TRAVEL: SOUTHWEST ROAD TRIP 2010 VIDEO

TRAVEL: SOUTHWEST ROAD TRIP 2010 PART FIVE ARIZONA TO CALIFORNIA AUGUST 2010

I arrived at the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park and the home of my friends Diana and Bill just in time to catch a taco dinner and the tail end of the Perseid Meteor Shower.  I've been lucky enough to see the Perseids in great places like Yellowstone, Yosemite and Zion National Parks, so adding Grand Canyon to the list was fun.  Diana and Bill and I made our way in the dark to a canyon overlook and settled onto benches to wait for our eyes to adjust to the deep dark.  The Perseid meteors result from the debris of the Swift-Tuttle Comet that passes through our solar system every 133 years.  However, the Earth passes through the debris field on it's yearly orbit around the sun where comet debris hits the atmosphere traveling 140,000 miles per hour. The Perseids are named after the constellation Perseus where they originate, and this meteor shower has been observed by humans for 2000 years.  The crescent moon made viewing conditions very good and we also got an eyeful of Saturn and the Milky Way.  I asked Diana what she wished for on a shooting star and she said, "seafood", based on our earlier conversation concerning the depletion of fish in our oceans.  So I, too, wished for seafood and the next day I learned that my husband's fishing trip to Mexico was exceptionally successful and he had brought home 30 pounds of fish!  Talk about wishes coming true!

Perseid meteor over Joshua Tree National Park

The photo of a Perseid meteor above was taken by photographer Wally Pacholka who specializes in time lapse photography of the night skies above national parks.  Wally's work has been featured by NASA, National Geographic and Time magazine (including photo of the year).  Wally will give you a completely different perspective of the beauty of our national parks - and he's also one of the nicest people I've ever met. Check out his work at his Astro Pics gallery and look for his prints in national park gift shops and bookstores.  After viewing several meteors above the canyon and making scary faces with the flashlight, we retired for the evening.  Diana and Bill just moved to Grand Canyon from Florida this year, so we had some sightseeing to do. In the morning we had breakfast at El Tovar.

Diana and Bill at the Canyon

Photo courtesy of Xanterra Parks & Resorts

El Tovar Dining Room Eggs Benedict

El Tovar Dining Room Breakfast Burrito

The El Tovar Hotel, opened in 1905 and renovated 100 years later, is an example of rustic-style national park architecture that is perched just 20 feet from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  A National Historic Landmark, El Tovar was originally a Harvey House, and the hotel was designed by Harvey staff architect, Charles Whittlesey.  The dining room's dark rustic beam interior provides a view of the canyon (and the road), and the menu tales a weak stab at regional cuisine.  We ordered Poached Eggs Benedict, the Breakfast Burrito and the most original offering on the breakfast menu: Blackened Breakfast Trout with Two Eggs.  We enjoyed our breakfast immensely, and I enjoyed it even more so with excellent company and the food served on Mimbreno China.  Designed by Mary Colter for the Santa Fe, Atchinson & Topeka Railroad's Super Chief train in 1936, modern reproductions of the china are used in the dining room and sold in the gift shop.  The Mimbreno design is based on Colter's research into the animal motifs of the pottery made by the ancient Mogollon culture of the southwest.

Blackened Breakfast Trout

Mimbreno China designed by Mary Colter

Since my visit coincided with the last national park fee-free weekend of the summer, we chose to sightsee outside of the park.  We headed toward Flagstaff to check out Sunset Crater Volcano and Wupatki National Monuments, the 1000 year old volcanic landscape and 800 year old pueblo dwellings respectively.

Though you can't actually hike to the crater itself, you can hike around the volcanic debris left on the slopes and marvel at the flora that grows in this inhospitable landscape.  The volcano erupted in a series of explosions from 1040 to 1100, forever altering the lives of the residents in this region.  Much of the area is still harsh and barren - what was it like 500 years ago?  Keep in mind, too, that in 1054 the Crab Nebula was formed by a supernova that was visible on Earth in daylight for 23 days and during the night for 2 years.  Between star explosions and volcanos erupting, the people of the ancient Sinagua culture must have thought the world was ending.  After the eruptions, the people relocated and built homes that are now known as Wupatki and Walnut Canyon National Monuments.  Wupatki National Monument includes several pueblo sites, including Wukoki and Lomaki.

