Blogs from Flagstaff, Arizona, United States, North America - page 5

We wake up to the sound of rain and a quick check outside confirm that it is drizzling. So we start packing and there is a lull in the rain which allows us to eat breakfast outside and to finish packing. But then it starts to rain again and we barely can see the mountain peak that we wanted to hike up to so we change our goal to the nearby River Lava Cave. River Lave Cave is a 0.75 mi (1.2 km) long lave tube - this means that while it is a cave it has few of the features most commonly associated with caves such as stalactites and stalagmites and it is straighter with fewer side passages making it more difficult to get lost. When we get there it is still early in the ... read more

Holbrook is on the doorstep of the famous Petrified forest national park. Essentially a large expanse of desert which millions of years ago was once a floodplain/jungle littered with trees. Dead and torn up trees were washed downstream and slowely covered by sediment and volcanic ash leading to fossilisaiton. Now they are re-emerging from the desert floor and providing spectacular sights (and a horde of souvenier shops!). A little further beyond the forest park is the famous Meteor crater, the site of a long passed meteor impact. Arizonas second largest hole. We made our way into the mountain town of Flagstaff to stay for the night before tomorrows drive up to the Grand Canyon, Arizonas largest hole. Also happened to find a nice microbrewery for dinner :-)... read more

We started out a little earlier today (6:40) and so did the heat. It was over 90 degrees by the time we left the Needles KOA at 9:15. Tony repaired the bike rack again.. this time with 2 types of tape (one of them duct), locktite and a rope that the host was kind enough to give to us. It held up pretty well.. only a little vertical movement after a reasonably rough day of driving. On our way out of Needles, we stopped by the PGE plant near the I-40 bridge over the Colorado river. My uncle Paul is doing some work there to clean up the soil. We saw the old Route 66 bridge transformed as a pipe transport with all sorts of things hanging off of it. We also found a BIG ASS ... read more

This morning we started off heading east, doubling back to the south end of Petrified Forest so that we could walk the Giant Logs Trail and the Long Logs Trail. Would you believe it, the ranger that we encountered twice yesterday at the Painted Desert entrance station was on the Petrified Forest entrance station this morning. She must really think we are obsessed now??! We don't know how early you need to start to take advantage of the cool of the morning because it was already stinking hot again by 9.00am. So we sweated our way around the Giant Logs Trail, which features some of the largest and most colourful logs in the park. 'Old Faithful', at the top of the trail, is almost ten feet across the base. Impressive. The Long Logs Trail has one ... read more

Bob and Gena left the campground early this morning, heading for Wupatki and Sunset Crater, two parks we’ve already seen. They ended up going to Walnut Canyon, also. We dawdled around and left the campground around our usual time of 9:00 and went into the Canyon Village to mail some postcards and buy some more. We stopped at McDonald’s in Tusayan, outside the park gates, for breakfast. Those rip-off artists charge in-park prices, more than $14 for 2 McGriddles and a large Iced tea. They’d make more money if they charged regular prices; people would flock in for cheap food. The wind blew strongly all night and continued all day. The dust blew everywhere, further blurring the mountain views. At Flagstaff we stopped at Black Bart’s RV and Steak Joint, as agreed upon last night with ... read more