Bo's Journal #9 Arizona

Oak Creek Canyon, now there is my idea of a beautiful site; after a week or more in a treeless environment, with nothing but cliffs, sandstone, dust, dry creeks, ancient dwellings, thunderstorms, lightning and sagebrush. Just to smell pines trees and water was like a magic potion to my poor deprived system! Remember, I’m a water dog and I was born and raised in the mountains! We had come out of Colorado via Monument Valley and the Navajo Indian Reservation and straight down Hwy.89 into Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona.

We found a very nice RV Park in Sedona and spent a quiet night getting some good sleep. Guess they were feeling so good about their march up and back at Delicate Arch, Valda and Cokie decided they wanted to honor Harold and conquer the next big sandstone hill they could find, so off to Cathedral Rock. This is one of the tallest formations around Sedona and you got to understand the last third is practically straight up! Well, I can tell you, Kae and I were pretty sure we weren’t going the whole way. We wandered around the bottom third while those two struggled, scrambled and wiggled their way all the way to the top. They said the view was spectacular and Harold would have been proud but Kae and I felt we were not one bit sorry that we were sitting cool and comfortable in the intrepid Pod when those two came back. I mean someone has to maintain some reasonable sanity, the air conditioning and fix lunch right?


We did the proper tourist things and wandered downtown Sedona the next day, me sniffing every doorway and person I could lay nose to and the gals buying all the Sedona t-shirts they could lay hands on. Then it was a mad dash down to the Phoenix airport and the worst night of our trip. You see we figured since Valda had to be on an early flight we would just stay in the long term parking lot for the night, (cheap at five bucks, too), take the shuttle in the morning, have our goodbyes and be on our way. Right! It was 98 degrees at midnight! We ran the generator and the A/C most of the night but still only got about two hours sleep due to shuttle buses every ten minutes, take-offs and landings, traffic and a feeling we were probably going to get busted!. Cokie put Valda on the plane at 7:00AM while Kae and I caught a few more winks. As soon as Cokie got back we left ASAP and headed back toward Sedona to rest.

Along the way, Kae said we had to stop at one of her most favorite places - Montezuma’s Well. This is a huge natural upwelling mineral spring in the middle of the Sonoran desert. It started with the spring eroding a cavern in the sandstone formation, and then the roof of the cave collapsed forming a large hole or cenote as they call them in Mexico. The spring waters continued to flow, filling the pit to a depth of 300 feet. The water then found a small hole in the wall of the pit that allows about 1.5 million gallons a day to escape; thus keeping the water level constant in the cenote. There are Puebloan cliff dwellings along one end of the well, a unique type of algae, thus a unique species of shrimp to feed off of the algae and a whole chain of birds and animals that come to feed off the shrimp. Most importantly was the Puebloans who developed a massive canal system to catch the flow out of the well and send it out into the desert to support a large scale farming system. You can hike all over the site, down into the well to the waters edge, out around the rim to the large village sites and down to the creek side where the out flow spot is located and marvel at the beautiful canal the Ancients built. There are some of the biggest sycamore trees I have ever seen at the edge of the canal and I can attest to the fact that the water temperature remains at a constant 68 degrees because I got right into the old canal for a great wade and cool-off; it was in the high 90’s and I had been on a wild ‘sniffathon’. I decided the creek looked even more inviting and was deep enough for a proper swim so in I went – perfect! I also understand why Kae really loves this place; it is sorta magical with all that water and ruins right out in the middle of the desert. Cokie captured the sense of the place in her photos. I will add it to my list of ‘favs’ also. Try to visit sometime, it is worth it.






Stayed in Oak Ck. Canyon and left leisurely for the Grand Canyon next afternoon.
First stop – south rim of the Grand Canyon. Here we were back in another park with all its anti-canine rules and regulations, but my ladies are so good to me and take me just everywhere they can so I got some really, really good views of the greatest hole I have ever seen! Believe me I would never; ever try to bury a bone in there! Like Kae said, “it is so vast that it is hard to wrap your mind around it”. Of course it is a photographer’s paradise so we rarely saw Cokie without the camera. I know she got some incredible shots; the best ones at sunset each night. I like the wild cloud pictures, as long as those huge storms stay far, far away. Kae likes the views of the Colorado River because she says, “it reminds you that it is the predominate force that carved this expanse and yet sustained the indigenous peoples”. (I guess that means water is really important. Well, I know that!) Some of the hotels and shops are in buildings specifically commissioned by the National Park Service back in the early 1900’s, like the El Tovar Hotel, the Kolb Photography Studio and the Watchtower. Mary Elizabeth Jane Coulter, one of the most famous female architects of the twentieth century, was the exclusive designer of these structures and impressive they are! Our favorite was the 70’ Watchtower, built in 1932 and closely patterned on a Puebloan ruin.










Kae believes that the best part was seeing the endangered California condors soaring over the expanses of the canyon, playing tag on the up draughts and resting on the very tops of the pinnacles. She had read in the Park Service newspaper that they are making a comeback, after falling to a total population of only 22 in 1987. Fossil evidence had shown that condors had nested in the Canyon for nearly 50,000 years. Now thanks to an extensive effort to breed them in captivity and release breeding pairs in California, the Grand Canyon and the Vermillion Cliffs, there are 57 birds in the Park and over 300 in California. The first two wild hatchlings to survive were born in 2004 and appear to be doing fine so far. Observers confirm there are at least three active nests sites in the Canyon area now. What a treat to see and photograph these huge, rare and grotesquely beautiful creatures in their natural environment!





After four days on the South Rim we traveled 215 miles to the North Rim; even though the two sides of the canyon are only 10 miles apart as the condor flies. What a difference; a 1000 feet higher, much cooler with a denser, taller forest, more conifer and deciduous trees, fall colors and forever views out onto the great Colorado Plateau to the north. I was much more comfortable on this side, partly because of the trees and because we got out and walked together more. There is a rare squirrel here known as the ‘Kaibab Squirrel’. Rare because this is the only place on the entire planet where they are found. I was very careful not to chase or scare these guys because even if I didn’t catch one, (which I could, you know) I might cause a heart attack or seizure or something and then I might be contributing to their extinction.














Three days on this side and now we are heading North and west to Zion National Park. So we’ll catch you in Utah, again as we travel into many more parks and wonders.