Do you ever have those silly arguments with your significant other? (You know the ones… they’re always wrong, but don’t want to admit it.)
When we left Mather’s Point at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon I wanted to turn right and explore various points on the rim trail. He wanted to turn left and drive 20 miles to the watchtower, then 20 miles back to explore the rest and then repeat the first 20 miles because we’d be exiting that way. This made no sense, but he did it anyway because he was driving.
A mile or so down the road?
Even the weather knew I was right.
We turned around.
If you’ve never been to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon (Go! What are you waiting for?) it’s set up something like this – long main road with lots of pullouts for scenic views. Some are large with parking lots, monuments and information placards… some just small vacant outcrops.
We hit them all…. and the husband was like a kid in a candy store.
Awed.
The experience makes you feel small, insignificant.
And that’s not always a bad thing…
At Maricopa Point we read some history…
Climbed a lot of stairs.
Admired the view.
Not bad.
Not bad at all…
Read some more history…
And I answered…
When the husband asked if I wanted to go down and join those hikers on the trail.
See those little specks?
Hikers.
Hell, with his habit of always wanting to go the wrong way?
Day 9 of our trip arrived and we headed north west out of Sedona.
Which pretty much looked like this….
For miles on end.
Our destination?
And I was seriously hoping we wouldn’t find the golden arches at the bottom.
It was a little over a 2 hour ride, and then we saw…
Hey, Fred. Long time no see…. say hello to Wilma for us.
And finally, we were there.
The Grand Canyon has always been on the top of husband’s bucket list. Me? Not so much, but he was happy… which made me happy.
And that’s what marriage is all about.
Well, yes.
That too.
Our first stop at the Canyon was the visitors center because…. well… a 2 hour ride and a quart and a half of Gatorade do not mix.
Naturally, it was closed due to the government shutdown and I had to pee behind a bush. (Not like it was the first time, and no… there aren’t any photos)
Let me take a minute to give a shout out to all the Park Rangers and volunteers who kept the Grand Canyon National Park open for tourists like us who had traveled a long way to be there. We appreciated it.
You rock!
So we walked… and yes, that’s snow.
We came, we saw, we froze.
Like idiots we picked the coldest day of our trip to visit, and it was a good 20 degrees cooler at the canyon due to the elevation.
Windy?
Uh, yeah…..
But we didn’t care.
We were at the Grand Canyon…
And it was grand.
Yes, it’s a giant hole in the ground….
But oh, what a glorious hole it is.
First stop was Mather’s Point..
Which was pretty spectacular.
And even though I never really thought I wanted to be there?
Once I was…
I didn’t want to be anywhere else.
I fear I’m going to run out of adjectives long before I run out of pictures.
Because it was just that good!
And though my photos and videos will never do it justice?
In other words, a post with random photographs that don’t merit their own blog.
Have I mentioned that driving around Sedona, Arizona is beautiful?
Well, it is.
Majestic. Grand. And at times breathtaking …
Yeah, it really does.
We drove, we explored… and never knew what was around the next bend.
Sometimes it was giant chickens.
Other times, rocks that wore hair nets.
We saw houses built on every imaginable rock ledge..
And ravens.
Ravens everywhere….
“Often honored among Native American medicine & holy men for its shape-shifting qualities, the Raven was called upon in ritual so that visions could be clarified. Native holy men understood that what the physical eye sees, is not necessarily the truth, and he would call upon the Raven for clarity in these matters.
Foremost, the Raven is the Native American bearer of magic, and a harbinger of messages from the cosmos. Messages that are beyond space and time are nestled in the midnight wings of the Raven and come to only those within the tribe who are worthy of the knowledge.”
I don’t know how magical they were… or what message they were bringing.
But the owner of this truck left his garbage bags in the bed.
Bad idea.
Very bad…
On the way to Flagstaff, we crossed a bridge…
And I saw a giant silver eagle perched on a store filled with Indian jewelry.
I pointed.
I yelped.
I might have squeeeed in delight.
And the husband read my subtle display as a signal to stop.
The large silver deer was equally as impressive… and then we went inside.
Holy Mother of God…. it was divine! Case after case of stunning Native American silver and stone jewelry from every artist and tribe imaginable. I’d been wanting to bring a nice piece home with me and hit the jackpot here as far as selection. I happily roamed the aisles, eyes bugging out with glee and tried to decide which little lovely would be riding my wrist, finger or ears in the near future.
(No pictures allowed, sorry)
I finally narrowed it down to 3 pieces. Earrings, a ring and a necklace. I could feel the husband sweating from across the room… and I knew the wallet was going to take a hit, but come on. I’m worth it.
You know what? I’m not.
Not even close.
Earrings? $2,100
Ring? $3,200
Necklace? (I think the husband may have fainted as this point) $5,450
Yeah. For silver.
The prices were enough to make even me gulp.
And leave empty handed.
Now…
Can we talk about balls for a minute?
I’m seeing balls in every resort we visit.
Balls in every shape, size, texture and color.
Yes, balls.
I’m not saying this is a bad thing, just wondering why everyone has suddenly jumped on the balls bandwagon.
After a disappointing morning where everything I wanted to see was closed by the shutdown, we ditched the National Sites idea and found a nice (open) fully staffed state park.
Yes, more rocks.
Exactly!
Our first stop was the visitors center,
Which was a pretty impressive group of rocks in and of itself.
Inside?
Well…. rocks.
But hey… there were fun rocks as well.
Can you read the petroglyph?
I’m a little rusty, but I think it says if you follow the river..apply heavy mascara.. do a couple of dizzy Izzy’s.. you’ll find a bug. They also spelled whom incorrectly.
There was information about a rock house…
And about different rock layers…
Hang on… this will make you smile.
There was a photographic middle finger to tease me with the places we tried to go that morning but couldn’t.
Rude rocks.
That’s different, right?
Damn. This is a tough crowd…
But look.
There were bugs!
Apparently my glyph translating skills weren’t as rusty as I’d thought.
Heading back outside, we found a rock hummingbird that seemed to be pointing me towards….
A big Prickly Pear cactus….
From whence all wonderful margaritas grow.
*sob*
Did I mention there were rocks?
And they were red?
Some even looked like giant eyeballs.
I spotted the Apache Fire House off in the distance…
While the husband read the history and laughed that the couple divorced before it was finished.
It started out with breakfast at a place called the Coffee Pot.
The Coffee Pot had…..
Antique coffee pots.
And was located on…
Coffee Pot Drive.
While you don’t often see that kind of symmetry in life, I think the road sign was probably tastier than our meals.
The husband’s pancakes could have been used as bicycle tires, and my sausage biscuits and gravy? Had no sausage. Blech!
The plan for the day was to check out the Indian ruins, petroglyphs and cliff dwellings that dot the landscape in this part of the world.
Leaving Sedona the clouds were hanging low.
Which made for some nice scenic shots.
Before long we arrived at destination #1…
Montezuma’s Castle.
And found a locked gate.
Destination #2?
Yeah.
Another locked gate due to the government shutdown.
I said it.
They didn’t.
This was all we got to see.
I gave up on the petroglyphs as they were National sites as well. Stupid shutdown! Bad enough we had no paycheck… but now they were screwing with our vacation plans.
Back in the car for the return trip to Sedona.
And let me tell you, Kokopelli may rule the Indian tchotchkes market…
But Starbucks rules the world.
Since the husband never likes to take the same route back, we ended up on some middle of nowhere road with questionable directional signs.
See the arrow?
It’s pointing off the side of a cliff.
We may have been tourists, but even we didn’t fall for that.
(Fall. Get it?)
No, but I try.
Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
River's world..... 