Painted, petrified and pummeled!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Painted, petrified and pummeled!

HOLBROOK, AZ – Clouds and a forecast of possible rain greeted us this morning, along with a breeze and cooler temperature. I dug out my rain jacket from the depths of the closet, where it has sat unused for weeks, just in case.

Our destination today was the Petrified Forest National Park, about 25 miles from town, but we stopped first to see the Holbrook museum and collect some local literature. In exchange for a donation toward the museum, we were each allowed to select a small piece of petrified wood to take home.

How does a piece of wood turn to stone? That was the question we hoped to have answered at the park. We entered from the south end and stopped at the Rainbow Forest Museum, where the ranger invited us to watch a short film.

Before the continents had drifted apart, we learned, the land that is now Arizona was very close to, and similar in appearance to the rainforest of the Panama region – lush vegetation with towering trees and high humidity. The continents drifted, and in the Triassic period, about 225 million years ago, the forest toppled on what had become a flood plain. The logs became mired in volcanic ash, mud and heavy silt, and silica-laden water infiltrated the cells of the wood, encasing them with minerals. The silica crystallized into quartz, preserving the logs forever. Depending on what was in the minerals, the logs took on a variety of colours.

The petrified trees were a big curiosity in the early 1900s, and unfortunately visitors took a lot of fine specimens away as souvenirs. (They must have been fairly small ones, because the logs are extremely heavy!)

To preserve this especially rich collection, the region was declared a national monument in 1906. A large tract of the painted desert was added to it in 1932, and in 1962 the area was made into a national park.

We walked around the looped path behind the Rainbow Forest Museum to see some of the petrified logs, randomly strewn on the hillsides, sometimes in a column as if the tree had just fallen. Colours of purple, orange, yellow and red outlined the ancient rings in amazing patterns, and even though they were made of stone, you could still see the roughness of the original bark, and twisted knotholes.

Clouds had gathered in the huge sky overhead and a stiff breeze had started to blow, but we braved the wind, for a while anyway, while we ate our picnic lunch at the tables provided nearby. Then we headed through the park with its rolling hills and mesas. These were striped in grey, purple, rusty red and white, living up to the name they were given by early Spanish explorers, who called the area “el desierto pintado”.

Newspaper Rock, about half-way through the park, was a collection of huge stones that had tumbled down a cliffside, where pre-historic natives had pounded petroglyphs of people, animals and designs onto the dark, flat surfaces. The film we had seen showed one spiral sun design that was a calendar; a beam of sunlight would come between a cleft of rocks and hit the centre of the sun at the exact time when crop-planting should begin.

We looked at the ruins of an ancient pueblo village, with more petroglyphs (including one that looked just like the stork bringing a baby!), and stopped at several lookout points with breathtaking views of striped cliffs and hills, the immense flat yellow-grassed prairie beyond, and blue mountains on the horizon, all crowned with heavy grey clouds that spilled a few raindrops on us before we headed home. I hardly needed the jacket, but at least I had it handy.

Dozens of tumbleweed balls hopped and rolled across the highway as we drove back to camp, and the air was brown with dust as the wind gusted across the flat plain and pummeled the sides of the truck. It was fun to see trucks and cars smash the dry balls into twigs as they passed.

Deep impressions

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

HOLBROOK, AZ – We are now in Navajo County toward the eastern border of Arizona at a KOA near this small town of some 4,000 souls. We are watching the weather very closely as we work out our route; by coming here before heading for the Grand Canyon, we are seeing the sights in this corner of the state (of which there are many), but we are also allowing the passage of time that will bring warmer temperatures near the Canyon.

It will be much more comfortable for us if we can avoid night temperatures below freezing. Even here in Holbrook, it went to 29 degrees last night, but tonight it should only dip to 42, so we won’t have to worry about frozen pipes. It hit a pleasant 76 degrees today — but back in Phoenix and Tucson now, it’s in the low 90s. What a difference altitude makes!

Our main objective today was to move from the Sedona area to this corner of Arizona, and we stuck to Interstates 17 and 40 to do this. The smaller highways are much more scenic, but from exploring them without the trailer in tow, we realized it would be too harrowing to attempt them with the full rig!

