TotSW: Hot windy transfer day across AZ

Heading east from Flagstaff along I-40, one gradually drops from around 7000 feet of elevation to less than 2000 feet, with a corresponding increase in air temperature.  Given that this was late June, it was up around 100 degrees for much of the day, so we opted for multiple short stops to look at interesting geographical features as we worked our way towards the New Mexico border rather than doing one larger hike.

First stop: Meteor Crater.  Ooooh, a non-volcanic crater!  This was a good stop, and we all enjoyed the museum, which has added quite a bit to its exhibits than the last time I was here years ago.

I noted that while this impact crater is very similar in size laterally to the volcanic Hole-in-the-Ground crater we saw a few years back in OR, it is much deeper.  We also had a convenient vantage point from which to take a panoramic photo.

Chad admired the Apollo test capsule in the front courtyard.  And yes, the mountain you can see through the window in the wall is Humphreys Peak, back by Flagstaff.

We admired the old-timey rock shops on the way over to Petrified Forest National Park.  It might be that we have a soft spot for dinosaurs.  Even fake ones.

We made several short stops as we drove across Petrified Forest.  First off was a stop to wander through the landscape of giant petrified logs.

The chollas were blooming.

At the visitor center, we learned that several types of ancestral proto-crocodiles used to inhabit the area.  Not quite dinosaurs, but they might as well be!  (Plus I just like the name aetosaur, when applied to a toothy fossil.)

Back outside, the mineralized logs could be quite colorful.

We had dinosaurs on the brain, so of course saw a face in this piece of log.

Some of the remnant fossilized logs were quite large.  This one was shored up at some point so that the bridge wouldn't fall in.

In addition to the rocks, there was some human history to explore, including petroglyphs

and pueblo remains.

We took advantage of the shade structures the park service built whenever we could.  They did a fine job fitting these in with the surroundings, and the thick stone walls made it cooler inside.

Chad, in tourist mode.

For all that the landscape could be considered quite stark, there actually was quite a bit of color, especially as one headed out towards the Painted Desert.  If it weren't so hot, we might have taken a longer hike here; as it was, we had a late lunch in the lodge and continued on to our New Mexico campsite for the night.

TotSW: Playing around Flagstaff

I like playing in creeks and calling it hiking.  Flagstaff, being near the Mogollon Rim where water pours off the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau, has no shortage of fun creeks and canyons to explore.  All one needs to do is head south on 89A, which in my head is designated as an Adventure Road, given how many ridiculous outings I did around here when I used to live in AZ.   I have a book that points out where to park to hare off into the canyons.  And lots of maps.  And perhaps odd notions of what is fun.  My family was doomed to a bushwhacking expedition.

In this case, we chose to drop into Pumphouse Wash from above, and explore as far down towards the junction with Oak Creek as people would tolerate.  It is a drainage I hadn't done before, wasn't too far from town, and looked likely to have a reasonable water level at that point.

Near where we dropped in.

Kid might have heard "slot canyon" when I said "canyon", and was somewhat disturbed by all the vegetation and rocks in the wide upper part of the drainage.  I will admit the rockhopping was hard on the ankles.

But, ho!  What's that?

Cliffs start to appear on either side!

Pools of water at the base of the cliffs become more common.

Features that require scrambling and climbing appear!

Arches make things more scenic.

And thus, the kid mood was restored.

Chad and I, of course, were having tons of fun.  And it just got better as the canyon narrowed and the pools started to fill in.

Aiiieee!  It gets deep.  Cool water feels great on a hot day.

While Chad and I opted for the water route, the kiddo declared "Land Creature" status and skirted through brushy vegetation on the side.

Most excellent ripple reflections on the rock.  We were lucky to hit just the right time of day for the optimal sun angle here.

Eventually, we hit a point where the canyon narrowed and swimming was required.  Land Creature Kid refused to go in, and we knew we still had to work our way back to the truck, so we deemed this the turnaround point.  After the adults swam and looked around the corner, of course.

On the way out, I found a shortcut bushwhack up the side of the drainage to a campground, so we got to avoid repeating the initial boulder field section.  The open woods in these parts is really quite nice.

Land Creature Kid, who is squeamish about water, much prefers bug friends.  Weird.

While my knee did well on that excursion, it was tired, so we scaled things back to a more civilized outing the following day.  It did, however, involve another canyon.

In this case, Walnut Canyon National Monument.  If you look closely at the canyon walls, there are cliff dwellings everywhere.  How fun!

