To view the Journal for MARCH click on this link GOTO MARCH Journals…or click on the “header at the top of this page, select “Journals” for the drop-down menu. If pictures appear missing, use your “refresh” button.

HAPPINESS is to have EVERYTHING
you NEED,
NOT the NEED to have EVERYTHING

This month’s Travel Plans:
March 22nd Las Vegas at Las Vegas TT Campground for 14 nights
April 5th St. George, Utah (119m) x13 nights (119m)
April 19th Kanab, UT at Crazy Horse RVP (80m)x7 nights (80m)
April 26th Salina, UT at RPI RVP(163m) x7 nights (163m)
May 2nd Moab, UT at KOA Campground (159m)x4 nights (159m)
May 6th Heber, UT Mountain Valley RVR (2 overnights) x7n 234m
May 16th Bend, OR TT (Overnights and stays TBD) (654m)(x7n)
June 5th Whaler’s Rest in Newport, OR.
June 26th leave Whaler’s Rest
*****************************************
3.18.2019 Day 1 -The Blue Route Grand Canyon

Bright Angel… revisiting the East Rim of the Grand Canyon

Our site is located in the Bright Angel area. This is where we visited almost eight years ago with Abby. Yup, that’s us. Sitting on a wall with an 1800 foot drop behind us. But it made for a good picture.I won’t go into detail but I’ll let you imagine what we might be expecting at this elevation!

In the picture above are the San Francisco Peaks. At this point there still about twenty miles from us. Yea, the answer to the question posed above: snow, sleet and cold temps.

This is our campground and a herd of dear just came over to visit. DO NOT FEED THE WILDLIFE, is what all the signs are telling us. At Cottonwood, just the opposite was true. They even provided the food. We’ll be visiting the Kolb studio shortly. It’s a story of two early 1900’s photographers that made a reputation for themselves as daredevil photographers.

This is what we came here to see. Below of course is us again.

And, of course, the happy couple

Once again, it’s what we came here to see!

No I don’t know this young girl, but she’s sitting on the edge of an 1800 foot cliff to the bottom for the canyon, I just don’t understand her thinking.

The Kolb museum and gift store.

On the outside deck of the Kolb station.

Looking back on to the Bright Angel Inn and restaurant.

More awesome views. Below is a view of a natural bridge on the mountain path to the canyon bottom. Carla, Abby and I walked this path about nine years ago. We passed on it this time.

Above is a canoe of that period of time in a glass case and the blocks you see is a primitive  life jacket made from chunks of cork.

Walking to the transfer Station. This is where you get off the our bus and board a GC city bus to your location.

The transfer station. It took us over 30 minutes before we caught a ride.

Got a chance to meet Sue and Mark on our ride back to the campground.

3.19.2019 Day 2 -Red Tour-Grand Canyon-West Rim
Carla kills the fireplace blower.

The chart above show us the designated viewing locations that the bus will stop at. One bus will drop off and 15 minutes later another bus will do a pick up and go to the next stop. View from our first stop below.

As you know there are two tours currently a tour being offered; The East Rim and the West Rim. There’s also to the North  Rim, but the North rim is closed until May. The bus stops at certain designated areas, viewing spots, and another bus comes by every fifteen minutes for visitors to board and go to the next viewing spot. Below you see the view from this location. n the center of the picture s the Colorado River (brown water).

Now we go wait for the next bus. There is an option, you could walk to each of these stops but were to old for such a diversion. The person in the picture below is much younger and has more years than we do, she’s walking.

Another awesome view from our bus on our way to the next stop. Below, time to leave this venue and wait for another bus.

I think the dude above is looking over the edge saying it’s not that scary. He’s also in the right hand in the outside of the safety rails. A person falls at 200 feet per second which might give him nine seconds to contemplate how stupid it was to lose his footing and start falling.

About the above pictures. Geologists have determined that about three-thousand years ago the picture on the left looked very much like the picture on the right. That damming up of the Colorado river was caused by a slow oozing of lava from the bottom of the canyon. This to can be Googled. 

Just a two minute break to rest our feet. This sojourn may not look that taxing, but were both getting a little tired. The more we see the more it all looks the same.

