Along the Apache Trail

As I mentioned before, we drove the Apache Trail.  There is a section of the trail that is 22 miles long that is more like a dirt track.  It is graded well enough that you can take your car on the trail, but there are spots where there are drop off without guard rails and there are sharp turns where the trail is only one vehicle wide.  You better hope you don't meet anyone coming the other way.

Actually there was one spot where we me an Ambulance!!!  Luckily it didn't have its lights and sirens turned on!!.  We just pulled over to the edge of the road.  Again, luckily we were on the side away from the drop-off.  The ambulance and 3-4 cars squeezed past us.  It was interesting to say the least!

This first picture was at the Canyon Lake Vista in Tonto National Forest.  (Of course, you already knew this if you read the sign!)  This was early in the trip so we all jumped out and had to have our pictures taken.

Mom at Canyon Lake Vista

Annette and Mom at the Pavilion at Canyon Lake.

 Mom and Woody at Canyon Lake Vista

 At the end of the dirt portion of the Apache Trail was Roosevelt Dam, which created the reservoir of water in the next picture.  There is also a neat suspension bridge just upstream of the dam.  You can see it behind Mom.

One of the things that I remember about this bridge is that they designed a hump in the road surface.  The sign said that otherwise, it would be a slight optical illusion and people would think that the road was sagging!

Mom at Roosevelt Dam Rest Area

Another highlight of the trip was the boat ride down the Colorado River.  We started at the Glen Canyon Dam and ended at Lee's Ferry.  It took several hours.  I think that sitting on a bench without back support is hard on peoples' backs.  What do you think, Mom?

Woody and Mom in the boat on the Colorado River

Mom at the Grand Canyon and Sedona

Hey! Guess where this first picture was taken! It was interesting that so many people had taken their picture there that the park service actually put up a little post with a platform on top so that you could put your camera there, activate the self-timer and then run and get in the picture. I think I did that with this one. There was another one where a guy waiting his turn took the picture.

There is a picture at the bottom of this post that shows Mom near the edge of the Grand Canyon. Of course, Mom chose a spot where there was plenty of rock beside the path so she couldn't see into the canyon.

In case you didn't know, Mom is very afraid of heights. Maybe I get it honestly!

The picture with the white Suburbans was taken after we got back from the hot air balloon flight. Can you pick our Mom? Hint: See what she is wearing in the next picture.

Speaking of the next picture...Doesn't Mom look so relaxed and peaceful in the hot air balloon? Or is that a death-grip on the side of the basket???

Actually it was a very peaceful ride. There was no wind so we didn't go far; about 2 miles in an hour and a half! The landing was absolutely marvelous. We hardly felt it when we touched down.

Sorry about the order of the pictures. I haven't figured out how to use this Blogger, yet.

Mom/Nana in Arizona

For this vacation in Arizona, Annette and I decided to take Mom. We wanted her to see landscapes, vegetation and other things that she had never seen before. I think we accomplished that. She said several times that she could not even imagine such geography/landscapes.

We also wanted for all of us to have some fun. I think the pictures in the this blog and the next couple will show that we were at least able to get some smiles out of Mom.

On the first Saturday that we in Arizona, we went over and visited Annette's Aunt Sandy. Annette and Sandy were like giggly school girls and I think they got Mom into the act.

I'm not quite sure where this picture was taken. We were on the road between here and there and I saw a pull-off for an overlook so I whipped the car in. I think I scared Mom.

This picture of Mom waving is at the overlook for Spider Rock at Canyon de Chelly (pronounced de shay).

I wonder if we could control Mom?!?! (See the sign) She was the first one down the path, all the way to the end. Of course, Annette and I had to get pictures along the way. Annette was the last one to the car. I hope she got great pictures.



One of the highlights of the trip was the Jeep Tour in Canyon de Chelly. Mom liked Eleanor, the tour guide. Of course, Mom never met some one she didn't like!

