Arizona - Grand Canyon and Sunset Crater Volcano

Flagstaff KOA, Flagstaff

Thursday, 10 February 2022

today's route

I misunderstood the directions for getting out of Flagstaff and ended up creating a shortcut by taking roads I'd already traveled on.  Guess that means I've been doing a lot of driving around town.  I left at 7:35 because Google said it'd take me nearly 2 hours to get to the Grand Canyon, meaning it might take me longer, and I wanted to be there before the main lot of tourists started showing up.  (And it did take me almost exactly 2 hours.)

But leaving at that hour meant I was driving in rush-hour traffic, Flagstaff's version.  The route I took went past several schools, including lowered speed limits and school buses and parents dropping kids off, as well as the adults going to the University of Northern Arizona, which I also passed.

Flagstaff is home to a senior living facility called The Peaks, that bills itself as "a Montessori-inspired approach to assisted living."  It's won some national awards for excellence.  I tried hard to figure out from their website what that "Montessori-inspired" program consisted of and still have no idea.  

I saw a bumper sticker that said: "Keep Calm and Let Karma Finish It."  Now that's my kind of attitude.

On the drive north I passed many miles of snow, making me glad I'd waited a few days before making this trip.

I went through parts of Coconino National Forest and Kaibab National Forest, through areas of high plains desert (I think that's what it is) with cactus, juniper and low grass.

From town (elev. 7,000') the road climbed to more than 8,000', then dove with an 8% grade over a 3-mile stretch back down to the 7,000' elevation of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  (The North Rim sits at 8,000'.)

Grand Canyon National Park

Visitors from around the world are drawn to this canyon,  which is unique in the world because of its width, depth, length, variety of colors in its layers and its many side canyons.  It's 277 miles long, 18 miles wide at its widest point, and 6,000' deep (more than a mile) at its deepest point, though the average depth throughout its length is about 4,000'.  

All very impressive stats, but to me what's fascinating about this place is the staggering size and beauty of it.  My photos don't do it justice because the early morning sunlight wasn't bringing out the colors as much as I've seen them.

my only photo that includes the river

I took those last 2 photos on the drive east from the main visitor area.  It's remarkable to me how this canyon isn't what you might call a one-shot-wonder - it's not incredible in just a small area but instead is incredible for nearly 300 miles.

I took a video, hoping it might help show some of the grandeur of this place.

Sadly, all it really shows me is that you can't imagine what this place is like without actually seeing it for yourself.  But I tried.

At the visitor center there were exhibits that explained all those layers of rock.  I had trouble getting these photos because of the angle of the sun, but I think you can read them.

These first 3 are part of an exhibit labeled: Formation of Rock Layers.

These next 4 are from an exhibit called: Geology of Grand Canyon.

I'm no geologist and don't understand anything on those diagrams except the age.  But it doesn't take a genius to figure out that 1,840 million years ago was a long time.  What an amazing place this is.

I'd parked in Parking Lot #1 (it has RV parking), and it's called the Raven lot.  So it was no surprise to me to see several Ravens hanging around the area.  I heard a small boy say to his parents, "Look at that huge bird!  I hadn't thought about it but a Raven is about a third the size of a young boy, which would look a lot bigger to him than, say, a sparrow.

As I walked the dogs around the area, Dexter pointed out to me a Mule Deer in lot #2.  Surprisingly, that's all he did.  No barking, no lunging.  He's going to become well-behaved if he's not careful.

I was delighted to see receptacles for recycling.  I asked at the visitor center and they told me they accept even glass, so I dumped everything here.  Such a relief to get rid of it all.

I drove another 52 miles, mostly alongside the canyon, heading east, then picking up US 89 to go south to a couple of other national monuments.

Wupatki and Sunset Crater Volcano National Monuments

These 2 places are right next to each other and are managed as one by the National Park Service, including a scenic drive that took me through both areas.  The way they see it, it's important to recognize the interdependence of the environment and the people who live there.

Apparently, around the 700s or 800s (AD), Wupatki people began moving into this area to farm.  Scientists think they were warned by earth tremors to vacate the area when, between 1040 and 1100, nearby Sunset Crater erupted.  As it happened, the thin layer of ash from the volcano's eruption actually improved the farming by absorbing moisture and preventing evaporation, plus the climate change resulted in more rainfall.  By 1180, there were thousands of people living and farming here.

These monuments protect both the remains of pueblos from the farming community and the volcano itself.  Before this, looters took souvenirs from the lava flows and the archeological sites.  According to the Park Service, in 1928, filmmakers who wanted to create a landslide at Sunset Crater inspired activists to convince Pres. Hoover to protect the area by declaring it a monument, which he did in 1930.

Sunset Crater is a cinder cone volcano, like the Capulin Volcano I saw in New Mexico.  I was too tired to visit any of the pueblo remains, but I couldn't miss the volcano since the road went right by it.

Sunset Crater Volcano

What began as a crack in the Earth's surface resulted in this 1,000' high volcano.  All that black stuff is cinders from the eruption more than a thousand years ago.  In fact, there were cinders all over that area.

cinder field

I drove past many places like this.  You can see from these photos that plants have started to come back in the area, but those cinders are going to take a lot more time before the lichens can break them down enough to support life.

When we stopped at one of the visitor centers, I was walking the dogs and saw a kind of sparrow I hadn't seen before.  I was lucky enough to run across a park ranger who knew what it was.

Sagebrush Sparrow

Cute little guys.  There were a bunch of them and I rarely saw them fly.  Instead they skittered across the ground from one bush to another, never leaving cover for long.

Ever since leaving the Grand Canyon I was dealing with strong squirrely winds.  Down here, they weren't just blowing tumbleweeds across the road - they were shooting them up into the air maybe as high as 10'.  It was weird to drive through areas like that.

And then back to Flagstaff.  A nice day, though a tiring one.  It was a 223-mile drive, up and down hills, partly in the snow.  Too bad the dogs couldn't get as tired out as I did.