Arizona Vacation, 2005

1. The first night we decided to stop at the little Utah town of Hurricane. We were getting tired by this time and wanted to refresh ourselves before checking out Zion National Park on Sunday. Hurricane turned out to be a beautiful town with many fine homes and views of red ridges all around. It was named when an early wagon train master was being blown by a high wind and he exclaimed, "It must be a hurricane!" The name stuck for the area where the wagon train camped for the night. It was also ironic that we stayed in Hurricane while the states of Louisana, Mississippi, and Alabama were beginning to recover from the devastating affects of Katrina.

2. This trip was completely without a schedule. So we did not know how much time we wanted to spend exploring Zion Canyon Park. It is obviously a place where one could easily spend a couple weeks hiking and seeing all the sights. However as we drove toward the park, we had to stop and pay a $20 entrance fee to keep traveling Utah 9. By this time the scenery was great! So we decided to simply see what we could see from this road and not take any time for bus tours or anything like that. It was fantastic! I think Zion is sort of like seeing the Grand Canyon from the bottom. We stopped at most pull-offs to take a few pictures. There was a long tunnel where we had to wait our turn with a flag man as camper-size vehicles could only travel one way. The sights along this highway were well worth the $20 fee. Inside the park, I am sure there is many more fantastic sights as the road only involved one small corner.

3. We drove along Utah 9 to U. S. 89 stopping several times at little shops along the way. This was the old west with ranches scattered here and there. We also saw lots of small home sites which we surmised to be occupied by Indians. We stopped at Glen Canyon Dam and saw the dam and Lake Powell. This project was one of the most controversial and many people today are campaigning to get the dam torn down to once again expose the Colorado River bed and the many ancient artifacts which are now buried underwater. After leaving the dam, we continued south to Cameron, Az where we turned west on Az 64 toward the Grand Canyon.

4. Once again we paid a $20 park fee at the east entrance to the south rim of the Grand Canyon National Park. We passed several scenic overlooks as we were concerned about lodging for the night. Our first stop was the Maswik Lodge in Grand Canyon Village and we decided to stay there. Later that afternoon, we hiked along the south rim trail between Bright Angel Lodge and Maricopa Point and back. We had a good meal at the lodge and a very quiet nights sleep in the cool air on the south rim of the canyon. On Labor Day morning, we decided to take the bus shuttle along the south rim trail to Hermits Rest. We stopped at all the main overlooks and hiked between Powell Point and Mohave Point. The picture was taken at Pima Point where Colorado River rapids are visible below. According to the signs, the rapids are seven miles from Pima Point as the crow flies. We could faintly hear the rustle of the river.

Later when we saw the Imax show, we learned that some early explorers lost their lives on these rapids. The Grand Canyon is indescribable. We only saw a small portion of the 277 miles. Imagine that from one end to the other it is farther than from Nashville to Atlanta. The average width of the Colorado River is 100 yards. The width from the south rim to the north is from 8 to 16 miles depending on where you measure. The elevation change from the rim to the river averages 4600 feet and the elevation of the river is 2450 feet above sea level. There are 12 distinct geological layers visible in the walls of the canyon!

5. We saw the IMax Theater presentation and ate lunch at the little town of Tusayan, a few miles below the south entrance to the park. After passing through Prescott, we headed down the Oak Creek Canyon along Hwy US 89A toward Sedona. At first we were jaded by the Grand Canyon we had seen earlier in the day and felt the Oak Creek scenery was ordinary and not much different from the views in Fall Creek Falls State Park in Tennessee or Cloudland Canyon or Little River in Georgia. But once we arrived in Sedona, we understood why it had been voted the most beautiful city in America. The red rock mountains with beautiful formations were all around. The picture above was taken from the rear of our motel. Sedona is full of art shops and restaurants and lots of things to do and see.

6. On Tuesday morning we headed southeast on Hwy Az 179, toward I-17 Phoenix and our ultimate goal of Tucson. We had two goals in Tucson. One was to visit our old neighborhood and see our old house. The second was to have dinner at Pinnacle Peak. We had eaten there 34 years earlier and remembered the big western t-bone steaks served with beans. If you came in wearing a tie, they would cut it off and pin it to the wall or ceiling along with your business card. We had a great meal at Pinnacle Peak but we learned that the original had burned down in 1975 and had been rebuilt along with the enhanced western museum and amusement area where it is located. It still looked the same inside and ties were hanging everywhere.

Our old home had been improved considerably. My wooden boundary fence has been replaced with a masonry wall. An in-ground pool has been installed. The swamp-box cooler has been replaced with refrigerated air conditioning. My grass lawn and palm tree have been replaced with stone landscaping and new vegetation. We took our morning walk in the neighborhood on Wednesday morning before heading back north.

7. We spent Wednesday night in Kingman, Az before crossing Boulder Dam on our way back to Las Vegas to catch our plane. Kingman seemed to be a working man's town and was a combination of cowboy and trucking cultures. It was surrounded by working ranches and was located on I-40 and was obviously a favorite stopping point for truckers. Although we did not make many stops, the route back from Tucson was very scenic. Suguaro Cactus and Joshua Trees were everywhere along the route. We spent a few hours in Las Vegas taking in the sights and absorbing some free entertainment before catching our plane for the red eye flight back to Atlanta on Thursday night. We arrived in Atlanta at 5 AM and was home by 6 AM. We had three days to readjust from our vacation mode back into the work mode of day to day life. It was a wonderful vacation and we are already thinking about where to go next year.