Week of June 14, 2004

Change of Course

We left California with Tara's new transmission, she seemed to have a lot more energy now - I guess a week in a Motorhome Spa can do a world of good. We hit the mountains between CA and AZ with just a little trepidation but she pulled it off just fine.

We camped in Williams, AZ just outside Flagstaff. It is the Gateway to the Grand Canyon. It was a great "Old West" town with buckboards running up and down the street, people in costumes, and an old steam train that still runs up to the Grand Canyon. In fact Williams is famous for having "someone die everyday" and they reenact a gunfight in the street every night.

The Grand Canyon was...well, grand. If I wanted to find one word that described it I would try "stupendous", "breathtaking", "stunning", "awesome", "amazing", "overwhelming", "sensational." Yet all of the words put together cannot describe the feeling of standing precariously on the edge of an 8 mile wide precipice looking down onto the canyon floor 1 mile straight down. If I were given the gift of flight for just one day I would come here to soar the thermals that are now the domain of the recovering, majestic Condor. I would fly where the "ancient ones" used to make a home over 1000 years ago, the mysterious people who have left only a brief glimpse into their lives with bits of pottery and petroglyphs. I would glide down to the river's churning waters and imagine the fear and awe of the first men to float the 277 miles for the first time over 100 years ago. The canyon walls speak of geological formations over 1 million years old and yet they are there right at your fingertips. It may sound corny, "the family vacation to the Grand Canyon," but believe me the gift of placing yourself at the top of this grand chasm will give you a new perspective of this beautiful land and will last a lifetime. Visit the National Park Service website at http://www.nps.gov/grca/index.htm.

We had heard about the birth of a white buffalo in South Dakota some years ago. It is a 1 in 10,000,000 chance that a white buffalo is born, previously the last one born was in 1934. In our meanderings around AZ we found out that this white buffalo had been moved to Sacred Mountain just above Flagstaff. We set our sites for a visit and were suprised to find out that there were now 4 white buffaloes, two having been born just this last month. This event has sparked a national pilgrimage of Native Americans to this small ranch. You see, 4 white buffalo born in a generation is a sign of their messiah and of Peace on Earth in the near future. For a complete telling of the Legend of the White Buffalo visit http://www.sacredwhitebuffalo.org/legend/legend.html. There were pray tithings left on the fences and a prayer staff planted in the middle of the farmyard. The owners believe they are the caretakers and allow all Native Americans to visit free of charge. It was very special to see these majestic creatures.

Our next stop was Page, AZ, in particular we were there to visit Antelope Canyon. Probably the most photographed slot canyon in the world, it is located on the Navajo Reservation just beside beautiful Lake Powell. Out of all the crappy land we gave the Indians it is nice to see that they have a natural resource such as this canyon to attract the tourist dollar. We paid our fee and were given a tour of this unique geological site that took eons to create. Found in 1938 by a 12 year old Navajo girl, it has become a movie set, backdrop for commericals (the Nexium commercial) and a professional photographers playground. In our 90 minutes there Marilyn snapped over 196 shots, that's over 2 pictures per minute - she was insatiable. "Stand over there," "put your head back," "get on the ground," "wait for the light, there I got it..." it was insane but we have some of the most fun pictures and some that are truly stunning. The canyon was formed by water rushing through a wash and a sudden depth change of the wash, the water would run through a crack that just kept widening finally into the 8-10 feet wide canyon it is today. In fact our guide says it is even different today than last year as one of the winter floods came through and washed about 8 feet of sand out of the canyon - she pointed her flashlight up to a ledge 8 feet above our head and said that last year the floor of the canyon was up there. It was beautiful, I've taken out many of the lesser photos but have left a lot in for those who enjoy nature photography it should be a real treat.

Here is where the course changes. We had been watching the evening news and they were predicting an unusually hot summer - it was 107 in Phoenix that day and would only get hotter in July and August. We examined our planned route of New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and thought we might not enjoy our trip as much as we hoped when we had to stay inside with air conditioning all day instead of the daily hikes we loved taking. So we decided, free spirits that we are, to change our course and head North like all the other snowbirds are doing. So from Antelope Canyon we headed North to Highway 70 that would take us East through Denver, Colorado. Luckily this change of direction has taken right through another stunning example of Mother Nature's creative side, Arches National Park.

We have found a cool way for you to see all our pictures as they were taken. Click on the link below to choose a section of pictures. Once inside the photo album click on the first photo and it will enlarge and give you navigational arrows for "back" and "next" so you can view the photos and comments at your leisure. Click on the "Click here to go Back to Album List" button to come back here and choose the next album.