Just before lunchtime, we passed some signs advertising the Meteor Crater, with the call letters of a radio station to find out more information. I had seen the crater marked on the map, so we tuned in and heard the spiel about it and decided it might be worth a visit. It was on a six-mile road off the main highway, across a vast, flat plain of dry yellow grass dotted with low scrub bushes.

Off to the west we could see the magnificent snow-capped San Francisco Mountain in the distance, and a huge blue sky brushed with wisps of white cloud. The road was well-paved but narrow, with no shoulders, and I could sense Val’s angst about pulling our big trailer into an area without knowing if he could turn around, let alone get out with it.

We could see the rise in the land which was the rim of the crater, and as we got closer it was clear there would be plenty of room to park and turn around, thanks to the generous parking lot with the pull-through section for RVs and trucks. We parked and ate our lunch before heading to the ticket office to see the crater.

Lots of meteorites break through earth’s atmosphere and fall to earth, but most of the time they disintegrate into very small pieces and make very little impact. However, 50,000 years ago a huge one, about 150 feet across and weighing several hundred thousand pounds streaked down from the heavens and smashed into this flat plain in what is now Arizona, with an impact equivalent to 20 million tons of TNT.

The crater left by that impact is nearly a mile across, and deep enough to swallow the Washington Monument. And what we could see today is pretty well what it has looked like since the flame and dust cleared away on the day of impact. We walked along the rim in a stiff wind that nearly ripped our Tilley hats off despite the chin straps! Way down at the bottom, they have set up a cut-out figure of an astronaut that stands six feet tall. We could barely see it just looking down, but a strategically-placed telescope brought it into view.

Why an astronaut? Well, it was the perfect place for the moon-bound space travelers to train for their explorations, so the Apollo crew came here do to just that.

There was a very informative museum next to the crater that helped explain how meteorites are formed, and where some of the biggest ones have landed. The meteor crater in Sudbury is the second largest in the world, according to this display, measuring some 200 kilometers across!

It was a very worthwhile detour. Our map indicates a whole lot more which we look forward to seeing from our new vantage point.

Happy trails

Monday, April 4, 2011

CORNVILLE, AZ — The freshness in this morning’s air was ideal for today’s activity: a visit to some of the walking trails around Sedona. There are dozens from which to choose, nicely catalogued in a free handout with distances, level of difficulty and how high each climb is, plus a map to show where the trailheads are.

The tourist information person highlighted a couple of trails for us that would provide some beautiful scenery without too much exertion. With the brisk morning air and a perfectly clear sky, we had everything we needed! Plus our backpack with water bottles, and our hats, sunscreen, and cameras, of course.

A pathway of red sand and rocks led us up toward the rock formations behind the town, with plenty of evergreen trees along the way to shade us from the sun. Lots of butterflies danced among the shrubbery – mostly small ones with black wings striped with tan or orange. But we did see two large yellow swallow-tail butterflies, which are the official Arizona state butterfly. They were magnificent.

Tiny wildflowers, like miniature purple stars, peeked out from the grasses at the edge of the trail, as well as some taller yellow broom snakeweed and desert marigolds. Spiky agave plants and a few prickly-pear cacti reminded us that we were on a desert trail, despite the greenery everywhere.

Aside from the few times we passed other hikers, we had the trail to ourselves, and every now and then we stopped and stood quietly to hear the wind swish through the evergreens, or watch a turkey vulture make circles overhead.

Always, behind the vegetation and rocks, stood huge red rock formations, striped by successive eons of geological periods and carved by wind and water into amazing shapes. Great chunks of rock by the trail gave testament to the changing nature of these monoliths – but we wondered if human beings ever actually saw the pieces break away and fall. Not on our watch, we noted gratefully.

When we finished our first hike, we took the truck up the airport road to a viewpoint above the town, where we ate our bag lunch and admired the view. The whole town of Sedona was spread out below us like a map, with the red rocks like castle walls around it.