Wupatki and ball court

Masonry stabilized by archaeologists at Wupatki

Wupatki National Monument's claims to fame as an ancient pueblo site concerns that fact that it contains two ball courts -representing the influence of Mesoamerica on the southwest - and that it served as the backdrop for some of the opening scenes of the movie "Easy Rider".  The Mesoamerican ball game was played for 3000 years by peoples such as the Olmec, Maya and Aztec with a similar game played today called ulama.  Perhaps similar to raquetball or volleyball, this highly ritualized game involved human sacrifice.  The ball courts at Wupatki are located at the northernmost extant site of the game, confirming along with artifacts like parrot cages and copper bells the ancient relationship amongst the native peoples of North America.

Mayan Lord Sak Ch'een dressed as a ball player from Wikipedia

The Wupatki visitor center maintains a native garden featuring North American crop plants such as sunflowers, corn and squash (the red plant is Amaranth).  I'm always on the lookout for a native garden at historic and prehistoric sites. Nothing connects me more viscerally to ancient peoples than seeing what they grew to eat. And, of course, I love to garden.  To learn more about native southwest and American crops, check out Gary Nabhan's work with RAFT (including the book Renewing America's Food Traditions: Saving and Savoring the Continent's Most Endangered Foods) and Flavors Without Borders.  Before we left the site, a kindly gentleman offered to take our photo in front of Wupatki and though he cut our heads off, I appreciate the gesture just the same.  I also noticed the most uninviting picnic spot in America as we exited the visitor center in the 90 degree heat.

Parched by the Arizona sun, we waved goodbye to Wupatki and began seeking brews in Flagstaff.  Diana and Bill recommended the Beaver Street Brewery and Whistle Stop Cafe in downtown Flagstaff where we found Big Rapid Red Ale and tasty plates.  We ordered Beaver Street Burgers and the Firecracker Shrimp Gordita Platter. There was something Asian in that Firecracker Sauce and it was sublime.  The service was friendly and fast and I took home a growler of Big Rapid Red Ale to my beer connoisseur husband back in California and he pronounced it Very Good.

One more sleepover at the Grand Canyon and then I was heading for home.  I've known Diana for over 20 years and am so glad to have her and Bill just one state over instead of a million miles away on the East Coast. We're planning many more western adventures together, but after 2 weeks away, it was time for going back to Cali.  I found an In-n-Out Burger (my only fast food choice) in Kingman, AZ to provide sustenance for the 12 hours of driving between Grand Canyon National Park and Yosemite National Park.  In the summer you can access Yosemite via Tioga Pass on the east side of the Sierra Nevada by driving across Nevada.  Though I skirted Las Vegas on the highways, I did pass over the Hoover Dam and gaped at the traffic debacle that has been created at this tourist attraction.  I lived in Vegas in 1995 and have been back for many visits over the intervening years, but I've never been back over the dam.  Like all things in Vegas, bigger is better, and the tour infrastructure has exploded.  I even suffered a police checkpoint approaching the dam which completely puzzled me until I asked the nice officer what the checkpoint was all about.  Seems the world's largest dam is an impending terrorist target - who knew?  Certainly not me.

Food AND Gifts at Hoover Dam

The drive between Vegas and Yosemite is a well-worn, albeit well-loved route for me.  Leaving Vegas on U.S. Route 95 you pass through the quaint desert town of Beatty, gateway to Death Valley National Park and closest settlement to the Nevada Test Site.  But that isn't the only thing in Beatty that's the bomb.  Only in Nevada and God Bless America.  California, here I come!

Junket Ratings:

El Tovar Dining Room: Junk-O-Rama

Beaver Street Brewery and Whistle Stop Cafe: Junk-O-Rama

In-N-Out Burger: Junk in the Trunk!

Hoover Dam: Jar Jar Junks

TRAVEL: GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK SOUTH RIM MARCH 2010

Somehow I always manage to visit the Grand Canyon in the winter: January 1995 moving cross-country with three friends and one dog from Florida to Vegas, October 1998 on an archaeology tour with a college boyfriend, January 2004 on a visual merchandising junket from my job at Yellowstone, May 2008 trip to the North Rim where they had just opened access to the park prior to Memorial Day weekend (with temps in the 30s – could've been winter!) and now a March trip to the south rim this year to visit my friend Diana, newly arrived from Florida for a new job with her same old company – Delaware North (same company Ted works for in Yosemite).  Ted and I motored over to Arizona to see Diana's new digs and meet Karli the Karelian Bear Dog!

