IT'S ALREADY NORMAL! Going the Rounds with Visiting Family

We had just hosted Bill’s elder sister and her husband (Revisiting Arizona's Best Landmarks) when Bill's daughter announced that they will be visiting us on the occasion of her daughter’s (Bill’s granddaughter’s) 20^th birthday. They had both been vaccinated and we would finally be able to see and hug them again! What a return to normalcy!

The granddaughter is an incoming junior in college studying environmental studies and is hooked on the wonders of nature. We took the duo to a number of national parks and monuments in 2018 (10 Day Trips from Phoenix). But this was to be a shorter visit, just four days. I thought I had run out of new things to show them but, as it turned out, she had not even been to the Grand Canyon National Park! So we booked another Sedona timeshare unit for day trips to the north of Phoenix: Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, and Sedona.

Grand Canyon National Park

Even as we had just visited this mile-deep, 18-mile wide, and 277 mile-long most beautiful canyon of the world, there are many viewpoints to explore. In fact, we had not been to the most popular Mather Point in the South Rim, visited by about five million people every year, in at least five years. There is a favorite rock feature that always has a long line for a panoramic photo opportunity. We bought sandwiches and burritos at the café for lunch and souvenir items at the gift shop/bookstore which substitutes for the temporarily closed Visitor Center.

On the scenic Desert View Road going from the South to the East Rim, we stopped at four viewpoints: Grandview, with the grandest view, and Moran, Lipan, and Navajo Points which increasingly showed the Colorado River down below. Unfortunately, the Desert View Watch Tower at the East Rim, with its excellent Native American exhibits, was still closed. But I was so glad the market and the trading post were open and I had perfect ice cream after a long day.

It is too bad we missed what supposedly is the best viewpoint, Yavapai Point to the west of Mather Point. Then again, we have yet to go to the West and North Rims.  So, no, our Grand Canyon exploration is definitely not over.

Flagstaff, with Three National Monuments

At 7,000 ft. in elevation, Flagstaff is Arizona’s highest city. Thus come wintertime, it is a veritable white playground. At other times of the year, however, tourists come for the following three widely different national monuments. 

Walnut Canyon National Monument

The ranger emphasized that Walnut Canyon features cliff dwellings. In other words, they are still used for ceremonies by Native American tribes today. Twenty miles long, 400 feet deep, and ¼-mile wide, the canyon itself was carved by Walnut Creek over 60 million years.  There are two hiking trails. We took the more interesting but strenuous Island Trail, a mile-long paved path that descends 185 feet down into the canyon. Along the trail, one can inspect up close all of 25 cliff dwellings carved from the island walls. Many more are viewable from a distance. It was a great choice. And I made it! The other Rim Trail is shorter, just .75 mile long, meandering along the canyon rim, but with only distant views of the dwellings and canyon.

Wupatki National Monument

And then we reached a whole different way Native Americans lived. It is called Wupatki for the “tall house” that lorded over dozens of ancestral Puebloan villages in what was once a bustling hub. This is where they planted corns, beans, squash, and cotton, making it the tallest, largest, richest, and perhaps the most influential pueblo around, more than 800 years ago. There were about 3,000 ruins in about 55 square miles of rolling fields and washes. The drive alone was 34 miles long, from red rock landscapes to ponderosa pine trees and juniper grasslands. 

Sun Crater Volcano National Monument

The drive led us straight to the Sun Crater Volcano, a 1000-foot-tall cinder cone that erupted sometime around 1085 CE. Life has slowly returned to the more than three thousand acres, now an outdoor laboratory about the recovery of forests after volcanic events. The eruption happened as runny basalt magma, mixed with water beneath the ground, reached the surface of the earth and turned into steam, causing the rock to explode. Lava was thrown up to 850 feet up. As the lava bits cooled off, they collected as tiny rocks called cinders, creating a cone-shaped pile. After this explosion, lava bombs poured over the land to create slow-moving liquid rock, called the Bonito and Ka’naa lava flows/ As they cooled, they hardened on the surface. and as the process repeated,  the jagged black landscapes seen today around the cone was created.

Sedona, What Should Have Been a National Park

It should have been. But maybe it was settled before the federal government could do anything, And that is because it is breathtakingly beautiful. We stayed at the Ridge on Sedona Golf Resort located right before getting into the busy town. It was a fine place to return to, with several hot tubs waiting for us at night. And it was always lovely to have dinners at restaurants around town that had great red rock views: Open Range Tavern and Grill, Creekside American Bistro, and Canyon Breeze Restaurant. But the highlights of our stay were these two places.

Slide Rock State Park

Originally a homestead apple farm owned by the Pendleys, Slide Rock State Park has become a 43-acre popular recreation area in Oak Creek Canyon. It is where the shortcut road to Flagstaff winds, creating sites for many campgrounds and rustic cabins.  Today’s visitors can still enjoy the fruit-bearing apple trees, historic cabins available for viewing, and the creek that offers water adventures like sliding off rocks through, swimming in, and diving into the deep part of the cool waters.  Or it can be a beautiful place just to cool off with a number of short hiking trails. They have also added a market for souvenirs and snacks and two buildings of restrooms.

Chapel of the Holy Cross

This is always a very busy place with just a few parking places around the narrow winding road up. It was good that Bill just let us off at the top of the hill and we just walked down to where he was able to find a space after our visit. There is a concrete ramp winding to the chapel. And there a 90-ft tall iron cross holds both the altar and Corpus inside a small place with places for about 30-40 worshippers. And there is a gift shop below. Finally, outside the chapel are great views of red rocks all around. We didn’t have to go to each of the top three: Bell Rock, Courthouse Butte, and Cathedral Rock.

Oases in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area

When we got back to Phoenix, we had a final day to visit two special places, oases in an otherwise steaming city. The first one, the Riparian Preserve and Water Ranch, gave us plenty of opportunities to spot and photograph birds that thrive on its many ponds. Before we took them to the airport, we also had the chance to relax first at the Japanese Friendship Garden. They expressed great satisfaction at the end of their visit. There are more national parks and destinations to the east and west of Phoenix for their (and other guests') future visits. It is time to plan even more, as things have gone back to normal!

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