Before we took our second trail, we stopped in a shopping area to look at some twirling garden ornaments we’d seen in Santa Fe and here at a couple of places. They’re beautifully constructed with slender metal scoops like spokes on a wheel that turn gently in the breeze, and when they’re doubled up to turn in opposing directions, the effect is like a flower slowly opening. After checking the price tags on them, we realized that, unfortunately, they would never decorate our back yard — not at $2,000 a pop.

Our second trail was less of a climb than the first, which worked out well with the day having warmed up a bit more by this time. Again, we enjoyed the wonderful views and natural surroundings for an hour or so. A person could go on one trail a day and not run out of new ones to visit for weeks.

It was time to head back and pick up a few groceries on the way. After a short rest, we cleaned up and headed back into Sedona with Scott and Mary Jane, our new Ontario friends at our campground. We returned to the airport viewing area to watch the sun set over the town in glorious shades of yellow, orange, red, purple and pink.

Then it was off to a nice local restaurant for a lovely dinner, with lots of animated conversation, and a drive back to camp under a black velvet sky studded with brilliant stars, and a sliver of smiling moon. Mother Nature went all out for us today.

High living

Sunday, April 3, 2011

CORNVILLE, AZ – It’s always interesting to attend a church service far from home; there are enough familiar aspects to provide comfort, but also variations which can be very touching. Today at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Sedona, when it came time for the Lord’s Prayer, everyone in the congregation held hands in a long chain, from pew to pew. It was a lovely surprise.

After lunch back at the trailer, we decided to visit the Tuzigoot National Monument, to the south and west of Sedona. The monument is a ruin of an ancient stronghold, constructed by a native tribe in about 1000 AD on top of a 120-foot high cone-shaped hill in the middle of a huge valley. They scouted out the real estate pretty well; the view in all directions was fantastic!

The ruins were discovered in the 1930s when they were mostly just a pile of rocks on the hillside. Careful removal of the surface earth revealed walled-off rooms on two levels made from thousands of limestone and sandstone rocks that were cemented into place. Down the hillside, the archeologists found shards of pottery and implements that helped establish an idea of the people who built Tuzigoot.

The people (later named Sinagua, from “sin” meaning without, and “agua” meaning water) grew crops, hauled plenteous water from the river nearby, made clay pots, ground corn and flourished for some 400 years. There were about 50 communities in the Verde Valley, but after that length of time, they all mysteriously disappeared. No one knows what became of them. It’s hard to believe that a community of that size and longevity left no trace or legacy in subsequent generations.

When we left Tuzigoot, we decided to have a better look at Jerome, the ghost town up on the mountainside above the valley. We only saw part of it on the day of our train ride. Sunday wasn’t the best day to do this, we discovered; everyone and their dog was up there and we couldn’t find a single parking space to allow us to get out and walk around! However, we did get to see some of the old buildings, and were rewarded with a spectacular view from the lookout point at 5000 feet elevation before we turned around and headed back to the valley.

Continuing with our ancient society theme, we set off for Montezuma Castle National Monument, about 20 miles to the south and west of Tuzigoot. By contrast to the sandstone red of the rocks we’d seen in such abundance in Sedona, the rocks in this region were limestone, and almost pure white.

A curving walkway brought us in to the site, which was an enormous white cliff towering some 200 feet above us. Just under the upper rim of the cliff, there was a large sheltered recess, and below it the Sinagua tribe had constructed a stone, multi-storied dwelling, adding on to the natural caves and hollows that were already there. Accessible only by ladders, this city in the rock was cool during the heat of the day, warm at night, and virtually impregnable to attack.

The site got the name Montezuma because explorers who discovered it mistakenly thought it had been built by Aztecs. Just as with Tuzigoot, the Sinagua people disappeared after several hundred years without a trace.

It was humbling to look at this complex structure and think about the people who gathered hundreds of rocks and laboriously hauled them, one by one, up homemade ladders to a dizzying height, fitting squared-off walls into the natural curves of the rock with mud mortar and bare hands. People who are referred to as “primitive” in current times!

The five-per-centers

Saturday, April 2, 2011

CORNVILLE, AZ – There’s an elite group of people among all those who come to Sedona and gaze, slack-jawed, at the amazing vistas all around the town, and we joined it today. Thousands pass through and shop at the galleries and boutiques, eat on restaurant patios and verandahs, or lounge in spas and jacuzzis.

