Lee's Ferry Rec Area, near Page, Arizona

Lee's Ferry Recreation Area is near Page, Arizona. This also happens to be the start of the Grand Canyon ridge. This village was a settlement by John Lee who was a mormon settler with 17 wives.




He established a ferry there in 1871. This ferry at that time provided the only crossing of the Colorado river for nearly 60 years. The picture below is of a sunken steamer ferry partially intact at the bottom of the Colorado river near the settlement.

Later the Glen Canyon Dam was built. More on that in another post.

At the recreation area we camped at there was a beach area for cooling yourself off in the summer. Also lots of rafters and kayakers take advantage of this area.

On your way into the park you pass some fantastic rock formations like this one below.

This area is drycamping at its best. Look at these views. And at night, WOW, the stars are outstanding. It is a place we are sure to go back to.

See ya down the road!

Desert View & Tusayan Ruins at Grand Canyon, AZ

Desert View is on the eastern end of the Grand Canyon park. It is about 25 miles from the main information center. It also is a smaller version of the information area and has a general store.
The watchtower you see in the photo below was designed by Mary Colter in 1930. Its purpose was so visitors could get the widest view of the Grand Canyon. Note the stonework. This building is 4 stories high and you can enter each level and look out the windows. The top floor was undergoing renovation so we could not enter that area.



Inside the tower on the walls were beautiful paintings of HOPI indian life. The lower level of this building was a gift/souvenier type of shop for visitors.

Jeff is on his way up the stairs for even better views of the Grand Canyon.

The Tusayan Ruins and Museum are also part of the Grand Canyon park and just west of the Desert View Watchtower. The people who lived here over 800 years ago were the Pueblo Indians.

They built areas for storage, as above, and also built rooms for sleeping. These rooms were covered at one time, but over time the roofs have disappeared.

The picture below is of a KIVA. These were used as ceremonial rooms. These were important rooms to the Pueblo Indians. Meetings were held here to make important decisions in their lives.

See ya down the road.

Grand Canyon, Arizona

WOW, this place is truly a sight I never thought I'd see. Put this on your bucket list and get out and go here. The photo below is only one of the many hiking trails at the Grand Canyon. I, personally, could not do this trail but my husband and friends did. If you look closely you will see hikers on all levels of this trail.

The weather that day was beautiful and we were able to take the shuttle to lots of areas and
see lots of things. There are mule rides down into the canyon but we did not do these. ( I am afraid of heights.....)


The picture above is of the Kaibab trail that Jeff and our friends, the Stafford's, hiked down.

FYI, there is lots of places to camp here and also lodges and plenty of exhibits.
There is more than one lodge and a HOPI indian house that currently sells indian jewelry and artifacts including blankets and many pottery items.

The above picture is Jeff risking his life for this picture. (Great pic honey, can you get off the rock now.....)

The scenery here is undescribible. The canyon is so deep it is frightening. There is area down below where you can hike to or take the mules to and camp overnight in and then hike back up the next day. You cannot do the trip in one day.

One of the days we were there it snowed. We were out on one of the shuttles when the rains came first and then the snow flurries. When we woke up the next day - there it was - lots of snow.

See ya down the road.

Pink Jeep Tour, Sedona, Arizona

We drove over to Sedona, Arizona today to do the Pink Jeep Tour. It was a beautiful day and we were really looking forward to this.



The scenery was awesome to say the least.

We saw many other 'pink' jeeps while we were out. They were coming out of the woodwork or should I say rocks!

Some of the drop offs were quite steep and the rocks were pretty big too....

We got to ride around this rock formation and YES, I was a 'little' scared.

In the end we had a fantastic time and would love to do this again. The jeep operator was very information and humorous to boot.

See ya down the road!

Red Rock State Park & Sliding Rock State Park, AZ

We drove over to Red Rock State Park and toured the visitors center which was loaded with information and exhibits. It was extremely informative and after spending time there we were off for our hike.



The scenery is beautiful and the hike was just long enough to make you want to more. But,
this day we had other plans that would be just as exciting.


We drove through the town of Sedona, Arizona to make our way over to Sliding Rock State Park. We had hoped to do some 'sliding' in the water but it was way too cold to do that!

It is a beautiful park and had it not been the second week of April, maybe the water would not have been as freezing and we could have had a great time sliding on the rocks and in the water.

Some people DID brave the cold water conditions but we did not have the nerve to try it.

See ya down the road!

Montezuma's Castle, Well & Tuzigoot National Monuments

We are now staying at Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, Arizona. This a large open campground with lots of sites. We had the choice of hook ups or no hook ups at this park. There were several levels to the campground and not all of them were open.

They did offer horseback riding but we elected not to do this at this time. Our site was a nice
large one which backed up to a hill and the horses went by every day on their trails.

One day we headed out to see the sites and one of the places we went was to Tuzigoot National Monument. This is a place where the Sinagua Indians lived in the 12th century.

The had dwellings made of rocks and sand and these small units held quite a few people inside.



Look at all the sections of this place. Some units were for housing and some were for storage
of food.

We also went to Montezuma Well which was 11 miles from the Montezuma Castle National Monument. This was truly an awesome site. The Sinagua Indians inhabited this area also.

This is Montezuma's Castle National Monument. The Sinagua indians lived here up in the dwellings. Using ladders to enter through small openings. There are several levels to this housing and it had twenty rooms. They lived here approximately 1000 years ago. No one knows why they left this area and kept moving on to other areas.

We had a great time visiting these places and hope someday everyone will get out and visit

our nation's fabulous national parks and experience and learn about our countries history like we are having the opportunity to do.

See ya down the road!

Fool Hollow Rec Area, Show Low, AZ

We leave the dunes in Colorado and head off towards Arizona to the town of Show Low. Here we stay at Fool Hollow Recreation Area, which is actually in the middle of town. This is a jewel of a park. Our site was large and secluded on concrete pads. It was a lovely park.




This park had lots of trees. Not all sections were open yet as it was still pretty cold and because of financial state cut backs not all sections were available. None the less a fantastic local park.




There was even a large lake with lots of birds and ducks and herons on it. We enjoyed watching
all the birds flying, swimming and even trying to get us for hand outs - which we did not give them!



We even had a ranch nearby where we could go over and pet their two ponies, a beautiful horse and a neighborhood dog just couldn't resist sticking his nose in for a pet and attention also.

Unfortunately our business in Show Low was for the purpose of getting both of our FORD trucks worked on. So we got to leave them some of our cash-ola again. But once fixed we were on our way again to parts unknown.

See ya down the road!