Author Archives: Jill and Bud

Bud and I always try to find places off the beaten path. I was looking for a trail that wasn’t too far and wasn’t too long and sounded interesting. I found Brow Monument Trail #108 on AllTrails, but it wasn’t reviewed and the directions on Apple Maps got close to the trailhead but not quite to it.

I looked it up and found the US Forest Service entry which said:

“The Brow Monument trail offers a short, two-mile hike through ponderosa pine, pinyon, and juniper to one of the few remaining survey markers left in place from the John Wesley Powell surveying expedition of 1872.

The trail offers a number of Forest Service interpretive signs about the history of Brow Monument and its use in the first geological surveys of the Arizona Strip. Hikers will enjoy an easy walk that offers views from the “brow” of the Kaibab Plateau north across the Arizona Strip and toward the Grand Staircase of southern Utah.”

That sounded good to me. Bud was a bit concerned because it was 19 miles on Forest Service roads but said he was willing to do it if the roads weren’t too bad.

Our campground is on the top of the Kaibab Plateau, it wasn’t long before the road came to a place looking down. About two miles later we got down to the road you see below. I couldn’t get a good picture, but coming back up there was a sign that said “CAUTION ROAD NARROW AND STEEP” and it was.

A good part of the trip was on FR 22, which was a decent gravel road with only occasional sections that were washboards.

There were beautiful wildflowers.

And there was this spring running down the hill with a Forest Station and rental cabins around the pond it fed.

After a mile and a half on a very narrow forest road we came to the trail.

It was an easy walk as advertised, and happily very lightly used. There were enough markers and just enough of a path to find your way.

And there were views. This is looking north towards Utah. These were steep hills, not cliffs, so Matey was off leash for the whole walk.

This is looking southwest towards the Grand Canyon and the mountains beyond.

This is all that is left of the monument. The wooden structure that was built on this cairn burned in a 1986 wildfire. The monument was constructed so it could be sighted from far away by the survey crew.

This marker was placed in 1938 using newer methods and is only about 300 feet from the original. I was disappointed that the elevation wasn’t marked.

On the way home we took a detour on a small road towards Kanab Creek Wilderness Area.

It was very interesting terrain.

There was a small gravel parking area in front of a rock cliff and when you took the short path to the base of the cliff you found petroglyphs and pictographs together!

A very satisfying day.

Bud’s foot is getting better, but isn’t completely healed. And I have hurt my right leg. I don’t know how but I suspect it might have been rushing down the slope to check on Matey after he ran off the ledge. Matey seems fine, but we are trying to minimize walking for a few days.

Wednesday we took a drive back off the Kaibab Plateau and along the Vermillion Cliffs. We drove 35 miles and descended 4,000 feet. The temperature rose from 72 to 92 degrees. This is the overlook about 2/3 of the way down the plateau.

The cliffs are beautiful but there is no driving access so this is as close as we got.

We drove down to the Navajo Bridge across the Colorado. The first bridge here was finished in 1929. It was replaced in 1995, and is now a pedestrian bridge. I was standing on the old bridge to take this picture. This is looking south, downstream.

This is looking north, upstream. I learned today that Colorado means ruddy, and the river used to be full of silt. The silt colored the water red and carved the canyons. Today the silt is captured by Glen Canyon Dam and the river is blue (except after heavy rains) and colder.

Yesterday I did laundry and we hung around the campground. Someone still has to walk Matey so we’ve been taking turns. Today we decided to drive back down to the North Rim and walk the short trails to the vistas that we didn’t see Tuesday because dogs aren’t allowed on them. Matey had to stay in the camper.

First we revisited Cape Royal and walked out to Angel’s Window and the point beyond that. Angel’s Window is the hole in the rock you see in this photo. A side trail takes you right out over the opening.

As you get closer you come to a place where you can see the Colorado through the opening in the rock.

This is from the top of Angel’s Window looking almost straight down, dizzying.

This wall, that formed one side of the opening, was so vertical it almost looked constructed.

This is the view further down the trail at Cape Royal. If you look closely to the left of the near peak you can just see the river. A sign explained that the North Rim is 1200 feet higher than the South Rim and on average gets twice as much snow. Water flows south in this whole region so the greater snowmelt flowing into the river cut canyons back along the North Rim, leaving the river further away. The snowmelt on the South Rim flows away from the river, so there has been less erosion and the cliffs are steeper.

Next we drove back to the main visitor area and walked through the Grand Canyon Lodge and out a trail that took us to the main trail to Bright Angel Point. This is looking back at the lodge from the trail. It certainly fits into the landscape. The large windows are on a lobby area and there is outdoor seating to the right.

The trail goes a quarter mile out along a peninsula of rock. There are no railings.

