Tonto

No, I am not talking about the Lone Ranger's faithful Indian companion; rather, I am talking about the Tonto Trail in the Grand Canyon.

Several months ago, Sherry told me that when we were at the Canyon she wanted to do a Rim-to-River hike. This entails taking one of the two so-called corridor trails from the South Rim all the way to the Colorado River and returning the same day, either on the other trail or the same trail. The two trails are 4-5 miles apart at the Rim, but only a mile apart at the River.

I was excited about this opportunity. Hiking in the Canyon has been a bucket list item for me. I, as well as Sherry, was very cautious about my ability to do this hike. The classic route is down the South Kaibab trail (it's shorter) and up the Bright Angel trail (easier grade). It entails over 16 miles of hiking and a knee-killing 4500 feet of elevation change - twice. My biggest concern was the downhill portion. Both my knees have been operated on. While the left one works fine, the right one - not so much.

Additionally, this wasn't just she and I involved. We had Cathy, Jill, Joe and the kids to consider as well. We were only together for a short period of time, and it really wasn't fair to the whole family for the two of us to take off for a really long hike.

After a lot of consideration, we wisely cut things a little short. We ended up on a beautiful, somewhat shorter hike by taking the Tonto trail. The Tonto trail runs through the Canyon for most of the length of the Grand Canyon, roughly parallelling the river on the Tonto platform, a relatively flat area about 1500' above the river. We decided to hike down the South Kaibab trail to the Tonto trail, over it to the Bright Angel trail, and back up to the Rim. This route saved about 1/3 of the elevation change and 4+ miles of distance. The map below shows the details.

EWe had an absolutely marvelous time on this beautiful, once-in-a-lifetime hike. Cathy dropped us off at the trailhead at 6:30 in the morning. The South Kaibab follows a ridgeline most of the way down to the River, thereby affording spectacular views in all directions.

Beginning the hike. Notice how fresh we look!

The Tonto trail runs along the greenish flat area in center right of the photo.

Sherry looking out at Skeleton Point. Notice the people and the outhouse building in the flat area. Also, you can see the trail angling down off the ridge at the far right side of the photo.  

This trail is every bit as steep as it looks!

The elevation drop more than made up for the views we enjoyed. By the time we reached the junction with the Tonto trail, at the aptly named The Tipoff (where the Kaibab trail gets really steep!) my knee was aching and had started to give way a couple of times. I was really glad we cut things short; I am not at all sure I could have made it to the river.

Walking along the Tonto trail was a very welcome change. My knee immediately stopped hurting and never bothered me the rest of the day.

Walking the Tonto; it was tranquil and beautiful.

Lunch break at Pipe Creek, which was trickling past Sherry's feet. 

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. After a four-mile sojourn along the Tonto trail, we intersected the Bright Angel trail, some five miles below the Rim. A half-mile up the trail we stopped at noon at Indian Gardens, a large, shady rest area-campground 4.5 miles from the Rim - and 3000 feet lower.

All morning, we had enjoyed cool and cloudy weather. We even had a few sprinkles on us going up the Bright Angel trail. Of course, you know what was going to happen: as soon as we hit the trail after lunch, the sun came out, just in time to add a little fun to the steep climb out.

The climb divided itself into three 1.5-mile long segments, with nominal break points at the 3-Mile Resthouse and the 1.5-Mile Resthouse. Each segment was about 1.5 miles long and has right at 1000 feet of elevation gain. The Bright Angel trail follows a canyon up to the Rim. Although it has its scenic moments, it is nothing like the South Kaibab trail for beauty. We chugged on up the trial, stopping frequently to catch our breath.

We made it!

I've heard several times that a Rim-to-River hike is as hard as running a marathon. Having run a marathon and a half-marathon, I can tell you that's nonsense. Although it is a long and difficult hike, and requires adequate training and preparation, it's not nearly as difficult as even a half-marathon. My training for this hike entailed several 3-mile trail runs at altitude, mostly to ensure my knees might hold up. Although I could (slowly) run three miles nonstop I was in no way close to being in shape to run a half-marathon. Despite that, I wasn't particularly tired after finishing the hike, nor was I particularly sore the next day.

Thanks very much to oldest daughter Sherry for both suggesting it and putting up with her old man in an unforgettable day.

This is a TEST!

So, both daughter Sherry and daughter Heather inform me that they are STILL not seeing pictures. I thought I had this fixed!

I dug into the arcane settings of Blogger... I THINK that I may have fixed this.

You should see a photo...

This is my pal, the late Danny Webster.

Here's another photo...

Sherry and I on our hike

Here's the same photo as above, but I saved it to my computer first. The one above was copied and pasted from Google Photos.

