President's Day Road Trip

anwmn1

Being that I had a three day weekend thanks to President's Day I decided to take a little road trip and eventually make it up to the Grand Canyon.

Saturday made the drive from Phoenix to Prescott and did some hiking around Willow and Watson Lake in an area known as the Dells. Not sure how the name came about but the rock features are compressed Granite eroded by wind and water over time.



A wider view- in the distance you can see the snow capped San Francisco Peaks in Flagstaff- about 85 miles away.





Saturday evening I went to a local dive bar to watch my buddy perform. Dark bar with poor lighting made it pretty difficult to capture the Heavy Metal Rockers.







Sunday morning my ears were still ringing but I started my drive to the Grand Canyon in hopes of some fantastic views and pictures.


Had to stop in Williams for gas which is on Route 66



There are plenty of tourist traps on the way to the canyon but I think this one stands out.



The original RV



Arrived to the canyon shortly after noon and spent the day checking out all the view points and shooting what I could





This is a view from an edge- I was on my belly looking down the cliff- it is a long ways down!!





That's me out on a ledge



And another- it was very cold and extremley windy- so much so that it would push me around a little bit and almost knoocked over the tripod and camera during this shot.



Then I saw a few of these and decided maybe that wasn't such a good idea!



Sunday morning brought the hopes of a great sunrise but instead it was cold- dark-



and crowded



Monday meant I needed to head home but I had time to check out Walnut Canyon just outside of Flagstaff. Walnut Canyon is one of many National Parks in Arizona that has cliff dwellings.

Looking down you can see the path and a person- yeap all the way down there.



Some of the ruin remains





From within looking out





More ruins in the surrounding cliffs



The snow started to fall and I still had 160 miles to drive so I decided it was time to head back up

Only 240 of these to the top



Thanks for looking- more photos can be found by clicking the links below

Walnut Canyon

Grand Canyon

Prescott AZ

Sundance's Bar- Metal Night

digitalpins

really nice pics, thanks for sharing

Milan

anwmn1 wrote:

And another- it was very cold and extremley windy- so much so that it would push me around a little bit and almost knoocked over the tripod and camera during this shot.

Wow, the ledge seemd to crack under your weight! :giggle

anwmn1

Milan wrote:

Wow, the ledge seemd to crack under your weight! :giggle

That's why the sign had even more significance!

ian408

right on!

mereimage

Aaron-you brought back some 40 yr old memories
I visited Walnut Creek Canyon in 1963 with my parents. I remember being amazed that people built and lived in such an isolated environment. The trip up and down was arduous for many visitors. I rememder my father (he was in mid forties, overweight, and a smoker) gasping for breath half way back up. The stairway then was not concrete but an aluminum scaffolding. It looked really cold when you were there which makes me think about the original occupants. They must have had fires in their stone wall dwellings-looks like the overhanging rock wall is stained by smoke. Did they tell you much about the orig. inhabitants-was this a defensive position
or was it the range of habitat that kept them there? Thanks for the memories- my Mom threw away all my Dad's slides after he died and I had forgotten about that trip..................Mereimage

anwmn1

mereimage wrote:

I visited Walnut Creek Canyon in 1963 with my parents. I remember being amazed that people built and lived in such an isolated environment. The trip up and down was arduous for many visitors. I rememder my father (he was in mid forties, overweight, and a smoker) gasping for breath half way back up. The stairway then was not concrete but an aluminum scaffolding. It looked really cold when you were there which makes me think about the original occupants. They must have had fires in their stone wall dwellings-looks like the overhanging rock wall is stained by smoke. Did they tell you much about the orig. inhabitants-was this a defensive position
or was it the range of habitat that kept them there? Thanks for the memories- my Mom threw away all my Dad's slides after he died and I had forgotten about that trip..................Mereimage

Glad I could bring back some memories for you. You are correct in that the inhabitants had made fires right inside the ruins. The walls are stained with soot still to this day which you can see a little bit in this picture.



I didn't read many of the facts of the area some thing I am always bad about (so much for being a photojournalist). I do remember there being signs about dry farming which they did on the side of these cliffs- it is a very strange area becuase one side is high desert and the other is Pine trees.
This sign gives a little information about the terrain and the inhabitants- it is the only one I took a picture of

Deano955

Fantastic shots and thanks for posting. This is what I expect to see in a trip report!

Tsu Dho Nihm

Beautiful shots.

I've got to get back to Arizona some time. On my only visit, the highlight was hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon by moonlight. It was a full moon, and with a couple head lamps, the light was perfect. Plus plenty of breaks to watch the moon rise over the canyon rim as he descended.

The hike back up, in the sun, was pretty brutal.

Texmjr

Beautiful pictures. I love the one looking out from the dwelling...AWESOME!!

LilleG

Fantastic shots! And a great report. I enjoyed your trip. Thanks for posting.

Swartzy

Thanks for sharing these
as I've always wanted to see the grand canyon. Yea, it looked cold and windy. Looks like the best opportunities there are with the perfect light (and preferrably less wind ). Nice job on these under those conditions. Looks like you did some real hiking.

Tommyboy

Really nice photos. Thanks for having us along. I didn't know about Walnut State Park. Reminds me a bit of Mesa Verde, another cliff dwelling place. Great shot on 66, too.

Jeff Geoghan

Were all those people there to shoot the sunrise? Seems like a bit of a stampede...

Great images - someday I'll get out there to see the GC. Can you believe we lived in Southern California for 12 years and never went out there? Sigh