When driving through Utah, I remember why I loved it so much - the hills are just so unique. Stratified layers of red and white and green, carved away into different configurations by infrequent rainfall.
But this morning, it's goodbye to Utah for a while, as we're heading into Arizona for Toroweap/Tuweep Point in the Grand Canyon park. Before leaving, Stephen checked on the Internet and looked up the phone numbers for the ranger's station (or what Stephen calls "The Lone Ranger", since there's one ranger stationed out there).
Stephen programmed the GPS with the latitude/longitude coordinates for Toroweap - we're taking the Sunshine Road near Fredonia, as it's considered the most reliable route. It's 61 miles of gravel road (about 100km).
Near the beginning of the road, we actually interrupt a cattle drive; the cowboys helpfully herd the cows off the road, and the cows look reproachfully at us for displacing them.
After that, the road unwinds for a long time through low rolling hills of rock and sagebrush. We pass through a 25-mile floodplain, with hills all around. Then the scenery starts to get greener, a lot of sagebrush and small trees. But the road gets rougher as it goes. As we go along, there are a lot of stones on the road. You can't avoid them all - you have to pick your rocks, and hope to avoid any of the sharp pointy ones. They're all trying to take you out - this road is notorious for tire punctures, and we see strips of tires on the side of the road to prove it.
No cell coverage or Internet (duh!) out here, but Stephen's Sirius satellite radio is happily broadcasting. I'm singing along to the 80's on 8. :-)
Near the turnoff to Mount Trumbull, some mudderfarker comes flying through at high speed at a cloud of dust, just missing us. Asshole. Hope he slows down now (or loses a tire. That would be okay, too). You know where the roadkill comes from on this road? Guys like that. Speed limit is 35 or lower for a reason.
OMG, we just saw a buzzard!
By the time we reach the Tuweep sign, we're hitting the "bad" stretches of road. Lots of rock, and you have to drive a lot slower. The worst is really in the last 10-mile stretch up to the camp - when the signs say primitive road, it means "lots of rocks" and "big rocks". That's when you need the 4x4.
Even so, the road isn't anywhere near as scary as the trail we'd tried in Arches. It's just slow going.
We finally reach the campsite! There are ten free camping sites available, first-come, first-served. we were the first (almost the only) to arrive, so we had our pick. And we picked campsite #2, which had a nice little tree to throw us a bit of shade. From the camp site, it's a half-mile walk (or drive) to the rim of the Grand Canyon.
The views are spectacular. There are no guard rails, no walkway; you just pick your way over the rocks, inch a bit closer to the edge, and you've suddenly got a 3000 ft vertical drop down to the bottom of the canyon, where you can see the Colorado River below. I think this is one of the few viewpoints where you can actually see the Colorado River.
We wandered around a bit, but the sun was high overhead and it was quite hot, so we headed back to camp. Stephen wasn't feeling well; it might have been the after-effects of hiking Angel's Landing, or it might have been that we were hiking around in the 40C heat. We got the tent set up, and he took some drugs and lay down for a while. There were ominously rumbling clouds in the afternoon, but they passed us by.
I asked him if he wanted to leave, but he said no (because he didn't want to ruin the experience). After resting, he eventually felt better.
The squirrels around the campsite are quite inquisitive (expecting food, I'd say), and are quite fun to watch as they run and play. They were crawling up into the wheels of Stephen's vehicles, probably to munch on some leftover grasshopper bodies. Some kind of bluebird was also hovering around our camp, but wasn't nearly as demanding as the squirrels. We did see a coyote saunter by, but he was pretty elusive.
Oh, and a fire ant got into my sandal and bit my foot (there was a colony of them next to our campsite), and it burned! Burned lke fire! Hence, the name, I suppose. Stupid ant. I changed back into my runners.
We hiked back out to Toroweap Point to watch the sunset. There were several people out there: two professional photographers perched on the ledge, and three other people who'd staked out rocks of their own. We wandered back and forth, and headed back before it got too dark.
There was one other couple at the campsite, a good distance away from us.
