A Graphical Summary of the Trip

We arose mid-morning in Flagstaff, and set about repacking our gear and the car.  We put most everything in the right bags to fly in, got it all neat and organized, and checked out of the hotel.  Before heading up north, we stopped at a cute little diner in Flagstaff for brunch.  I hadn’t been back in Flag since 2004, and I had forgotten that downtown bears an astonishing resemblance to Ithaca–it’s just a big crunch town!  Except it’s also a tourist town, with more outfitters than you can count on fingers and toes combined!

Sunset Crater

Leaving Flagstaff (after spending not-nearly-enough time there), we drove up to Sunset Crater National Monument.  Sunset Crater is a cinder cone volcano near Flagstaff, and is one of the youngest in the area (between 1040 and 1100 CE).  The actual cinder cone is rather unphotogenic (and scarred from foot traffic, which is no longer allowed), but I took a few shots of the lava field with the San Francisco Peaks in the background.  Those peaks are part of the same volcanic field as Sunset Crater, although many of them are substantially older.

Factoids:

Sunset Crater itself was nearly dynamited in 1929 for the movie “Avalanche,” which is the event that led to the area’s protection as a National Monument.  In the 1960s, NASA used the lava fields as a practice area for lunar surface exploration.

Wupatki

After exploring Sunset Crater for a bit, we drove through the National Forest up to Wupatki National Monument.  The Wupatki Pueblo is an old anasazi ruin, from a time when the area that is now a dry desert was lush and fertile.  The Anasazi people believe that ruins should be let to crumble and decay, because too much preservation would fill up the earth.  The National Park Service, on the other hand, is charged by act of Congress to preserve the site, and has even restored some areas to show what they would have looked like when the area was occupied.  This tension between government and native is not new nor unique to this park, and the brochure for the area highlights the conflict in a somewhta schizophrenic manner.

GRAND CANYON!!!!!

After briefly exploring the Wupatki Ruins, we got back in our convertible and pressed on to Grand Canyon.  Our first stop inside the park was Desert View, the lookout established for the Santa Fe Railroad in 1932.  Seeing the canyon made me pine for time at the bottom, but it was not to be on this excursion.  The views speak for themselves.  Click the pics for enlarged versions.

And of course, the obligatory traveller-in-front-of-canyon shots:

After desert view, we drove west on South Rim Drive to the main Grand Canyon Village.  What a touristy circus!  By the time we got there we barely had time to get out, look around, snap a few photos, and visit the gift shope before heading back to Vegas.  I was so bummed at our limited canyon-time that I hardly shot any photos.  Part of me almost wishes we hadn’t gone at all if our time there was to be so short, but Laura needed to see the canyon, and she got it!  Here’s one I took from Grand Canyon Village.  The canyon you see moving off towards the top is Bright Angel Canyon, which I explored in 2004 on the North Kaibab trail with my fellow REUers.  At the bottom center is a small green oasis, which is Bright Angel Campground and Phantom Ranch, where we camped on that trip.

Over the Hills and Far Away

Back in the car, off to Vegas and New York!  We tried stopping at Williams, AZ for dinner, but there was none to be found except for a small sit-down restaurant that we didn’t have time for.  Back on the road, and we got off at the next exit, Ash Fork, where the highway signs said there would be food.  Let me tell you about Ash Fork.  We saw the whole town, and the only thing that anybody wants to sell there is their real estate.  You want some land in the desert?  Please?  Stop by the land office (you might mistake it for city  hall or the post office, but for the big sign that says LAND OFFICE) and I’m sure they’ll be delighted to hook you up.  We finally found a Picadilly Pizza at the gas station under the interstate (not even really in town), got some food, and got back on the road.  Our plan was to head up US 93 and over the Hoover Dam into Vegas, but as we approached the exit, we saw a lighted sign announcing:

DELAYS AT HOOVER DAM.  TURN TO AM XXXX FOR INFORMATION

So we turned to that channel, and heard the announcer tell us that the Arizona Highway Patrol had a roadblock nine miles south of hoover dam where all vehicles must stop and submit to a thorough search of contents.  I began immediately to renavigate, mostly because I don’t like police but also because a thorough search of all our luggage and gear would have meant missing the plane.  The detour wasn’t bad, but it did take us a little bit out of our way and by the time we got back into metro Vegas we were hurting for both time and fuel.  Fortunately we had selected the “return the car full” plan, so while Laura fueled us up, Ginger and I did the final reconfiguration of luggage for departure and threw away all the accumulated trash in the car, in a hurried exercise that made me feel like a NASCAR pit stop attendant.  As it turned out, we got the rental car returned and ourselves checked in with plenty of time to spare–our plane wasn’t even there yet.

Thus ends the story of how three astronomers and two law students spent six (really seven) days of bliss in the desert before returning to their cold and dreary home.  I hope that the reading has brought you joy.