Having spent a lovely first night in San Diego only a few miles from our home, we ventured off to a more distant location. The car was packed with a large amount of luggage, which is unusual for Jason and me. There was a reason though. At the rim of the canyon it was in the 70s during the day, but it was still dropping to freezing at night. At the bottom of the canyon the night and day temperatures were around 60 and 90, respectively.
We finally got on the road and enjoyed the relaxing ride, singing Queen and David Bowie songs. When we arrived at the park entrance at the canyon, I handed the woman in the booth my new park pass to mark the date. She handed it back to me to sign it. I noted that it said "Spouse's signature" on the adjacent line. I looked at Jason and realized that I now had a spouse. Jason took the pen and signed the card as well. It was not surprising, simply somewhat odd to realize that I was married.
We drove through the park and to the El Tovar, the hotel that we had been looking forward to since we had made plans to go to the canyon. The hotel was as beautiful as we thought it would be. It was started in about 1903, and is perched about 100 yards from the edge of the canyon. It was a lovely sight. Unfortunately, this was the end of our wonderful interaction with the hotel. We had a nearly comically bad stay there. Xanterra, the company that runs that hotel as well as all of the other ones at the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, and some of the other national parks takes advantage of their location, at least at the El Tovar. We checked in, received our keys, but was not told how to get to our room. When we found the room, we found that there was food still in a cabinet from the previous guests. When we called room service later in the evening, no one answered after more than 20 rings. When we called the front desk, they told us that room service was busy as it was dinner time (duh!) and gave us an alternate number. When room service arrived, the person walked in without knocking. And then he had the nerve to call back later to see if he had left his pen in the room by mistake. Yes, this was all on the first evening.
The one piece of information that they did have at the front desk was the time of the sunrise. I rolled out of bed early on Tuesday morning, about 5:15, to watch the sunrise. Some people who were smarter than me pulled the blanket off of their bed to keep them warm. (It was still cold at 5:30 in the morning before the sun came up.) I have never watched a sunrise where I have constantly looked off to the west. The sun creeping over the edge of the canyon was beautiful, but what was more interesting was the rocks that were being lit by the sun. I took some pictures, but they do not do it justice. I did snap a few good shots of the elk eating breakfast on the front lawn of the hotel though.
Jason and I had some breakfast, called the front desk to find out how soon we could check out without losing money, checked-in for the mule trip (interacting with the first competent and friendly person involved with the Xanterra), and then spent the day along the rim of the canyon, taking the bus to the most eastern point of the canyon accessible by the bus and walking back the 9 or so miles to the hotel. In addition to the wonderful views, we saw a number of mule deer and flowers. That evening we went to a ranger program on the Kolb brothers who ran the first photography shop at the canyon before it was national park. It seems like the people around the turn of the 20th century were far more interesting than we are at the turn of this century. For example, the brothers decided that they would make their fortune by being the first people to film a boat trip down the Colorado River. They were not at all inhibited by the fact that they did not know how to boat or shoot movie film. In the end, all went well. The book that they published on the experience is still in print, and the brother who remained at the canyon until his death in the early 70's showed the movie daily in the theater that they had built onto their house to show the film.
The following day, we checked out (the hotel never asked why we were leaving early), and wandered a bit more along the rim before getting in the car to drive the long way around to our next destination, Flagstaff. Our destination was a place out on the reservation that served traditional Hopi food. (This, of course, piqued our interest.) Along the way there was a settlement called Old Oraibi which is the oldest continuous settlement in the US. The drive out to the reservation took us through a portion of the Painted Desert and then through one of the most depressing landscapes I had ever seen. It is unsurprising that the Native Americans have so many social problems with the places that we have pushed them onto in this country.
Old Oraibi was not what I was expecting. I was thinking that there would be more old buildings and that it would be more of a historical site. There were some old stone structures that were likely homes at one time, three kivas (underground places of gathering and worship), and some newer cinder block buildings. There were people with tables outside of the one craft store selling their crafts-- drawings, Kachina dolls, traditional children's toys. I bought a Kachina that was unlike any that I had previously seen. (So of course it is the one that I bought.) He is the Sivu/i/quil/taka or pot carrying man. I would try to describle him, but I cannot do justice to him, so I will post a picture soon.
We left Old Oraibi and headed off to Second Mesa to the Hopi Cultural Center for some knowlege and some Hopi food. I had the noqkwivi, the lamb and hominy stew, with a tostata that was made on fry bread-- a puffier version of a tortilla. Jason had the spicy version of the same stew and a taco, also made with fry bread. The spices were not identifiable. It was sort of like pesole, but not. It was far more satisfying than anything that we had eaten at the canyon.
The Hopi Cultural Center demonstrated that all cultures have a mythological figure who brings toys or gifts to children who are good, and punishes those who are bad. We learned a bit about Kachinas and their various legends. The center also provided some background for the ruins that we were going to see the following day near Sedona. The combination of the food and museum made it a worthwhile, although out of the way, stop.
Our next goal was a bit of an one. One of the (perhaps the) largest meteor impact craters on land is near Flagstaff. Having recently finished Bill Bryson's A Brief History of Just About Everything (or something like that) it seemed like a cool place to visit. Jason, being the scifi person that he is, was more than willing to give it a go. The pamphlet that we picked up said that the crater was large enough to hold 200 football fields and deep enough for a 20 story building. By the time that we got to the site, we were too late. The visitor center and the area covered by the crater were fenced off and closed for the day. Although we were not able to see down in it, we could tell how large it was. It was outstanding to think that something could travel from outerspace and still be that large when it arrived. Science is cool.
Thursday we spent the day in Sedona. The landscape is as beautiful as everyone says. We went to the Anasazi ruins at Palatki. The first settlements in the area were in about 800 and the ruins dated back to about 1100. There was an "apartment building" that likely housed four families. Due to the arid weather in the area, there were still traces of the ceiling of the first floor/ floor of the second floor that was made of sticks, reeds, and other plant material. There were also finger marks from where the mortar had been pressed between the stones. There were also a large number of petroglyphs and pictograms that covered hundreds of years of people living in the area. One of the things that surprised me was that the drawings were often painted over by subsequent peoples. The ranger said that it was a sign of reverence of ancestors, rather than an effort to blot out their images. Instead, it was thought that the previous images had power, so that by combining the new images with the old, they would have even greater power.
For lunch, we managed to find a winery (somehow unsurprising). We tasted their wines and enjoyed not being in the tourist saturated down town. We went back to the room and packed our very small bags that we would take down on the mule trip. Bright (actually still a few hours from light) and early, about 4:20 AM, we got on the road up to the canyon for the mule ride. We were told that it was about 90 minutes up to the canyon and we were supposed to be there by 6:45 AM. Jason had the pleasure of driving in snow for the first time. I admit that he was driving far faster than I would have on the dark road with just reflectors. (The snow was not sticking, it just made the visibility terrible.) He said that it was all of the years of video game training that made it easy.
