much "newer" 1500-ish. Our guide was very knowledgeable. He speaks his tribal language, and said he is the translator for his grandparents, who only speak Navajo. Excellent tour and totally worth it!

For those interested,  the Res CG is $20/night no hookups. There is water. Bathrooms have cold water only, no showers. Fine for a few nights.

Kokopelli petroglyphs. Look at the hands, some are hands, some are negatives of hands. Some old, some really old.

Water in the canyon

Antelope and the infinity sign as calendar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cliff dwellings

Cliff dwellings

More

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pueblo ruins, ground level

Antelope petroglyphs

Cliff walls are 300-400' tall

Overhang

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Canyon map. Our tour in black, a small portion of it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today we drove 1.5 hours each way to Monument Valley.  The drive through the reservation is hard to describe. The beauty of the landscape is breathtaking. The miles and miles of poverty all along the route is heartbreaking. I know we have poverty in NY. But not to the extent you see here. At every trailer, house, shack...there's a traditional Navajo Hogan or roundhouse. Some are 5, 6 or 8 sided. Some are traditional log and mud, but most are modern siding. 

 

From the Canyon visitor Center

 

The road through monument valley is 17 dirt miles. Some of it VERY rough. Lots of pull offs for photos. I think we would have stopped more if we had not been down in Canyon de Chelly yesterday. Still, an interesting day. We had lunch in a little town called Kayenta, in a restaurant with 8 big sides. We were one of only 2 tables who were not native. It was great hearing native language all around us. 

From the road, not part of the park

Three monuments. The scale is deceiving. 

 

 

 

yup, that's us...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Church Rock

The Thumb

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow we start east...I probably won't post again until we are at home.

 

 

Rimrock and Grand Canyon

 We've changed it up a little bit. Instead of camping at the Grand Canyon, we left the camper in Kyle and Sharon's yard and drove up. It's a 2 hour drive and we stayed in Williams, AZ, which is an hour away. Williams is on Rt 66, and of course there are some buildings still remaining. Cute little town.

Snow on Humphreys peak, 7000+ ft, Flagstaff

Rt 66 Williams, AZ

Rt 66 club still going strong

Another fun sign

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is also the PooZeum - a museum dedicated to the largest collection of petrified dinosaur poo, called coprolites, in the world. How can one resist?

The drive from Williams to the GC is not too interesting...we arrived at the gate just after 9 and waited 45 min to enter. There were lots of people there, even in the "off" season. You can kind of get away from them all by walking the trails away from the main 3 visitor centers...but...there are a lot of people. Makes me almost glad  we are not going to anymore national parks. Too many people. I know that is what you get these days but I had sort of forgotten. Ah well. I had been here as a teenager. I didn't remember how little you can actually see of the Colorado. Just a glimpse here and there.

That's one big hole in the ground!

That's the Colorado River way in the back

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bright Angel Lodge

Yavapai Lodge

Hopi lodge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were supposed to leave Rimrock tomorrow for Chinle AZ and Canyon de Chelly. But the weather is going to be ugly...so we have delayed our departure until Sunday. So as not to overstay our welcome with Kyle and Sharon, we got a campsite at a local Thousand Trails RV park about 30 minutes away and will leave from there. 

This morning we birded at the Page Springs Fish Hatchery, along Oak Creek, a tributary of the Verde River. When we were here 2 years ago, all of these creeks and the Verde were at flood stage. It has been a MUCH drier winter this year. We saw a black hawk sitting on her nest above the creek. Great bird. 

Trout at the fish hatchery, waiting to be fed

How's that for some cotton!

Canyon de Chelly is on the Navajo Reservation. You can drive yourself, but we will be taking a tour that is only offered by members of the Navajo tribe. It is a 4 hour jeep tour. It should be interesting camping on the res. More to come. Not sure how much wifi I will have so it may be a few days before I can post again. We shall see.

Tucson and Rimrock, AZ

 We left Patagonia State park for a Pima County campground called Gilbert Ray CG. It is on the west side of Tucson, up in the foothills and very close to the Sonora Desert Museum and Saguaro West national park. It is right in the middle of saguaro habitat. Very fun. It is 2,000' lower in elevation than Patagonia, which is too cold to support saguaro. Things are starting to bloom there including ocotillo, prickly pear and cholla cactus and the saguaro themselves. We only saw one in actual flower but lots of buds. One of the docents at Desert Museum said they are blooming almost a month early. Saguaro rely on bats and white winged doves for pollination, and the doves are just starting to re-appear. It was pretty close to 90 degrees when we arrived!

Our campsite

 

Dad saguaro holding mom saguaro right behind the campsite

 

 

 

 

Desert sunset

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next morning we headed for the Sonora Desert Museum early while it was still cool. This is a large outdoor museum set up in different habitats. There's a butterfly habitat, hummingbird enclosure, reptile and arachnid house and lots more. They have some unrelease-able larger animals such as a mountain lion, javelina, coyote and some Mexican Gray wolves which in the past were used in a captive breeding program to help the species recover. From their newsletter: "The Desert Museum no longer participates in the captive breeding program but provides a home for wolves who help us educate our visitors about wolves’ role in the ecosystem, and efforts to restore them to the landscape. Currently, we house 3 female wolves born at the Endangered Wildlife Center in Missouri. They are sisters from the same family pack- the eldest helped raise the other two and they are all closely bonded. Come visit Luna, Sol, and Estrella!"  All 3 were active when we were there. Beautiful animals.  There's also currently a display of Dinos in the Desert...and these animatronic dinos are scattered around the grounds, moving and roaring at you. Pretty funny and of course a big hit with the youngsters. We spent 3 hours there and by then it was 90 again and we headed home to cool off and chill for the afternoon.

