American Southwest Day 7 (PM): Snowflakes and Stargazing

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The Sacrifice Continues

Generally in Northern Arizona, the average temperature this time of year is 82 degrees and there are 15 days of full sun, 10 days of partial, and 5 days of rain (less than 20 inches annually). We have unfortunately fallen into those last five days and well below the temperature range as the temperature hung between 40 and 45 degrees all day long.

We continue to count our blessings for the sun and mild temperatures we have had - amazingly when you are outside of Ohio 45 degrees just doesn't feel as bad as it does back home. We hit up the factory outlets and a Wal-Mart in St. George before Zion so we are well-equipped with cheap outerwear. To further the blessings we have also cut short the stay in Flagstaff to one night and increased Sedona to two nights as it is significantly warmer down there. We did have some decent weather and views for the Grand Canyon just as we did for the Horseshoe Bend early in the day, but by afternoon things deteriorated.

Little Colorado

One of the tribuatries of the Colorado, this little fellow has done quite a good job of carving its on canyon, in many ways more impressive than that of the Colorado at the Grand Canyon as one could walk up to the edge of the canyon and experience a severe drop of some 500 feet with only a couple hundred feet of separation from one rim to the next. What's more, life is scanter here and so the canyon has a more extraterrestrial appearance than the other canyons we have seen. We ran into it by happenstance thanks to our uncommon eastern approach to the Grand Canyon and our familiar reddish-brown signs. The Indians are really running a racket here as they charge you $2 to view the thing but you can't view it unless you pass through a gauntlet of their stalls selling every which "native" nick-nack off the boat from China. The view was well worth it though, we didn't buy anything either.

The Big Show

We made it to Desert View entrance at around 10AM, pretty good considering all of our stops along the way and were greeted by the awe-striking sight that is the Grand Canyon, bathed in a dewy sunlight and a few curtains of haze that gave it enough of a surreal glow to make it look like a fake picture backdrop in any of our portraits. After some photography and climbing up the watchtower we drove towards the Village intent on doing some hiking unfortunately it began to rain/snow ever so slightly along the way so we drove all the way to the Village and parked near Bright Angel's Lodge and walked some 5 miles to the west long the rim for the next hour or so until the weather had deteriorated enough that we could not reasonably continue. The Grand Canyon is a crowded place but the facilities are prepared to handle the load - I am not sure how many people come there on a day like hours but it at least doesn't feel too crowded. Four hours at the GC and we had had enough - off to Flagstaff!

Fancying Flagstaff

We made it to Flagstaff in one piece. No big deal really, although we did brave a couple of McDonald's sandwiches, yielding some mild McStomach Aches. The most impressive and unexpected thing about Flagstaff are the San Francisco Peaks, especially Mount Humphrey of course at 12,000 feet. Second most impressive is that Flagstaff is at about 7,000 feet - who knew? "Flagstaff" . . . kind of like "Tombstone" . . . something you would find in the desert right? Unfortunately we could only get a few glimpses between the clouds of Mount Humphrey, but we did spend some time among the smaller cinder cones to the north in the Coconino National Forest, fittingly these were scarred by fires in recent years that denuded the landscape and exposed the deathly ash on the ground.

We arrived just as the Museum of Northern Arizona was getting ready to close - so we postponed both of those tasks to the next day. We therefore made our way to the Hilton Garden Inn - decent place, free, what else is there? - and (I) forced ourselves (Jennifer) to keep going and not settle in for a nap. We went to Flagstaff Mall just to see it, and we did, and it was what one would have expected - JCP, Sears, and Dillard's plus a few portfolio plays by Westcor. Following we went to a place called the Wine Loft which I had spotted on the tourist map and which is a crusty old place located on the second floor of a building on San Francisco street. As I walked in, I figured out immediately where UF had disposed of the common area chairs from Simpson Hall, the casegoods in this place were a disaster. Even more striking was the odor that pervaded this 3,000 SF space - either there were a lot of stinky tourists in here, or there had JUST BEEN a bunch of stinky tourists. Oh, but no, all it took was ONE skunk - the bartender who was not a tourist, since he knew all the local Thai restaurants, but had definitely neglected to bathe. This was maybe a ploy to overshadow how bad their wines were, I am not sure why we didn't leave on the spot, frankly I think we were curious to figure out where the smell was coming from and once we had done that we were a bit committed.

We had dinner at a place around the corner called Mountain Oasis, part owned by an Armenian lady and part owned by "a guy from Flagstaff". Cool. So what does that yield? A confused mess that could go either way, but Jennifer's sense for good food prevailed and the place turned out to be great, right down to the stuffed grape leaves and Patrick our server. Tired and swirling from our wine glasses earlier and our bottle from dinner, we headed to the Lowell Observatory.

I could not remember the last time my teeth chattered walking down the street, but now I can - it was bone cold in Flagstaff that night, and it was no better inside the telescope dome as we listened to a presentation by the docent, a local high school student, on the observatory and Percival Lowell. The visit was well worth it, unfortunately, though skies were clear when we went in, they were thoroughly overcast when we came out. The observatory is definitely worth the visit.

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Photos

Little Colorado Canyon
A snack before we get to the real thing. Very gritty and lunar in aspect, run by the Indians.

The Black Beau at Desert View
Parading around for some food - just like the disturbing of Pueblo sites, interdictions on feeding the animals are ignored.

We're there! And so is Yoda!
Yay!

Desert View
Sunlight is still abundant, about 10AM.

Cedar Mountain from Desert View
Cedar Mountain is so out of place around the flatness surrounding the Canyon, it does not get the attention it deserves.

Endless Expanse
Amazing, still cannot decide if the haze was a plus or minus. We took it as it was.

Yes, Jennifer . . .
. . . it has NOTHING on Zion!

Desert Rose
I had photographed these in Zion but the sync on laptop deleted it, the Zion cactus roses were nicer.

Snow & Haze
What was clear to see an hour before has sunken into a deep mist and snowfall in the matter of a bus ride!

A Reflection of Death
A large Ponderosa burnt to death surrounded by its fallen comrades.

Once Covered in Ponderosas
In the Coconino National Forest, part of the San Francisco Volcanic Field to the north, look closely, the cinder cone was once covered in evergreens.

Lowell Observatory
Percival Lowell's telescope, the first at the observatory in Flagstaff. No stargazing, the sky was completely overcast.