Here they have a bit of a wall as the ground drops off immediately on either side of the path.

Thank goodness there was a railing at the point!

This picture shows the fault line where Bright Angel Creek descends. The North Kaibab Trail follows the creek to the bottom of the canyon. It is the only trail down into the canyon on the North Rim.

I took this photo holding my phone out from the edge of the trail on the way back.

I took this photo of a sign showing a picture of the canyon on a clear day.

Unfortunately, this was the view today. I don’t think this is air pollution, I think it’s dust! It has been windy almost every day for the past week. The dust doesn’t blow too much up in the trees, but out across the lower land the dust is terrible.

I still got some nice pictures but I would love to get some across the canyon on a clear day. That may not be possible, the weather forecast for the next week has days that are windy and days that are very windy!

The Campground:

Well, to clarify, we aren’t camping at the North Rim. We’re staying at Kaibab Camper Village, which is the closest campground with hookups. It’s 44 miles from the visitor center.

It’s at an elevation of about 8,000 feet on the Kaibab Plateau in the Kaibab National Forest and it has trees; big beautiful Ponderosa Pines! The trees did make situating the trailer and truck a bit challenging but I am so happy to be in trees again. And we have full hookups, cell service and satellite TV.

There are trails here, through the trees.

I found a couple of short loops, one of which passes this old ranger station.

Better yet, there are mule deer and Matey and I have seen them on two of our walks. So, trees for me, TV for Bud, and deer for Matey; all good.

The Canyon:

As I said, it’s a long drive. At least it’s a pretty drive.

And today we saw bison, with calves. That made us all happy.

And then there is the canyon. It is grand. We drove around to several viewpoints.

From here you could look across to the South Rim. We saw a glint which was the sun on some metal or glass at the Desert Tower.

This is the Wedding Venue (permit required). There are log benches arranged to face this little clearing. Those would be some wedding photos.

The guests best not get drunk, though.

We ended our drive with a picnic at Point Imperial, the highest vista in Grand Canyon National Park.

There were stunning views;

including this vista all across the canyon to the Mesa in the east, south of Page, the place we left yesterday.

We couldn’t visit this area and not see Horseshoe Bend, a 1000 foot deep, 270 degree bend in the Colorado River just a couple of miles below the Glen Canyon Dam. The city of Page owns the land between US 89 and the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area along the river. They have a nice new parking lot and a wide flat trail to the overlook. The city charges $10 per car to park. It’s an easy 3/4 mile walk to the overlook. To avoid the heat and the crowds we decided to do this first thing in the morning.

This is a straight shot with my iPhone, no panorama, no zoom. It’s pretty impressive. The jagged line on the far shore is the shadow from the cliff we are on, the morning sun is behind us,

Here I did zoom in to show the people on the beach on the opposite shore. They must have been camped there on float trips as it was 7:30 in the morning!

Bud had me climb up on some low rocks so he could take my picture. He said I never got in the photos because I’m usually the one taking them. You’ll notice I have a firm grip on Matey’s leash. No way was he chasing rabbits there!

I took Matey for a short walk around the campground this morning and he seemed okay. He wanted to walk further but I brought him back because we had decided if he was okay we’d take him with us on a hike.

I had found an interesting hike on All Trails. It was only supposed to be 1.6 miles out and back, so we figured it was a good one to try. It went up a small wash and Matey was back in form, but most definitely on the leash!

There were some uphill parts as it climbed up to the base of some cliffs along the wash. It wasn’t hard for any of us.

The trail was called Toadstool Trail because there are a number of small hoodoos at the base of these cliffs and some of them look like giant rock toadstools.

This one seems to defy gravity.

We stopped in the shade of this big one for a rest, a drink and a snack.

On the way back we took a detour to the Wahweap Marina at Lake Powell. This is looking down to the water just to the right of the State Line Boat Ramp. The boat ramp goes all the way down this hill. There has been a 20 year drought out here and the lake is at 30% capacity and is fifty feet below its normal level. That makes the boat ramps longer, the main boat ramp is now unusable as it ends well above the water.

We got there just as they were pulling this houseboat up the long ramp. I jumped out and got this video of the two trucks as they and the boat crested this hill.

This is from an overlook of the marina in Wahweap Bay. The lake is so low that the marina almost fills the bay, there’s just a narrow channel to get by. Bud and I think the peninsula coming into the water from the right would be submerged if the lake were full, perhaps the highest point would stick up as an island.

I have read that some people think it is time to drain the lake, but I don’t think that will happen. The town of Page wouldn’t exist without the dam and the lake, it was founded in 1957 as a housing community for workers and their families during the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam. There are hundreds of huge houseboats like the one in the video. Folks here won’t let go of their livelihoods voluntarily.