Ted is moving me back to Yosemite at the end of March, so we took one last road trip (for now) west across Utah and south to Arizona.  You can't throw a stone without hitting public lands in Utah, and on our drive from Zion National Park to the Grand Canyon we also passed Dixie National Forest, Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and Kaibab National Forest - whew!

Glen Canyon or Lake Powell - you decideAt 7000 feet above sea level, the south rim was covered with snow so we brought along snowshoes for Diana to try on her Florida feet.  But first, there was bowling.  Like most of the parks in the west, winter is slow and dark so the small gateway towns that serve the park population provide all the winter season entertainment. The tiny town of Tusayan (population: 613) is lucky enough to have an six lane bowling alley in the basement of the Best Western Grand Canyon Squire Inn.  Diana is working with another friend of ours, Scott, whom I worked with at Yellowstone back in the day, so we made a foursome for a night on the town of pizza and beer and bowling.  The pizza at We Cook Pizza & Pasta (terrible name, good food) was tasty and Scott shared his favorite menu item with us - green chile chicken wings.

Photo courtesy of the We Cook Pizza & Pasta website

Saturday dawned snowy but sunny, so we toured the Canyon and hiked in the snow to Shoshone Point.  For park veterans, this is a great way to have the Canyon to yourself.  One mile of hiking on a dirt road closed to vehicles allows you to share the view with few others - we arrived mid-morning to find two other people there. Great bike ride on a summer day.

 

We made like regular tourists and lunched at Maswik Lodge.  I am mad for mid-century modern architecture and the national parks have excellent examples of this time period courtesy of the Mission 66 program.  Dig the crazy light fixtures in the cafeteria!  

The bowling foursome regrouped for dinner at Chez Diana.  Scott is a great cook and he really wowed us with his BBQ ribs.  Though he made traditional saucy ribs, he receives props for his Sticky Balsamic Ribs - recipe below the photo courtesy of Scott:

Saucy ribs on left, Balsamic ribs on right

Sticky Balsamic Ribs

For ribs:

8 large garlic cloves

2 tbsp chopped Rosemary

2 tbsp dark brown sugar

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp cayenne

2 racks baby back ribs

For glaze:

2 cups hot water

1 cup balsamic vinegar

½ cup dark brown sugar

Marinate: Mince/mash garlic to a paste with 1 tsp salt. Stir in rosemary, brown sugar, vinegar, cayenne, 1 tbsp salt,and 1 tsp black pepper. Rub evenly over ribs and wrap in foil. Refrigerate 8 to 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 350, add 1 cup liquid to ribs (water, stock...try orange juice& margarita mix) seal and bake for 1 hour...then reduce heat to 250, and cook for about 2 more hours.

Remove ribs, cut foil open and pour liquid in sauce pan, add enough hot water to make 2 cups liquid, add balsamic vinegar and brown sugar. Boil and reduce to about 1 cup (don't let it burn).

Take ribs and either grill or broil, glaze cook, glaze cook..continue until dark brown. Watch carefully the sugar will burn easily! Serve with left over glaze.....

Sunday morning bright and early we loaded up the pups and zipped down to Kaibab National Forest Ten X Campground just south of Tusayan.  We donned snowshoes and clomped around the loop while the dogs ran circles around us.  As Florida Girl Diana says, "This is much more successful than my first skiing trip."

Fleabag, Michelle, Diana and Karli demonstrating snow skillz

Just as we packed up to leave the Canyon, the snow started falling.  We toured the tiny Tusayan Museum inside the park on the way to Desert View, since I wanted to view the split-twig figurines again.  4000 year old figurines of deer and bighorn sheep found inside caves around the Canyon are on display here in the museum built next to pueblo ruins.  I purchased a split-twig figurine necklace from the Grand Canyon Association store made of fine sterling silver wire crafted by Native American Jimmy Jensen.  While wearing the necklace, a deer plowed into the side of our car on the way home just outside of Zion.  The question is: did the deer talisman attract the deer, or did the talisman prevent anyone from getting killed in this collision?  We turned around to look for the injured deer and found none - he walked away from scene, hopefully uninjured (though he did knock the driver's side mirror clean off the car).

Stopping at Desert View to show Ted the Watchtower, this was our parting shot of the Canyon:

Where did it go? 

Junket ratings:

We Cook Pizza and Pasta: Junk-O-Rama

Best Western Grand Canyon Squire Inn Bowling Alley: Junk-O-Rama

Shoshone Point: Junk in the Trunk!

Maswik Lodge: Junkety-Junk-Junk

Tusayan Museum: Junk-O-Rama