The great part was that most of the driving was in the middle of the river! We all got a little bit of water sprayed on us.

The cliffs were great. There were many cliff dwellings. It makes you wonder how those people lived up there.





We took the Apache Trail from Apache Junction over to Roosevelt Dam. One of the only places along the trail was Tortilla Flats, which was just a collection of a half dozen buildings with restaurants, Ice Cream shops and the like.

We found this interesting "artifact" (the seat or Mom?) in Tortilla Flats.

Grand Canyon, Glen Canyon

May 15, 2010

Annette and I allowed ourselves to sleep a little later this morning. We got up at 5:00 a.m.!!

This allowed us enough time to throw on some clothes and walk down to the rim behind El Tovar before the sun came up over the horizon. We got some great pictures.

Again, it was a wonderful experience to watch the sun come up and to see the light change on the rocks and cliffs of the Grand Canyon.

Also, it was the right tactic for me to go to different spots for each sunrise. Although they are similar, there are differences in all of the spots. Some have more reds. Some rocks are almost white. The way the light strikes them changes them.

The changing light from sunrise, to midday to sunset, makes any spot in the canyon change and morph throughout the day. In some spots the reds are best with sunrise. But yet I saw some vivid reds in the midday sun. Sunset light shines differently still.

So after breakfast we started on our way to Page, AZ, where we were going to take a still water raft ride on the Colorado River. We needed to be at the meeting place at 12:30. I thought I allowed enough time, but when we plugged the address into the GPS, it said we wouldn't be there until after 1:00 p.m. Woah!! What a shock. We better get moving!

But then Annette smartly checked the current time on the GPS and found that it was an hour ahead of what we thought it was. Whew! We might just make it!

Even though we stopped at a roadside Indian craft stand, we made it to the meeting place by 12:15. they told us to meet out front at 1:00, so we went to the car and made sandwiches.

After a brief orientation session, we were loaded onto buses for the trip to the base of the Glen Canyon Dam. The guide said that this dam was wider than Hoover Dam!

On the way to the dam we went through a 2 mile long access tunnel. Every so often there were side tunnels that went out toward the river. Each of these side tunnels gave us a blast of light as we passed. If you ever go on this trip and they ask you how many of these side tunnels there are, tell them 18!

When we got off of the bus we had to wear hard hats. It seems that people like to throw coins off of the bridge. They try to hit the river but are rarely successful. The coins land on the path and possibly on the people getting off of the bus. Our group ran the gauntlet without incident!

The float trip down the river was very good. It was amazing to see the canyon walls from the river's perspective.

I thought the trip would take 3-4 hours, but from the time that we left the store until we returned it was closer to five hours.

Sitting on the bench on the boat for 3-4 hours began to make Mom's back hurt. But she was a trooper. She made it.

We were going to eat at the Dam Bar and grill in the Dam Plaza, but it looked a little too much like a bar. So we settled for an Italian restaurant in the Dam Plaza.

Arizona Highways

May 15, 2010

A lot of driving today. And these Arizona roads can be bears to deal with. They are long and straight and the view changes very slowly. You can see the mountains coming for miles and miles.

Now, just to contradict what I just said, we were amazed at how quickly the terrain and vegetation changed.

We was the vegetation go from scrubby little bushes to Ponderosa pines in a matter of 10's of miles. Amazing!

But back to the long straight roads. It is so tempting to let your speed creep up to 80 MPH and beyond. But you don't know where the cops are. You don't know when an animal will pop out onto the road. And you don't know when the next bend in the road will appear. Gotta stay alert!

And you know you should always be a lert. The world needs more lerts!

However, staying alert is a problem. The long roads are sometimes boring. they lure you into a sense of serenity or inactivity. But pay attention! You are hurtling down the road at 70 MPH or more! Things happen fast!

Grand Canyon

May 14, 2010

Annette and I were up before dawn again today. We quickly threw on our clothes and rushed to catch the shuttle bus.