Here’s where we cheated, and you did not even notice. We’re tired! Because of our sudden lack of energy made the decision to skip the last two venues. Instead we opted to proceed to the end of the Red Tour which is Hermit’s Rest. There’s a nice story behind the name but to much for this blog… Google it!

It took a forty-five minute drive to get us from Hermit’s Rest to the transfer station and it will take another twenty minutes to reach our destination; our campground! Enough for today, I need a nap. Below, hole we wait for our city bus another deer or two show up and show off.

Below, finally, our campground. It’s about a ten minute walk from where the city bus drops us off and we made it. Nice to be home again. I think were going to do nothing tomorrow…

3.20.2019 Day 3 Grand Canyon
Rain expected.

3.21.2019 Day 4 GC- Depart for Vegas for 4 nights.
Dump tanks and prepare to leave for Vegas.

“Everything we were, we carry with us. 
Everything we will be, is calling to us, 
from the roads not travelled yet." pjgrenier

To view the Journal for MARCH click on this link GOTO MARCH Journals…or click on the “header at the top of this page, select “Journals” for the drop-down menu. If pictures appear missing, use your “refresh” button.

HAPPINESS is to have EVERYTHING
you NEED,
NOT the NEED to have EVERYTHING

This month’s Travel Plans:
14. March 4th Cottonwood, AZ at Verde Valley RVP (TT) x 14 nights (A section!!)
15. March 18th Grand Canyon Village at GC Campground for 4 nights
16. March 22nd Las Vegas at Las Vegas TT Campground for 14 nights

*****************************************

3.14.2019 1pm Thursday

The text italicized h’s been taken from Wikipedia

Archaeological evidence suggests that humans have lived in the Verde Valley for at least 10,000 years. The earliest signs of permanent settlement in the area appear quite a bit later, however, around 600 CE.

It only took about 30 minutes for us to get here,
awesome! About 15 miles.

The ruins of several prehistoric dwellings are scattered in and around the rim of the Well. Their erstwhile inhabitants belonged to several indigenous American cultures that are believed to have occupied the Verde Valley between 700 and 1425 CE, the foremost of which being a cultural group archaeologists have termed the Southern Sinagua.^[3] The earliest of the ruins located on the property (with the exception of the irrigation canal), a “pithouse” in the traditional Hohokam style, dates to about 1050 CE. More than 50 countable “rooms” are found inside the park boundaries; it is likely that some were used for purposes other than living space, including food storage and religious ceremonies.

No fees involved just a few rules to obey.

The Sinagua people, and possibly earlier cultures, intensively farmed the land surrounding the Well using its constant outflow as a reliable source of irrigation. Beginning about 700 CE, the Well’s natural drainage into the immediately adjacent Wet Beaver Creek was diverted into a man-made canal running parallel to the creek, segments of which still conduct the outflow today.

What’s involved here is to ascend about 300 feet to see the Well.
The well is in an area where a source of water is scarce.

The prehistoric canal, estimated at nearly seven miles in length, likely drained into a network of smaller lateral canals downstream, supplying perhaps as much as 60 acres of farmland with water.^[3] The route of the modern canal is partly original, especially close to the outlet, but large portions have been re-routed over time as irrigation needs have changed.

People were living here from the 1100’s.
This Well was considered by them to be sacred.
This climb is much steeper than the picture indicates.

Much of the abandoned original route is still visible within the park, however, as the warm water emerging from the Well contains a high concentration of lime, which over many centuries was deposited along the canal walls as the water cooled downstream; the accumulated lime has since hardened into a cement-like coating, preserving the canal’s shape.since hardened into a cement-like coating, preserving the canal’s shape.

This picture is really all about the cacti plants.

The existence of the Well was almost unknown to European Americans before the publishing of Handbook to Arizona by Richard J. Hinton in 1878. In 1968, Montezuma Well was the subject of the first ever underwater archaeological survey to take place in a federally managed park, led by archaeologist George R Fischer.

This is what the climb was all about.
We were told that the
water has always been arsenic laced.

the Yavapai people consider the Well a deeply sacred site, as they believe it is the place through which they emerged into the world.

The trip was nice and the knowledge acquired was extremely interesting. Not sure if I would make the trip again.