 

Hedgehog Cactus flower

Saguaro flower and buds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Mexican Gray Wolf

                                                         

 

Gilbert Ray CG has 4 large loops with very nicely spaced sites. There is electric at each site and you can fill up your water when you enter. Bathrooms are pretty new but no shower is available. $28/night non resident. I would stay there again.

On Wednesday we departed for Kyle and Sharon's in Rimrock, a somewhat stressful drive through Phoenix and up I17 toward Sedona. We arrived here at 2pm and were happy to chill for the afternoon. Thursday we toured Montezuma's Well National Monument which is just 2 miles from their house. We have been here before but it is such an interesting spot. The well is a deep pothole fed by underground springs. There are cave dwellings all around the upper parts of the bowl, and later pueblo dwellings along the rim. Take a few minutes and watch this super cool video about the Well.

 

150 year old graffiti at Montezuma Well. Preserved by the park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There has not been a lot of staff at the national parks that we have been to, not surprisingly. At Tumacacori, the ranger there told us that at the Empire Ranch/La Cienegas National Conservation area, there is now 1 ranger to cover the 100,000 acres of the park. There used to be 10. One. Ranger. We had planned to continue our trip on to many other national parks but instead will be heading east after we see the Grand Canyon. I honestly feel like we shouldn't be going to national parks, that it seems a burden to me to add to their work load. We don't need to be doing that. 

This morning we hiked the MacDonald trail up 3/4 of a mile to some cliff dwellings. Super cool! We did great for our ages (lol) and the elevation. Thanks to Sharon for showing us this wonderful spot.

On the way up

Getting Closer

 

The view from up there

Looking in

Looking out

 

Ancient wall

Sierra Vista and Patagonia, Arizona

 We spent a great five days with Beth and Aaron. We arrived on Thursday. Friday was an off day, laundry and catch up. Saturday Aaron drove all of us to Golden Canyon east of Phoenix to the Arizona Renaissance Fair. Fun and interesting people watching! 

Sunday we went to Bisbee to pick up a few things there. Bisbee is starting to change again. There was a fire there last winter and between insurance increases and fire mitigation plans, buildings are being sold and businesses are closing. 

Monday we went birding at San Pedro House on the San Pedro river. Saw a bunch of good birds including great views at a cooperative black hawk.

I did not take one photo the whole time we were there!

On Wednesday, we moved a whole 57 miles to Patagonia Lake State Park, 6 miles north of Nogales and the border. We were here on our first trip out two years ago.  This is a dammed up lake of Sonoita Creek, which is a year-round spring fed creek. So there is tons of bird and wildlife along the creek course. We were here in Feb last time. There are a lot more birds around this time. The park runs bird walks every Friday on their nature trails and we had a good one.

The lake and cottonwood trees

 

Big cottonwood along the creek

 

 

 

 

 

 

The town of Patagonia is about 5,000 souls. Patagonia is the starting point of the 800 mile Arizona Trail so there are lots of hikers bikers and trekkers around. A couple of galleries, some restaurants and a hotel. Not much to it, but kind of a cool, hippy place. There is a LOT of conserved land around, Nature Conservancy, Audubon and State lands. You can hike the 6 miles from Patagonia town to the state park if you have a mind to.

One of the really cool things that is there is the Paton Center for Hummingbirds.  This is a great place for birds of all kinds but especially hummers. The day we were there was cool - high 50's and there were probably 35-40 hummingbirds trying to stay warm by sucking down nectar. It was just incredible to see and hear them. 

One day we went up the ridge looking for petroglyphs. Didn't find them, but came down the trail to the creek and into a whole pack of Coatimundi, an odd animal that's a cross between a lemur and a raccoon. There were about 20 of them overhead in the cottonwoods and they went down the trees and up onto the ridge. This youngster got left behind and we watched as he caught up to them. We have been trying to see these incredible animals since our last trip and finally did. Yay!

Saturday we went to Tumacácori Historic Park and Tubac Presidio State Park. Tumacácori has a mission history, first settled by the Pima people and Catholocized by Jesuits and then Franciscans. Tubac Presidio was a fort off and on for a couple hundred years. Interesting for sure.The Prisidio is Arizona's first state park. It is currently surrounded by the town of Tubac and an area full of galleries, jewelry stores and chichi restaurants. Not anything I expected to find there. Tumacácori seems like Tubac's poor relation.

Tumacácori facade, bell tower on the right

 

Interior Sacristy

Carved Door detail

Entry. Amazing doors

 

Roof vigas and shade structure made of ocotillo! Ouch. 

Some of the birds we have seen. All bird photos by Steve.

Inca Dove

Green Tail Towhee

Violet Crowned Hummer

Lazuli Bunting

Black Chinned Hummer

Broad billed hummer, the most numerous

Anna's hummer (I think...)

Cassin's Kingbird

Vermillion Flycatcher

 

 

 

 

 

If you have made it this far...Patagona is a good state park, popular on the weekends with families. It really packs up in the summer I am told. $35/night water and electric. Heated bathrooms, hot showers. 

Tomorrow we head to just northwest of Tuscon to a Pima County Park that is just up the road from the Sonora Desert Museum. We will be there until the 11th and then head to Rimrock and Sharon and Kyle's for a week.