By 9:00 p.m., the temperature had dropped to 28C, and Stephen and I were sitting and watching lightning strikes from a faraway thunderstorm across the Grand Canyon. So far away we couldn't hear anything, but it was quite the lightshow. Crickets chirping, and bats flying around. Time to get our fire started, have some supper and go to sleep.
But this morning, it's goodbye to Utah for a while, as we're heading into Arizona for Toroweap/Tuweep Point in the Grand Canyon park. Before leaving, Stephen checked on the Internet and looked up the phone numbers for the ranger's station (or what Stephen calls "The Lone Ranger", since there's one ranger stationed out there).
Stephen programmed the GPS with the latitude/longitude coordinates for Toroweap - we're taking the Sunshine Road near Fredonia, as it's considered the most reliable route. It's 61 miles of gravel road (about 100km).
After that, the road unwinds for a long time through low rolling hills of rock and sagebrush. We pass through a 25-mile floodplain, with hills all around. Then the scenery starts to get greener, a lot of sagebrush and small trees. But the road gets rougher as it goes. As we go along, there are a lot of stones on the road. You can't avoid them all - you have to pick your rocks, and hope to avoid any of the sharp pointy ones. They're all trying to take you out - this road is notorious for tire punctures, and we see strips of tires on the side of the road to prove it.
No cell coverage or Internet (duh!) out here, but Stephen's Sirius satellite radio is happily broadcasting. I'm singing along to the 80's on 8. :-)
Near the turnoff to Mount Trumbull, some mudderfarker comes flying through at high speed at a cloud of dust, just missing us. Asshole. Hope he slows down now (or loses a tire. That would be okay, too). You know where the roadkill comes from on this road? Guys like that. Speed limit is 35 or lower for a reason.
OMG, we just saw a buzzard!
By the time we reach the Tuweep sign, we're hitting the "bad" stretches of road. Lots of rock, and you have to drive a lot slower. The worst is really in the last 10-mile stretch up to the camp - when the signs say primitive road, it means "lots of rocks" and "big rocks". That's when you need the 4x4.
Even so, the road isn't anywhere near as scary as the trail we'd tried in Arches. It's just slow going.
We finally reach the campsite! There are ten free camping sites available, first-come, first-served. we were the first (almost the only) to arrive, so we had our pick. And we picked campsite #2, which had a nice little tree to throw us a bit of shade. From the camp site, it's a half-mile walk (or drive) to the rim of the Grand Canyon.
We wandered around a bit, but the sun was high overhead and it was quite hot, so we headed back to camp. Stephen wasn't feeling well; it might have been the after-effects of hiking Angel's Landing, or it might have been that we were hiking around in the 40C heat. We got the tent set up, and he took some drugs and lay down for a while. There were ominously rumbling clouds in the afternoon, but they passed us by.
I asked him if he wanted to leave, but he said no (because he didn't want to ruin the experience). After resting, he eventually felt better.
The squirrels around the campsite are quite inquisitive (expecting food, I'd say), and are quite fun to watch as they run and play. They were crawling up into the wheels of Stephen's vehicles, probably to munch on some leftover grasshopper bodies. Some kind of bluebird was also hovering around our camp, but wasn't nearly as demanding as the squirrels. We did see a coyote saunter by, but he was pretty elusive.
Oh, and a fire ant got into my sandal and bit my foot (there was a colony of them next to our campsite), and it burned! Burned lke fire! Hence, the name, I suppose. Stupid ant. I changed back into my runners.
We hiked back out to Toroweap Point to watch the sunset. There were several people out there: two professional photographers perched on the ledge, and three other people who'd staked out rocks of their own. We wandered back and forth, and headed back before it got too dark.
There was one other couple at the campsite, a good distance away from us.
By 9:00 p.m., the temperature had dropped to 28C, and Stephen and I were sitting and watching lightning strikes from a faraway thunderstorm across the Grand Canyon. So far away we couldn't hear anything, but it was quite the lightshow. Crickets chirping, and bats flying around. Time to get our fire started, have some supper and go to sleep.
You rock girlfriend!
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