Sherry and I on our hike.

PLEASE, let me know via comment below or by text (562-760-2306) or email (fcshook@gmail.com) if you are seeing these photos or not.

UPDATED - SEE THE PHOTOS! It really is GRAND!

Dear Readers: I believe that I have fixed the problem with uploading photos. Accordingly, I have added photos in place of the ones that were not showing up, using what I hope is the correct protocol. Please let me know if you are not seeing photos!

As I mentioned in earlier posts, we met Jill and family and Sherry at the Grand Canyon for a long weekend over Easter. It turns out that the South Rim of the Grand Canyon has a perfectly nice, albeit pricey, RV park with full hookups. We stayed there and everyone else camped in the campground; fortuitously, they were only a short walk through the trees from us. 

Cathy and I arrived the day before the kids. We set up and wandered over to the Visitors Center. Bear in mind, this was the Thursday of Easter Week; the Visitors Center looked like Disneyland. There were thousands of people wandering around. 

We bypassed the Visitors Center and walked right to the Rim. After having had our breath taken away by the view, we turned right along the Rim trail and headed away from the crowds. We ended up walking 4-5 miles along a paved trail, stopping frequently to take in the view. 

Of course, and consistent with current events - a woman was killed there yesterday! - we saw the idiots below attempting to take themselves out of the gene pool:

This photo was taken in the same general area - Pipe Creek Vista - where the woman managed to kill herself yesterday. Who knows? She may have been in the same spot as these two idiots. 

These people weren't alone. We saw several other instances of stupidity, probably the worst being a father (I assume) posing his 5-6 year old son maybe a yard from the edge of a dropoff. 

The NPS rangers don't have any regulations against stupidity; it'd be impossible to enforce. The Canyon is way too big. For the most part, the edges of the Rim are not fenced off. 

My limited abilities as a writer are inadequate to even begin to describe the Canyon. Rather, let me quote Colin Fletcher in The Man Who Walked Through Time, his account of the first foot passage through the Canyon, when he first saw the Canyon: 

"A huge, cleaving space that the photographs and the paintings had done nothing to prepare me for. An impossible, breath-taking gap in the face of the earth... And there, defeating my senses, was the depth. The depth and the distances. Cliffs and buttes and hanging terraces, all sculptured on a scale beyond anything I had ever imagined. Colors neither red nor white nor pink nor purple but a fusion."

Here below are a few of the dozens of shots I took. On Saturday, Sherry and I took an epic, 14-mile hike down into the Canyon; I'll put up a separate post of that adventure.

Camp Verde, AZ

We left Holbrook after having spent a few days there visiting Petrified Forest National Park. We headed to Camp Verde, AZ. We had some time to kill before we met Jill & Joe and the grandkids and Sherry at the Grand Canyon. 

We were interested in visiting Sedona - neither of us had ever been there - but it was pretty pricey to stay in the immediate area. We settled in Camp Verde, which is about 25 miles away. 

Camp Verde is just about in the geographic center of Arizona. It sits astride the Verde River, which makes the surrounding area surprisingly lush and green. We stayed in the Zane Grey RV park, a lovely little place alongside a small creek and surrounded by National Forest land. I found out that noted Western author Zane Grey lived and wrote in this area for many years. We found ourselves greatly enjoying long walks in the National Forest with the dogs.

We also spent some time doing some other fun stuff...

Montezuma Castle National Monument

Despite the name, this has nothing to do with either Montezuma, nor is it a castle. Rather. it is a large, well-preserved cliff dwelling, built above farmland along a creek flowing below. The photo below shows only a small part of the total dwellings. In addition to the building-like structure, the holes in the rock are also dwelling places. 



Sedona

We made the mistake of first trying to visit Sedona on a Saturday afternoon. Huge mistake - it was wall-to-wall people. We bailed and went back a few days later. The small city of Sedona is in an absolutely gorgeous setting; it is surrounded by towering red cliffs and pinon pine forests. We found the city to be largely a tourist trap. It's also got a significant population of wackos; we saw many shops advertising such New Age concepts as crystals, vortexes, psychic readings, etc. 



Verde Canyon Railroad

Both of us enjoy scenic railroads, and the Verde Canyon Railroad certainly fits that bill. It runs from the old copper mining town of Clarkdale, some 20 miles from Camp Verde, along the Verde River Canyon.  We spent a pleasant afternoon seeing some spectacular scenery along the Verde River. Highly recommended.

I love the paint job on their locomotives - which are as old as I am!