But only five per cent of that total actually go off the beaten track to witness first hand the natural wonders of Red Rock Country. Thanks to a frustrated land seller in the early fifties, who branched out by taking visitors around some of the rock formations by jeep, since they didn’t seem interested in purchasing properties, the Pink Jeep Tours business was launched for the benefit of those adventurers.

Our tour began at nine o’clock this morning, a perfect time of day before the sun was too hot. Seven of us climbed into a vivid pink jeep driven by Bill, who just happened to be celebrating his fiftieth birthday. Another couple, Wayne and Carol, were celebrating their wedding anniversary. By the end of our off-road jaunt, we were all celebrating the fact we were still alive and in one piece!

The three-hour package we opted for was called the Scenic Rim and Broken Arrow combo. It included a visit to the heights of the red rocks looking down over Sedona, followed by an off-road romp over bone-jangling rocks and dips to an area that had been the backdrop for a 1950s movie called Broken Arrow, starring Jimmy Stewart and Jeff Chandler.

Bill the driver explained some of the geology and botany of the area. We learned that the rock faces with a southern exposure tended to be bare of vegetation, compared to cooler, north-facing ones which retained more moisture, and so had lots of pine trees on them.

I also learned the difference between a mesa and a butte. The mesa is a hill with a flat top, and a butte occurs when erosion wears away the “shoulders” of a mesa for so long that it becomes like a narrow column. If it really becomes thin, they call it a spike.

Bill put our pink jeep through its paces big-time. He did not spare the horsepower over the rocky dirt road of the first portion of our trip, so we were jostling and lurching a lot in the back, grabbing what pillars or handles we could to stay vertical as he swung around the bends in the road. It became very clear why he advised us to keep our seatbelts fastened at all times!

If we thought that was rough, we had no words for the second portion of the trip, which involved boulders and ditches as opposed to gravel and potholes earlier! We scaled huge rocks at a 60-degree angle, and he would stop in the midst of the rise to tell a joke while we wondered if we were going to topple off altogether. He steered the jeep straight toward a rock wall and turned around to chat with us, lurching to one side just before we hit the wall. We could tell he was having a good time, and we got into the spirit of it too.

All the while, we were seeing the most spectacular views of rocks, desert plants, a brilliant blue sky and the distant valleys and mountains beyond. We got out several times to snap pictures and just gaze on the scenes before us in total awe.

A couple of guys were out on the rocks riding mountain bikes, with their dog loping along behind them. We watched them ride up to the top of some huge rounded rocks and turn back to come pelting down. Later on, we watched, aghast, as they rode along narrow grooves of an almost vertical rock face across from us. I had to look away, finally, because I didn’t want to see them plummet to their deaths thousands of feet below.

Our Pink Jeep tour is an off-road adventure that will remain in our memories for a long, long time.

Ghost towns and mining trains

Friday, April 1, 2011

CORNVILLE, AZ – There’s a rooster on the property next to our campground, and his cheerful crowing made a great start to another clear and sunny Arizona day. We turned left instead of right as we drove out of the campground this morning to take the scenic route out to the highway. We were told by a local that Senator John McCain owns a property along this road, but we saw nothing to indicate which place was his.

We did see several wineries, plus the orchards where they grow the grapes. There were also several ranches along the road and paddocks for horses. Signs of spring are everywhere, with delicate green leaves budding on the trees and wildflowers coming up by the roadside.

Our rendez-vous today was at noon at the Clarkdale train station, for a train ride into the Verde Canyon, along an old track that was laid at the turn of the 20th century for transporting the ore from local copper mines. We had plenty of time, so we meandered a bit, stopping to have a quick look at Jerome, a so-called ghost town nestled high on the hillsides where some of the mines had operated.

We stopped at the Little Daisy headframe near the top of the hill. It’s now part of a national park, and they have set up a carpeted ramp to the edge of the shaft with a sign asking you to wipe the red soil off your feet before stepping on the glass. The glass is a clear platform over the top of the shaft, so you can stand on it and look straight down 1,900 feet into the earth! That’s a really long way down! The sign by the shaft says that they brought out four million pounds of ore, which produced more than 300,000 pounds of copper, plus smaller amounts of silver and gold.