We made it! We were 8 minutes early for the bus. So I set up my camera on the tripod and aimed it down into the canyon. But there wasn't enough light for the camera to focus. So, I look through the viewfinder and find that the view doesn't have enough light for me to see to focus. So I just manually set the focus for infinity (and beyond) and make a 20 second exposure. The pictures looked well exposed but a little blue on the back of the camera.

I would love to show you the picture, but we have a little problem. We spent some time before the trip cleaning up the hard drive on Annette's laptop. We had 60 gigs free. But now there is less than 5 gigs and the computer is running slow.

I will not be able to load pictures for 5/14/10 and later onto the laptop. I will have to take the cards home and put the files onto my desktop computer. We have to figure out something else.

I got the one long exposure made and the bus was coming, so I had to quickly tear down the tripod and camera and go catch the bus. This was the 5:00 bus! It was the driver's first stop!

The general consensus of the people in the park is that Hopi Point is great for both sunset and sunrise, so we got off the bus at Hopi Point.

Hopi Point is not that far out the bus route so we arrived before the sun came over the horizon. We were early enough that only one other person was at the spot besides us.

We were able pick our vantage point in the early dawn's light. We watched the sun come up and slowly begin to light up the features in the canyon. It was beautiful to watch the light grow on the peaks and cliff's in the canyon. We rushed back and forth shooting pictures.

We shot so long and kept finding great shots. We were there so long that at one pint everyone else left and we were there by ourselves! What a great time!

We met a family on the shuttle bus between Hopi Point and the stop before Hermit's Rest. The mother had just completed a working photography program at Austin Community College in Texas. We compared notes on Lightroom, Photoshop, Photovision and photographers that we liked. I love talking photography!

And this was all before breakfast.

For Sunset, we made our way out to the Desert View Watchtower. Another beautiful spot, but a little bit different.

There is a beautiful cliff that runs north and south, which means that as the sun sets in the west if fully lights up the cliff wall. Beautiful.

They are working on the Watchtower and guess what they are using to position themselves up the sides! Two JLG boom lifts! I had to get pictures of the lifts!

The 1350SJP was parked close to the edge of the cliff. I got what I hope are some great pictures.

More tomorrow!

Sedona to the Grand Canyon

Thursday, May 13, 2010


Annette and I drug ourselves out of bed very early again this morning. We wanted to get the sunrise on the red rocks.


We chose to go out a path behind the swimming pool at the school.

The view on the path was a great view of the coffee pot formation. It is called this because it looks like an old-fashioned coffee pot that you would see in the cowboys' camp in the old Westerns movies. Can you see the coffee pot?


After this we went back to the motel and got Mom and we went to the Coffee Pot Restaurant for lunch. they have 101 omelets!!!


From Sedona we traveled to the Grand Canyon. Aftger checking in we grabbed a bus headed for Hermits' Rest. The bus driver told us that the most popular spot for both Sunrise and Sunset is Hopi Point, but that Powell Point was also good.



So we got off of the bus at Powell Point and walked out past the monument.


Mom was funny. She did not want to go near the edge. In fact she said she got queasy when she saw other people go near the edge.


There was one photographer that was going to a place I wouldn't go to get the picture. he climbe out past the edge of the path out to the edge of the point. If you look closely in the picture, you can see him.


From Powell Point we got back on the bus. The sky had been cloudy. The light was not that great. However, when the bus pulled in to Hopi Point, the sun broke through the clouds and lit up the canyon. I jumped out of the bus and left Ammette and Mom on the bus. I had to get the shot.


It was beautiful. The sun lit up the sky and shown down on several points in the canyon.


I heard one guy tell his wife that he had just gotten the shot of the trip!!! No. It wasn't me saying that.


We headed back to our room to drop off our gear. Then we got supper in the Maswik cafeteria. It actually wasn't half bad.

A day in Sedona

Good Morning, from high in the sky just west of Sedona, AZ!!!


We had to get up way, way before breakfast for this adventure! But we were excited to do it.