The land around here is beautiful, but harsh.

This is the campground from the Page Rim Trail that runs behind it. As you can see, unless trees are planted (and watered) everything is red rock and sand with a few scrubby bushes.

There are canyons, mesas and drop offs everywhere.

Whenever I walk Matey near cliffs I am vigilant; ready to grab the leash to keep him from chasing some little animal over the edge. Turns out I was right to be worried.

Today we played disc golf nearby. It was rough, rocky land, but no real cliffs and no roads so we let Matey off the leash. He was following close as he usually does; until we were playing down the side of a wash and he saw a rabbit on the other side. I yelled “Matey, no!” as he took off running…

right over this ledge. He landed right where Bud is standing in this picture. He had disappeared from our sight and I expected him to be a crumpled mass when I got to him. But he was standing upright, looking a bit dazed. I carried him up a bit and Bud suggested I set him down on a level spot to see if he could or would walk. He walked back to the truck!

We took him back to the trailer and he was obviously sore and somewhat stiff. I called he nearest vet’s office and they took the information and called me back after they talked to the doctor. He said we should just monitor Matey and unless he got worse or had trouble breathing he didn’t need to come in.

Besides being sore Matey’s worst injury is the red spot under his nose where he scraped his fur off. Poor dog, and he lost the rabbit!

Sunday we made the trip to Page, Arizona. It was very windy but we got here without incident. It got so windy in the afternoon after we set up that the trailer was shaking and I couldn’t walk Matey far because of the blowing sand.

Happily, today was much less windy as I had booked a tour for us into Antelope Canyon X. Antelope Canyon is a very famous slot canyon just outside of Page. It’s on the Navajo Reservation so the only way to see it is by taking a guided tour. There are several tour companies providing tours to the Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon and they are said to be quite crowded. I found this tour to Antelope Canyon X online and it had good reviews. Only Taadidiin Tours gives tours here and so it is not as crowded.

Antelope Canyon X is at the very start of Antelope Canyon. We entered between two sections of slot canyon.

Our group of eight plus our guide entered the north, or downstream section of the canyon first.

The wind and water sculpted walls in some places no longer looked like rock.

We were there at noon and the colors were beautiful.

Both the depth and the formations were awe inspiring.

I managed to capture a sunbeam.

When we turned back our guide said the canyon continued for 23 miles.

Then we walked back through a more open section of canyon and entered the southern, upstream slot.

That was shorter, but perhaps even more beautiful.

We followed this part of the canyon up to a small chamber.

This was the very start of Antelope Canyon, the outflow from the desert above. Our guide pointed out the cuts part way up, these were new canyons forming, baby Antelopes.

Then it was up and out and we left all this wondrous beauty behind.

Bud hurt his foot, probably last Friday, and exacerbated the injury playing disc golf on the very hilly course on Monday. So we’ve been doing driving tours for the last few days. I was about out of destinations to suggest so I consulted “All Trails” an App our son-in-law, Sean, introduced to me. Browsing for a short trail that perhaps Bud could walk I found the “Big Warrior Panel Trail”, a 0.2 mile loop that was listed as easy, where dogs were welcome and there were pictographs. Sounded good. The App will also give you directions. It was 27 miles away, Bud was up for it so off we went.

Well, only 9 of the 27 miles were paved. We encountered this bridge on the first of the unpaved roads. It was long…

but not wide! And not really paved, either.

The roads got narrower from there.

And the area got more and more remote. We drove miles up a shallow canyon filled with natural gas wells and pipelines. There was nothing at all to indicate there was any trail. Just as we reached the end of the blue line on my driving directions we saw a small brown sign that said “Main Panel” and there was a turn around with a place to park. And there, sure enough, was the trail.

It was pretty, but didn’t look too promising. There was a registration book, so I signed in. The last person to sign in was two days ago.

But, oh my, the petroglyphs we found! You could walk right up to them, too.

They were stunning.

And there was a sign to help you understand what you were seeing.

These were way more interesting than the ones we saw at Petroglyph National Monument.

We saw all these and more within 0.4 mile of the truck!

And we had the whole area to ourselves. Thank you All Trails and thank you Sean.

We came here to Bloomfield, New Mexico last Sunday. There is real variety here.

This is called the Four Corners Area because it is the only place in the United States where four states meet. The actual point is about 60 miles from here and we drove out there yesterday.

This is in the Navajo Nation, and there are miles of wide open arid lands here. The far rock you see in this photo is Shiprock, and it is about 30 miles away.

This one is called Chimney Rock.

But there are also tree filled river flats, like this park in Farmington.