We turned back before exploring the whole town so we would have time to eat our lunch before boarding the train. There was a shaded picnic area at the station, and while we ate, a tiny sparrow jumped down to claim the little crumb I set out for him, as if it were his daily due!

The Verde Canyon train had about a dozen cars, with two engines, a caboose and several open-air viewing cars. The trip to the end and back took about four hours, and throughout the journey a speaker system provided a running commentary on what we were seeing. There were also interpretive guides who pointed out particular formations, evidence of cave dwellers and wildlife along the way, and who answered any questions we might have.

From time to time we caught glimpses of the Verde River at the bottom of the canyon, a ribbon of blue fringed with trees sprouting their spring green leaves. This lush strip made quite a contrast with the dry, dusty rocks above, with colours of red ochre, peach and white, and the desert grasses and cacti that clung to life on the craggy outcroppings.

A pair of antelopes appeared across the way on a grassy area, prompting lots of finger-pointing and camera-snapping. Further along, our guide pointed out a magnificent bald eagle, perched on the high branch of a tree! She also showed us the eagles’ nest, where two new babies had recently hatched. We could only see the white head of mother eagle, waiting for her lunch order to be delivered by papa.

The end of the line is Perkinsville, which was once a private ranch, but became the mine’s depot when the railway was built. Only a few buildings remain, but there are descendants of the original property owners who still live there in splendid isolation.

The twin engines uncoupled from the front end of the train and moved on a side track past us to the homebound end before we began the return trip. From a new angle, we admired the high walls of rock above us and the wonderful views of cliffs, hills and mountains that were once seen only by weary miners as they headed home from work.

Talk of the town

Thursday, March 31, 2011

CORNVILLE, AZ – Today we had a closer look at the town of Sedona. It’s divided more or less in two, the downtown and the uptown, with all the touristy stuff in the upper end, and the larger shopping centres and gas stations in the lower end.

We headed uptown because we wanted to book a jeep tour. They were too full to accommodate us today, but we’re set for a three-hour tour of the amazing red rock formations on Saturday. The jeep tour office was surrounded by little boutiques and shops, so we did some browsing.

One of the signature souvenirs of Sedona is the dirt shirt! Entire stores are full of them, all coloured the same rusty red as the soil and rocks around the town. We caught sight of a video that explained how the shirts are made – and they are actually dyed with soil! They have re-purposed what looked like washing machines into which they place white t-shirts, followed by shovels full of red dirt. You can by other dirt-coloured items; my favourite was the genuine dirt bag. Very handy and you sure don’t have to worry about getting it dirty!

There were a number of jewelry stores with wonderful pieces (bearing wonderful price tags) made from turquoise and silver, or amber, or all-silver designed into animals or abstract shapes. There is a huge artistic community here as well; we saw paintings and sculptures as well as objets d’art everywhere.

Sedona is a known venue for spiritual activities as well. There are psychics, tarot card readers and even services that will help you discover your past lives. On the map of Sedona, we saw several places marked off as a “vortex” — and the explanation was that people found these spots (mostly near unusual rock formations) as particularly energized, providing for some a profound spiritual experience.

You can go to any number of spas here and be massaged or soothed by having warmed rocks placed on your body. And, of course, there are eateries of all kinds, with exotic menus, and luxury hotels that offer all of the above in beautifully appointed rooms overlooking the spectacular scenery!

We actually spoke to a young woman who has lived in Sedona for most of her life and has never explored the formations around the town or ventured the hour or so from town to the Grand Canyon! She says she’s 31 years old and a self-confessed workaholic. We tried to show her the error of her ways!

Back at our campground, we spent a leisurely afternoon and, after dinner, enjoyed the company of Scott and Mary-Jane, another Canadian couple we met here, who have already been to some of the places we’re still headed for, such as the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. It was great exchanging advice and stories of our respective travel adventures! It was a lively conversation that whiled away several very pleasant hours in no time.