Update

It’s been several days since I’ve written anything; we’ve been busy with family over the Easter weekend. Also, we spent the last several days at Grand Canyon National Park with really spotty cell reception; it wasn’t worth the effort to even attempt to post. We’re back in civilization now - if you can call Las Vegas civilization! I’ll get some posts out in the next couple of days about our time in Camp Verde, AZ and the wonderful time we had at the Grand Canyon.

Senior Pass

Here's just a short post about something that's near and dear to my heart, and has saved us a ton of money since we hit the road. I'm talking about my Senior Pass.

A couple of years ago, the whole family gathered over spring break to go camping at Pinnacles National Park in California. Cathy and I had flown out from Ohio; the kids all drove separately to the park. When Scott and I went in to register and pay for the campsites, the lady at the desk took one look at me and asked me if I was 62. "Not quite yet," I replied, "My 62nd birthday is in a couple of months." That was good enough. I was eligible to buy my Senior Pass.

At the time, the Pass only cost $20; it has since increased to $80. Even at that higher price it's a bargain if you're doing anything like what we are doing. (As I recall, I saved just about $20 in reduced fees for the campsites we were using at Pinnacles.)

Why? The Senior Pass gets Cathy and I (and up to two other people) free admission to all units administered by the National Park Service. That includes the National Parks (obviously!) but also National Monuments, National Historic Parks, National Landmarks and a bunch of other sites. I think the NPS administers somewhere over 400 different locations.

Additionally, it's good for entrance admission to all Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Army Corps of Engineers and US Fish and Wildlife Service sites. Basically, if a site is administered by the Feds, this Pass gets you in for free!

I figure that this year alone, in 3+ months, we've saved over $200 in entrance fees. Just today, we wandered down to Montezuma Fort National Monument, a few miles from where we are staying in Camp Verde, AZ (I'll write on that in a separate post.) It cost $10 a person to get in.... just like that, $20 saved - which is all I paid for my Pass!

Beyond the money thing, though, it encourages us to just go visit these places. We could afford the various admission feeds for sure, but, being a huge cheapskate, knowing that it's free means I don't have to agonize over whether it's worth visiting a place.

So, if you're over 62 and don't have one of these - get one. If you're younger, make a note to get one on your birthday.

Spectacularness

Somewhat to my surprise, "spectacularness" is a real word. Google defines it as: Noun - The state or condition of being spectacular. 
I got to thinking about the word "spectacular" yesterday, and realized that "spectacularness" needed to be a word. I was pretty proud of myself: I thought that I had invented this word. Not.
Why was I thinking about spectacular? Petrified Forest National Park. In our wanderings, we have visited a number of places that readily qualify, by anyone's definition, as spectacular. Petrified Forest National Park, in our opinion, qualifies - although we didn't think that when we drove into the place.
If you've ever driven I-40 through northeastern Arizona, you've passed right by the signs for Petrified Forest National Park; I've done so a number of times. From the freeway, Petrified Forest is decidedly unspectacular; it looks like flat barren desert. If you weren't highly motivated to stop, you wouldn't. 
We drove in from the southern entrance, off of US 180 20-some miles south of I-40. The southern entrance was also decidedly unspectacular. That quickly changed. 
Going in, I sort of thought to myself, "I hope we see some petrified wood laying around." That sentiment is like going to Yellowstone and thinking, "I hope I see some bison." The southern half of the park is littered with petrified wood. I won't bore you with the geologic details, but petrified wood looks like wood from the outside but is composed entirely of minerals, mostly quartz. It is dense and hard and indescribably beautiful.

There are locations in the southern part of the park where petrified wood is everywhere.

Everything that looks like a brown rock is petrified wood. 

That's an entire tree trunk stretching away from us.

After wandering around in the petrified forests for several hours, we headed northward on the park road, into what they call the Painted Desert. The Painted Desert is pretty cool but, in all honesty, probably not quite as high on the spectacularness scale as the Petrified Forest. 

Route 66... and a Fred Shook story

We're in Holbrook, Arizona for a few days. The primary reason for stopping here is Petrified Forest National Park; Holbrook is, at some 20 miles away, the nearest civilization. When I saw that it also has a Ford dealership - and the truck needs an oil change and its 30,000 mile service - we decided to fit that in, too. We managed to get to town early enough to get the truck service done today, so we've got two full days to explore and do other stuff.

Holbrook's on Route 66, the Mother Road that stretched from Chicago, IL to Santa Monica, CA. Even today, some 40-50 years after its closing, cities on the former Route 66, including both Albuquerque and Holbrook, celebrate that heritage.

When I was looking to see if Holbrook had a Ford dealer, I came across this long-forgotten gem:



This is one of only a couple of surviving Wigwam Motels. According to Google, it's still in business, although it didn't look like it was when we walked through. Here's a couple of more pics...