“Everything we were, we carry with us. 
Everything we will be, is calling to us, 
from the roads not travelled yet." pjgrenier

To view the Journal for MARCH click on this link GOTO MARCH Journals…or click on the “header at the top of this page, select “Journals” for the drop-down menu. If pictures appear missing, use your “refresh” button.

HAPPINESS is to have EVERYTHING
you NEED,
NOT the NEED to have EVERYTHING

This month’s Travel Plans:
14. March 4th Cottonwood, AZ at Verde Valley RVP (TT) x 14 nights (A section!!)
15. March 18th Grand Canyon Village at GC Campground for 4 nights
16. March 22nd Las Vegas at Las Vegas TT Campground for 14 nights

*****************************************

3.14.2019-Thursday-we visit Montezuma Castle and Montezuma Well

The italicized text is courtesy of the National Park Service (NPS)

The nice part of these two venues is their location, within a 30 minute ride from this campground. Both venues were very interesting but not as interesting as I had hoped for.

We must check in and present our Park Pass with accompanying ID, nice part, no money is exchanged.

On December 8, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt celebrated the passage of the Antiquities Act by declaring four sites of historic and cultural significance as our nation’s first National Monuments. Among these was Montezuma Castle, which the President identified as a place “of the greatest ethnological value and scientific interest.”

This is like taking a stroll in the park. 
The cement path is about six-feet wide.

Although very few original artifacts remained in the structure due to intensive looting of the site, Roosevelt’s decision assured the continued protection of one of the best preserved prehistoric cliff dwellings in North America.

Below..A Sycamore Tree. The ancestors use them extensively
in the construction of their cliff homes and ladders.

Montezuma Castle National Monument quickly became a destination for America’s first car-bound tourists. In 1933, “Castle A”, a 45-50 room, pueblo ruin was excavated, uncovering a wealth of artifacts and greatly enhanced our understanding of the Sinagua people who inhabited this riparian “oasis” along Beaver Creek for over 400 years.

This is the same river, the Verde River, 
that runs in back of our campground. 
This section of the river is called Beaver Creek.

Early visitors to the monument were allowed access to the structure by climbing a series of ladders up the side of the limestone cliffs. However, due to extensive damage to this valuable cultural landmark, public access of the ruins was discontinued in 1951.

This is what we came here to see.  the wall is a four-level living  quarters that housed dozens of people. In the next picture you’ll see a schematic. In the pictures that will follow arena additional living spaces used by these peoples. 

Now, approximately 350,000 people a year gaze through the windows of the past during a visit to Montezuma Castle. Even 600 years after their departure, the legacy of the Sinagua people continues to inspire the imaginations of this and future generations.

If you could remove the front wall this is what you would see.

Your neighbors would live in these cut-outs. The stone here is mostly limestone which is very soft but the dark/black rock you also see is Manganese a very hard rock.

“Everything we were, we carry with us.
 Everything we will be, is calling to us, 
from the roads not traveled yet." pjgrenier

To view the Journal for MARCH click on this link GOTO MARCH Journals…or click on the “header at the top of this page, select “Journals” for the drop-down menu. If pictures appear missing, use your “refresh” button.

HAPPINESS is to have EVERYTHING
you NEED,
NOT the NEED to have EVERYTHING

This month’s Travel Plans:
14. March 4th Cottonwood, AZ at Verde Valley RVP (TT) x 14 nights
15. March 18th Grand Canyon Village at GC Campground X 4 nights
16. March 22nd Las Vegas at Las Vegas TT Campground X 14 nights

*****************************************

Our trip to Jerome was just as inspiring as all  our trips in this beautiful state. Every rod we travel look like they are no more than five-years old; awesome!

At this location we can see Jerome in the distance. These rusting machines of the past are symbolic of the mining tools that grew Jerome in the past.

The Italicized text to follow courtesy of the Jerome Historical Society

History of Jerome, Arizona
4686-Jerome was built on Cleopatra Hill above a vast deposit of copper. Prehistoric Native Americans were the first miners, seeking colored stones. The Spanish followed, seeking gold but finding copper. Anglos staked the first claims in the area in 1876, and United Verde mining operations began in 1883, followed by the Little Daisy claim.

"Everything we were, we carry with us. 
Everything we will be, is calling to us, 
from the roads not travelled yet." pjgrenier