We were picked up at 4:55 a.m.(!!!) and driven to the set up zone. those guys have this balloon thing down to a science! They worked together as a team to get the balloon in the air pretty quickly!

Yesterday, I wrote about a dust storm that closed I-40. The balloon pilot said that they did not go out yesterday because of high winds.

Today was a different story. Our balloon was the first one off of the ground. We went up and up, but 15 minutes later we were still almost over the same spot where we lifted off! There just wasn't any wind to push us.

We were paired up with a couple from Florida, Joy and Tony. They were very helpful and respectful with Mom.

I was worried about getting an 82 year old lady into the basket with some semblance of grace and dignity. I didn't know how we were going to do it. Well some things you just dive in and do. Mom put here foot in the step hole in the side of the basket and threw her first leg in. She was straddling the basket wall. Then we pushed her in and pushed her other leg with her. It was done! She was in the basket. Let's go.

Mom said she didn't have any fear at all during the ride. I wish I could say that! When we were going up, there was a minute or so where I was tightly grasping the railing! But it was so smooth that we both relaxed.

Mom made small talk with Joy and Tony and looked out at the view. I think she thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

I think that the pilot did not want to jostle Mom too much so he set the balloon down so softly that you hardly knew we stopped moving.

Once we were packed we went to look for the last balloon. We found it on 89A, which at that point is a 65 mph four lane highway! We stopped and all of the balloon crew helped them get the balloon down and deflated.

in the afternoon, we drove up Oak Creek Canyon. The views were spectacular! I loved the switchbacks. We checked out the Indian wares in a couple of places.

We found a place to take pictures late in the day and before you know it, the day was gone.

Still it was a good day, an adventurous day!

Dust Storm

May 11, 2010 (Yes, I know I am a day late!)

Those are not clouds in the sky! That is not fog in the air! That is a genuine, honest-to-goodness dust storm! A new experience for Annette, Mom and me!

Look how the vehicle is appearing out of the dust! Look how the dust is being blown across the road! I've seen snow blown across the road like that, but never dust!

When we got off of I-40 in Winslow, AZ, the on ramp was blocked. We could not get back on the highway in the westerly direction! I-40 was closed from Winslow to Flagstaff!

You can see the dust in the sky. Notice that it goes from one edge of the horizon to the other!


We Stopped to get gas in Winslow, (You can see the gas station canopy.) and Annette got out and took the picture here.

The clerk in the store said that I-40 would most likely be closed until 7:00. It was only 2:00. We did not want to sit in Winslow for 5 hours, so we headed south on 87. It was a longer route to Sedona, but it was better than sitting still waiting on the road to open.

We made it to Sedona just after 4:00. Hip Hip Hooray!

We caught the Chapel of the Cross before it closed at 5:00. It was so funny to see Mom so afraid of the edge of the 20 foot cliff. How is she going to handle the Hot Air Balloon tomorrow.

We did not make it to the airport in time for sunset, but as we drove up there, all of the sunset admirers were leaving. It was almost like a traffic jam!

Oh, Well. Let's get to bed early. We have to get up at 4:00 a.m. to meet our ride to the Balloon site!

Painted Desert and Canyon De Chelly

May 10, 2010

Sometimes being in the wrong time zone can help. We all woke up before 5:30 and we were at the entrance to the Painted Desert by 7:15, which is only 15 minutes after the gates opened.

We got some great light on the badlands of the painted desert. The colors were beautiful.

Speaking of colors...It was amazing to see what a few hours did to the colors. We went in through the Painted Desert and then down through the Petrified Forest. Then we turned around and came back out the same way. The difference in time was only 2-3 hours, yet the difference in colors in the Painted Desert was phenomenal. The colors were much deeper hues early in the morning. There were completely different reds when we made our way out.

We got some great shots in the Petrified Forest. I tried to put the petrified wood in the foreground with a large formation in the background. I think it worked. I'll know for sure when I see them on the computer screen.