When I was a kid, our family drove the Mother Road from California to visit family in New York; we did it twice. I was nine the first time, and fourteen the second. I can remember seeing a Wigwam Motel on those trips... probably this one, although there were several along the route. That rememberance triggered the following Fred Shook story.

At Christmastime, 1962, when I was nine years old, the family piled into our Mercury station wagon to drive to Niagara Falls for Christmas. We left the house in the afternoon, picked up Dad from work mid-afternoon, and headed east. The folks folded down the back seat of the station wagon to give us kids a place to sleep. (I remember that we had one of those goofy infant seats that looped over the back of the front seat; brother Brian, who was just a year old, got the prime real estate in the front seat next to the parentals.)

My folks - I recall that Dad did all the driving, but I wasn't awake to verify this - drove all night, and all the next day, nonstop to Tulsa Oklahoma. I can remember waking up occasionally, seeing Mom walk out of an all-night cafe with a thermos full of coffee. We stopped mid-afternoon the next day, which with the change in time zones might have been only noon or perhaps very early afternoon California time.

At the time, at nine years old, that didn't seem all that remarkable. Parents could simply do things like stay up and drive all night. When I reached adulthood, and especially parenthood, and remembered this event I simply marveled. Who could work all day, drive all night and drive all the next day? I can remember time when we'd leave home after work on a Friday night and drive for six or even eight hours to get some place... but all night? and the next day?

Albuquerque

We've spent the last few days in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Basically, we've been catching up on some business. Life on the road still requires that we take care of all the maintenance items that everyone has to deal with. Here in town, Cathy had her hair done, Copper had to see the vet, we bought "big" groceries, etc. For the last couple of weeks, we've either been way away from a town or near only a little bitty town.

We're staying about 20 miles west of Albuquerque in the Route 66 RV park. It's part of a casino/hotel/truck stop complex. The park itself is beautiful: new, spacious, quiet (despite I-40 being less than a mile away) with lots of amenities. Part of the amenities is the casino itself, which is just steps away.

We went over to the casino for dinner tonight; we got a discount for staying in the RV park. I snapped this shot walking back home.



Albuquerque is home to Petroglyph National Monument; it's about 15 miles from where we're staying. Dogs are allowed on some of the trails, so we took the boys over there this afternoon. The petroglyphs were interesting enough, but I doubt if we'd ever make a return trip to see them.



Probably the nicest part was just a walk in beautiful country on an a warm, sunny spring day...



We're leaving tomorrow AM, headed for Holbrook, AZ and Petrified Forest National Park.

Carlsbad Caverns

We're spending a few days in Carlsbad, New Mexico. The city is about 20 miles north of Carlsbad Caverns National Park, which in turn is another 15 miles or so north of Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Naturally, we're taking the time to explore both.

We explored Carlsbad Caverns a couple of days ago.  The night before we went, our next-door neighbors confirmed what we sort of expected. They recommended taking the self-guided tour only, which was our plan. They further recommended walking into the cave and taking the elevator back to the surface.

I lack the ability to fully describe how impressive Carlsbad Caverns are. The entrance is a near-vertical pit, with a beautiful, paved walkway winding down into the ground.

This is what's called the Natural Entrance.

From the entrance, the pathway continues to wind ever-downward, through large cavities and narrow (but not too narrow!) passages. The pathway is strategically lit; it has periodic placards describing points of interest.

We knew, from our neighbors description and the map provided, that the tour ended at what's called the Big Room. Big, it is; at its tallest, it's 265 floor to ceiling! The pathway around the Big Room is over a mile long.

The Big Room is mind-blowing. It's really where all the best stuff in the Caverns can be found. If you ever go here, do not miss seeing the Big Room. Even if you simply take the elevator down and back, it's well worth your time and money.

Taking the elevator up is a good deal; the self-guided tour drops 750 feet from the visitor center. It did cross my mind to walk back out - it'd be great training for my Grand Canyon hike - but Cathy, Dennis and Leah wouldn't have done it.

Not surprisingly, photography is very difficult in the cavern. Below are a couple of photos, all taken in the Big Room.







After leaving the caverns and driving back to the highway, I literally almost collided with a half-dozen or so desert bighorn sheep that ran across the road right in front of the truck! They were joining the rest of their herd - maybe 30 or 40 in total. Bighorn sheep are rare and reclusive. I've seen them a couple of time before, but always at a distance of a half-mile or so. Yet here they were, placidly grazing maybe a hundred yards away.

I had my Canon camera with me, although it didn't do any better job in the Caverns than my iPhone. However, it's lens was a little bit longer than the iPhone's, and it was able to provide me with the photo below. Naturally, my telephoto lens was safely stored back home, and unavailable for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!