Two river meet here, the Animas…

and the San Juan; shown here along the river walk in Bloomfield.

So along with the desert flora like this cactus,

I found lilacs!

There is a variety of weather, too.

From this calm, blue skied day on Monday, when we played disc golf…

to blustery Tuesday, when we drove to Angel’s Peak. The wind was howling and the sky was filled with dust.

You can get a variety of weather in a single day, too. Just drive north, and up. Bloomfield is in the high desert at 5,456 feet above sea level.

We drove 45 miles north to Durango, Colorado. It’s also another 1100 feet up at an altitude of 6,522’. Here the Animas River doesn’t have a river flat, but hurries through town. And it was pretty cool, early spring.

We drove another 34 miles and 4,000 feet to the top of Coal Bank Pass. There was snow all around, even flurries in the air and it was 35 degrees. The next pass, Red Mountain Pass on past Silverton, was closed!

We happily returned to the high desert, where even though it was a cool day it was still 62 degrees. And if the wind isn’t blowing too hard, we can see those snowy peaks.

I try to book us into public campgrounds when I can. We have no generator or solar panels so we aren’t able to camp without electricity and in the west that really limits the public campgrounds. Nearly all the Federal camping (National Park, National Forest, Bureau of Land Management) is “dry” camping, no water or electric. I was happy to find a city campground north of Albuquerque that had water and electric so I booked us for four days.

The Coronado Campground was run by the state, but is now operated by the city of Bernalillo. The state still operates the Coronado Historic Site that is adjacent.

The sites aren’t huge, but they are much bigger than most private campgrounds and the shelters are very nice.

Since we were right next to the Coronado Historic Site we decided to go see it. It is the ruins of a pueblo, this one of the Kuaua people, who spoke Tiwi. In the 1930’s an archaeologist came looking for evidence that the conquistador Coronado had been here. Instead he found murals painted on the walls of a square Kiva. The paintings had been done on the adobe, and later more adobe and new paintings applied. There were some 80 layers of painting. Through very painstaking efforts about 30 panels from several layers were preserved. Of these 14 are on display at the visitor center. These murals are the oldest American paintings in existence (not counting pictographs, paintings on canyon walls). Also, the Kiva was reconstructed and a native artist recreated one layer of the murals inside. Bud and I had a wonderful guided tour of all of this, we were the only ones with the docent. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take pictures of the murals or inside the Kiva, so I came away with no photos.

Meanwhile, when I went to purchase our tickets for the site online, they offered a two day ticket that included the Jemez Historic Site. Since that is 41 miles from here, and off up in the mountains, and Matey was allowed there, we decided to do that.

That too is the ruins of an old pueblo, this of the Jemez people (it’s pronounced HEE meesh, the Spanish contributed the spelling).

This also had a reconstructed Kiva, a round one. A Kiva is mostly underground, so you climb up a short ladder, then down a longer one. There is a hearth near the bottom of the ladder. When in use a smoke fire would be burning so when you came down the ladder you would pass through the smoke and be purified. The square structure in front of the descending ladder is a vent. Again, no pictures are allowed inside the Kiva.

Unfortunately almost nothing remained of the pueblo and the site mostly showed the structures of the Spanish mission the natives were required to build.

The largest structure was the church. This was the second one built on the site. The first was built in 1601, but then the Jemez (and other bands) got disgusted with the Spanish and drove them out. In only twelve years they were back and this time the natives were defeated and in 1621 a new and bigger church was built.

In the end about half the Jemez people died. The Spanish priests gathered the remnants at a place about 13 miles further down the canyon. Their descendants still live there, it is Jemez Pueblo and is self-governing.

The tour didn’t take long, we’d brought sandwiches and it still wasn’t lunch time. I looked online for another attraction nearby and found the Soda Dam was just a couple of miles further on.

I don’t know the people walking on top, but they add scale. can you see the river flowing out from under on the right side?

The fleck of white above the white splash is the sunlight coming through the hole along with the water.

We stopped at a fishing access point to eat our lunch.

The canyon was stunning.

This is the Jemez River further downstream from the Soda Dam.

After lunch we started home. Bud noticed a roadside kiosk with information signs and thought it might tell us what kind of fish were in the river. It didn’t, but it did mention something else nearby, so we took a side road.

We entered a very pretty canyon. Both the canyon and the road got narrower as we went up.

Until we were on a one lane road and went through the Gilman Tunnels. There are two short tunnels blasted through the rock in the 1920’s, originally to let a train through for logging.

We parked above the tunnels and got some pictures of the tunnels and the Rio Guadeloupe Gorge.

When we went back down through the tunnels I held my phone out the window to capture the video below.

I love traveling this way; I can’t wait to see what we discover next!