From there we rushed up to Chinle to meet the jeep tour. We were 45 minutes early.

It's difficult to keep track of the time here! The state of Arizona does not use Daylight Savings Time. The Navajo Nation does use DST. So when we left the Painted Desert, we were in one time zone. When we arrived in Chinle we were in another.

Annette had called the jeep tour company three times from home, but we were still not expected. We got a substitute guide. She told us a lot of good information about the cliff dwellings and rock formations, but chit chat was not her strong suit.

The jeep ride was still way more than we expected. We drove right up the river in Canyon De Chelly! it was great. We got lots of great pictures from the floor of the canyon. Tomorrow we will drive the roads at the top of the canyon and see if we can get any more pictures.

There were Indians selling jewelry down in the canyon. We looked at their stuff. Some of it was very nice. Some of it was expensive. I wished I had bought a piece down in there. It would be great to tell people that the piece was purchased down on the floor of Canyon De Chelly!

Until tomorrow...

Transitions

Good Evening! Another successful day vacationing!

We started out this morning by going to Walmart for a memory card reader because we forgot ours. We also got Annette some clip on sunglasses. Boy are they sexy!

From there we went to Albertson's Grocery to get things for lunches.

OK! Ready to go. We drove to Apache Junction and found the Superstition Mountains Museum. The woman behind the counter was from around Warren, PA. pretty close to home, don't you think?

From there we took the Apache Trail. What an experience!

The first few miles were paved and there were switchbacks and narrow spots.

In Totilla Flat, we went into a restaurant with hundreds, perhaps thousands of dollar bills stapled to the wall. Each one was signed by someone who had visited.

Shortly after Tortilla Flat, the road turned to dirt. Twenty-two miles of dirt! Then the real fun began!

The road was rough, a washboard for several miles. There were several, no, many blind curves in the road. In many spots the rod was barely side enough for one car.

At one point there were several cars and an ambulance coming from the other direction. I pulled to the side and the ambulance squeezed by. But there were three other vehicles behind me and the wide sot in the road was not large enough for all of us. Finally once the last car going the other way got beside me, I started forward. It was hairy!!

There were several places to pull over and admire the view. We stopped at three or four. It was very warm but there was always a breeze. It was beautiful.

The mountains were great. Nothing like anything you can see east of the Mississippi.

Another great aspect of the trip was that we started in mountains and as we drove north, the vegetation changed and then the terrain changed until as we approached Holbrook this evening, the area was pretty flat. So flat that we measured a straight stretch, that we could see from end to end and it was 4 miles long!

We're on our way!

This is a picture that Annette took with my phone.

Obviously we are flying. Obviously we are on a Southwest Plane.

Not so obvious is that we are on our way to Arizona with my Mom.

The flight was smooth most of the way except for the screaming kid at the beginning of the flight. He definitely did not want to be in the seat belt and he was letting everyone know!

The trip went well. We didn't have to wait in lines.

-Not for a bus at the parking lot.

-Not to drop off the luggage. Ok, there was one group ahead of us.

-Not to buy a muffin.

-Not to buy a book.

-Not to get on the bus to the rental car counter. In fact we were the only ones on the bus!

-Not at the rental car counter.

-Not at the hotel.

We did have to wait in line to get through security, but the line kept moving.

We did have to wait in line to board the plane, but the line kept moving.

When we rented a car, we wanted something larger for the suitcases and in case we wanted to drive with Sandy and Dave or with Becky. So the guy at the rental car counter talked us into a Buick Enclave. It's big; third row seating. And it's fancy; leather seats, burled wood on the dash board, back up camera, captain's chairs in the second row, etc. The only bad part will be the gas mileage. Oh well, we only have it for a week.

This evening we went to Sandy and Dave's house in Phoenix and then out to dinner at Marie Calendar's (sp). We had a good time. Sandy and Annette were laughing like young school girls. Sandy said my mothere was a beautiful lady. All in all a very good visit.