Northeast Arizona, 2024

There are a LOT of adventures to be had in Northeastern Arizona.  We did maybe 1% of what there is to do.  Yes, we could have done more in Arizona, and will, but frankly, all those adventures were wrapped in 100 degree heat. Thus we worked our way farther north faster than we would in temperatures we find more comfortable.  We'll be back in November!  (And since it is November as I'm writing this, I better get going.) 

 

Winslow, AZ:  In 2016, I boarded the first of several long-distance Amtrak trains that I've ridden. Despite Amtrak's many problems, I like train travel and  I might convert Bill someday.  That year I was on my way from Chicago to Fort Irwin, California  when the Southwest Chief made a scheduled stop in Winslow, Arizona.  Lots of folks disembarked, as they said, to stand on a street corner, that was made famous by these lyrics of the Eagles song, Take it Easy: 

Now I'm standin' on the corner in Winslow, Arizona,

With such a fine sight to see

It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford,

Slowin' down to have a look at me.

Winslow capitalized on this partly true story.  The song writer, Jackson Browne, really did stand on some corner because his car had broken down in Winslow.  The flat bed Ford isn't true, but the city made it  part of the legend, and now a shiny red one is permanently parked on the street in front of the park they created called Standing on the Corner.

  

And of course, Bill and I took our turn standing with the troubadour, along with a steady stream of other street-corner standers.  The groups of tourists took pictures of one another and it was a bit of silly fun.

But that troubadour statue, with his guitar, is not the main reason we went to Winslow;  our interest in train travel is.  The LaPosada (means resting place) Hotel in Winslow is a renovated Harvey House from the era of the Santa Fe Railroad and the westward settlement of the US.  It is now owned by architect Allen Allfeldt.  It has magnificent art collections and outdoor gardens.  Visitors are greeted by a camel sculpture commemorating the southwest's history of camel imports by the US army.  (It seems camels withstood the desert environment better than mules and could carry heavy loads where wagons couldn't go. Only  male camels were allowed: evidently no one wanted   a bunch of  little ferrel camels roaming around the desert.)  

 

A picture of a picture of the original Harvey House, taken from the Winslow Historical Society

And how it looks today.  Note the camel by the entrance.

The Turquoise Room in the hotel prepared what had to be one of the best vegan meals we've had anywhere.   We deemed it photo-worthy.   

This is Hopi Piki Bread, made of flour, water, and juniper berry ash

A plate of everything from an empanada filled with 'healthy stuff' to tamales, to all the things.

We are definitely going back there!   We didn't get to stay in the hotel, but we surely would have had they not been fully booked. 

It was here at the renovated Harvey House that we fell in love with the work of her original designer, the self-made female architect, Mary Colter.  And she's just as  famous for her work at the Grand Canyon as with the Harvey Houses, so we took  an unplanned day trip to the Grand Canyon.  By train of course.

 

The Hopi House

The fireplace inside the Bright Angel Lodge replicates the rock layers from the bottom of the canyon to the rim.

Yes, truly geeking out over Mary Coulter, who designed this nifty ashtray. 

And to prove we were actually at the Grand Canyon, we took this photo. The canyon is really too big to capture in one photo, so instead we discovered a little local lore to share. The  pyramidally shaped structure inside the yellow circle may or may not be man-made and may or may not be the entrance to a cave replete with Egyptian mummies and artifacts.  Read about this now debunked (imagine that!)  story from 1909  https://www.iflscience.com/the-archaeologist-who-found-ancient-egyptian-hieroglyphs-in-the-grand-canyon-69484  

  From the Grand Canyon in Williams, AZ  to a Slot Canyon in Page, AZ:

This transport took us through the desert along with our Dine' guide, and Bill. Three miles of bumps and sand led our little tour group of 8 folks to a canyon discovered when some sheep were lost.

 

There are several such canyons on (and I suppose around) the Navajo reservation in NE Arizona).  They are just nifty-- visit one if you can.

We've long wanted to spend some time at  Lake Powell that straddles  the Arizona - Utah border near Page. It is  a long and many-armed lake created behind the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River.   The experience was a little disappointing because the lake has little water -- a result of drought over the last few years. So much evidence that climate change is progressing.  

We found the very overpriced Waheep campground, met some lovely fellow van lifers from Ontario,  stayed one night,  then were on our way to tour the Glen Canyon Dam, which, it turned out, we couldn't do that day.  We would have loved it, but   BR (before retirement) we had a VIP tour of Hoover Dam, the same type of dam as Glen Canyon. Between the really excellent visitors' center and a bridge that spans  the width of the dam, we definitely felt it worth the visit. 

  

Picture credit here goes to the City of Page, AZ.  Taken from the vantage of the River itself on the downstream side of the dam, it shows the whole dam and the bridge that was our vantage point in the snapshot above where the visitors center is seen perched over the dam with Lake Powell in the background.  

 The dam was originally built  to provide a way to equalize water distribution between the states of the Upper Colorado River Basin (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and most of New Mexico) and those of the Lower Colorado River Basin (Nevada, California, and most of Arizona), instead of just relying on Hoover Dam, farther down stream.   Water rights in the Southwest US are a complicated beast.  Every time we try to understand them, we just end up down a rabbit hole.   There are treaties and agreements, and everyone wants all the water......

 

The dark line behind us is the Colorado River as it makes a circular turn just downstream from the dam.   It's called Horseshoe Bend, but this isn't a good pic of that (not bad of us, though?)  You can see the river in the pic below without us in it!  

The sides of the canyon are quite steep.  I couldn't get a picture without the shadows.   We think we'll ask Santa for a drone this Christmas.

On we wandered
Our last bit of northern Arizona was a lovely drive through the sacred Monument Valley followed by a  harrowing, no-guard rail up a really high mesa in to Utah just to view Bears Ears National Monument. We were too scared to take pictures on that road.  It was hot, we were tired, so we viewed Bears Ears and headed out of the heat to Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado -- about an hour and a half from our Not-That Tiny -Tiny House in Durango.   We'll go back to Bears Ears sometime-- it has a fascinating history.

An overview shot of the sacred Monument Valley.

Bears Ears from afar.

The Mesa of Mesa Verde 

Located near  the small town of Mancos, CO, Hesperus Mountain, or Dibe' Nitsaa, is seen in the background of this picture.  One of  four sacred mountains that mark the corners of the traditional Navajo territories, it is located in the LaPlata range of the Rockies. It may be the highest peak in the range (evidently there's some controversy about that).    We can't see Hesperus from our Not So Tiny-Tiny House (aka the MesaTop Cottage) but we have a great view of other parts of the LaPlatas.   As I write this, they are dressed in snow for winter.  

A dance group in Mancos, where I went with our Durango Friend, Sue, who camped with us one night at Mesa Verde.  Built a campfire and everything.  FUN.

And wrapping up this segment of our life was a night in Mancos State Park -- one of the best kept secrets in Colorado!   Then back to sticks and bricks for a bit.

Retirement Lesson Learned:  We can alway come back!  

WOYAYA