Grand Canyon, May 5-6

After we escaped the arsonist at Marshall Lake, we headed for the Grand Canyon, south rim, since we needed to be home in Ontario by June 15, and we figured the drive home would take about 7 days. That left about a month to explore the Grand Canyon area before heading home.

Drove the 80 or 90 miles from Flagstaff to Grand Canyon, turning off a few miles shy of the Park entrance on a Forest Service road that we'd heard offered dispersed (free) camping. However, access was difficult, turning around awkward, and the sites, themselves, were only so-so. As well, a smoldering fire was smoking, and we didn't want to breathe the stuff...so we drove a couple of miles up the road to an established Forest Service campground, called Ten-X. It had been recommended by a full-timer with whom we'd spoken in the Thousand Trails Road dispersed campground outside Cottonwood. This person's opinion carried weight because she had written a book that was set in the Grand Canyon area, so she'd been there many times to do research. Anyway, Ten-X was nice--and not crowded--it had opened for the season just a few days before we arrived--with new toilets, large, well-separated sites, a helpful campground host, and a $10/night fee ($5.00 for seniors). And, it was only 7 miles from the from the South Rim.

Campsite was quite nice: on the end of a sparsely populated loop, with nothing but forest at our front door. Sorry, no photos of the campsite, but did get a photo of a raven, a very smart and acrobatic one:

Acrobatic raven

As we drove the few miles to the South Rim, we came face-to-face with a native:

"You lookin' at me?"

Grand Canyon...had to try

Even though we had a good time walking along the rim--alone!--, Leah still had the vertigo she developed at Marshall Lake:

Not a total damper on fun...but we thought maybe we were still too high in elevation. So we decided to  pack up and drive to one of our favorite areas: Lone Rock, Utah, maybe a 3 hour drive--and 2000 ft lower.

Next blog post: Lone Rock, Utah

Stay well...

April 20-23

Sedona Hike; Jazzy: Large bug; Marshall Lake and Flagstaff

We knew our stay in Cottonwood was coming to an end, as the weather was heating up during the day; however, we still wanted to visit Sedona. After some moderate-to-severe thriftstoring, we took a short hike on the outskirts of Sedona. Even Jazzy walked for a bit. Leah: Richard, give me a break....2 stores does not deserve the label 'moderate to severe.'  

Sedona Hike

Sedona Hike

Hiking Dog

 After-the-hike Libation

On another hike down the Cottonwood road, saw this guy snacking:

Snacker

April 17-25 (continued)...Cottonwood, Jerome, and the Gold King Mine and Ghost Town

Blogger wouldn't let me add to the previous post, so here are the rest of the photos & text in a new post:

Here's a sampling of the some of the signs at Gold King:

Weather forecasting:

Some final photos of old cars:

Tow truck built on a Nash Metropolitan car

Leah and I would recommend both Jerome and Gold King Mine and Ghost Town. A couple of photos from a walk-around of Jerome:

Leah's new hat against an old building in Jerome

Fooling around with HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography

Fooling around with HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography

More photos from Gold King Mine and Ghost Town:

Visitor to Gold King Mine's office

Visitor to Gold King Mine's office

Visitor to Gold King Mine's office

Next post: Flagstaff and Grand Canyon

Stay well, all.

April 17-25, Cottonwood, Jerome, and Gold King Mine and Ghost Town

Although the weather was fine in Prescott, we wanted to move to Thousand Trails Road, a free Forest Service campground just outside Cottonwood, AZ. We'd stayed there 2 years ago and remembered it to be beautiful. Here are some photos from the campsite:

Please click any photo to see it full size

Thousand Trails Road, Cottonwood, AZ

Thousand Trails Road, Cottonwood, AZ

Gold King Mine and Ghost Town

Not that far from Thousand Trails Road is the old mining town of Jerome, Arizona. Built up the side of mountain, it's been artsied up and is now quite a tourist spot. Spectacular views everywhere, with plenty of funky shops, good coffee, and quite a bit of history.

Leah walked around Jerome visiting shops while I drove up to the Gold King Mine and Ghost Town, just a few miles outside town.

Much to my delight, the Gold King Mine and Ghost Town had its share of history, too--only of the rusty, abandoned kind. The photo only captures about 20% of the place; Gold King sprawls all over the side of a mountain.

Gold King Mine and Ghost Town

Here's the owner, Don Robertson, "kissing his own ass", in his words:

Don Robertson, owner of Gold King Mine and Ghost Town

After photographing for an hour or two, I chatted with Don. He told me that he'd begun collecting all the stuff on the site about 30 years ago, moving old buildings he'd found in the outback to his site and refurbishing them to a semblance of their original appearance, both inside and out. He did the same with all the heavy equipment and vehicles--many of which run, and are in daily use, including a Model T truck and a vintage race car, both of which he started up and drove for me. Also onsite is a working sawmill, a chicken farm complete with chickens and eggs, and a collection of buildings representative of an 1850s mining town, including an assay office, a dentist's office, a garage, a general store--even a brothel with a young lady waving from the second floor balcony. Don says she brings in lots of hopeful guys who see her waving as they drive by.

Don says he just kept at the collecting because he loved the engineering challenge of moving and refurbishing old things, and since he's a master mechanic and builder, he's pretty good at it. Now 70 years old, he still collects, rebuilds, races vintage race cars, and shows some of his rebuilt tractors and trucks at vintage truck and tractor shows all over the country. He eventually began charging a nominal fee for admission ($5), so he could make money at what he loves. I asked him how he kept it going for $5 admission fee. He said, "I pay my employees weekly--very weakly."


Like Don, I find a lot of old machinery beautiful:

Don has some interesting opinions on gun control--which he defines as "hitting your target":

                                                                                        Above: Note the sponsor of this poster