There is a steep, but short hike down to the and back up to the "island" in the bend of the drainage where many well-preserved structures are still present.

Hungry teen pillages snacks from mom's pack.  Or maybe I just asked said kid to get something out for me...

We had a fine morning exploring the area.  Access is limited to designated trails, but there was still plenty to see.

The way the rock here eroded out into layers leaving natural roofs reminded us a lot of prehistoric dwellings we saw on our trip to France several years back.

Happy hikers.

Small bird friend.  The kiddo likes birds almost as much as bugs.

After lunch, we headed over to Sunset Crater National Monument (can you tell we made good use of our Park Pass this year?)  One thing I didn't properly realize when I lived in AZ previously is how much volcanic activity there has been near Flagstaff.  The San Francisco Peaks (the snowy peaks in the distance) are actually remnants of a dormant volcano.  Odd that I've skied on slopes here without noticing I was on was a giant volcano...all that voluminous Arizona snow must have obscured the landscape.  Ha.

We had originally thought we might climb the highest point -- Humpreys Peak -- on this trip, but there was still so much snow on the trail even in June that crampons were recommended.  Normally, that'd be no big deal, but combining "crampons recommended" with a somewhat gimpy knee seemed unwise, so we contented ourselves with gazing upon the mountain from a distance.

The real attraction of Sunset Crater is the cinder cones.  We wandered our way around the interpretive trail

 and found fun volcanic features to investigate.

Features in this area really reminded me of things we saw on year-before-last's Tour of the Volcanoes, not surprisingly.

And then it was time to go back to town and find another fine place to eat.  In this case, delicious ramen, after Chad and I wandered around galleries and outdoor shops.  Old town Flagstaff is a fine place to wander about in the evening.

Kean stayed back in the motel room drawing while Chad and I wandered about, but walked over and found us in time for dinner.  This is a great use case for setting up your phones to track family members!

TotSW: Transition to Flagstaff

All too soon, it was time to move on from the Mojave.  Clearly the universe thought we ought to stay:  as we approached the freeway, it was clear that there was a horrible line of non-moving truck traffic as far as the eye could see on the main road.  At this point, I had one rogue bar of cell service, and was able to check conditions on my phone -- I40 was closed a bit to the east due to a crash, and had been for over an hour.  No way we were getting in that horrible line of non-moving trucks, so I looked for an alternative.

The obvious choice was to cross the freeway and take a paved road that paralleled the freeway for most of the traffic mess, but alas that road was closed because there was a bridge out.  The only other choice was to turn around and follow an unnamed dirt road across the desert north of the freeway to a junction with Old Route 66 near the town of Fenner.

The road was benign at first.

However, as is the way of these things, it got lumpier and lumpier as we started to hit washes that needed to be crossed.  By the time we got close to town, all our attention was focussed on routing the truck up and down 8 to10 foot sandy embankments of said washes.  Chad happily engaged all of the truck tricks to make that happen.  

Eventually we made it back to civilization.  At this point, we could have hopped back on I-40, but following Old Route 66 for a bit longer was clearly going to be more jolly than getting in the line of traffic.

We crossed the Colorado and headed into AZ.  After admiring Topock Marsh,

we found ourselves on the "Route 66 Back Country Byway" to Oatman -- a funny old mining town that has reinvented itself as a tourist trap whose present claim to fame is the burros roaming freely down the main road.

One has to slow down to not run over the burros...or the tourists.  Fortunately, we were already in slo-mo mode for the day.

One should always pick the routes designated as back country byways; in this case, the road wound its way up past Oatman on the steep and spectacular route over Sitgreaves Pass.  We stopped to take a break at the top (unfortunately past the most spectacular part of the road).

The landscape definitely now looked like Arizona to my eyes.

At a certain point, we did defect to the main highway because we were getting tired of sitting in the truck.  We rolled into Flagstaff mid-afternoon, got cleaned up, and then walked into the old town area to find some dinner.  Dinner critera:  Chad wanted a brewpub with a good beer selection, kid wanted dessert.  I wanted food that I didn't have to cook over a campstove.  Fortunately, this is easy to achieve in Flagstaff.   (Featured below: happy teen with caramel pudding in a mason jar)

On the way back to the motel, we walked by this intersection, which has always struck me as being an intersection so very full of potential -- I remember it from when I lived here before the kiddo was born.  There are so many choices of things to explore from here!