More Grand

When I made our reservations for the Grand Canyon, I could only get two nights. That meant we had to pull out of the campground on Tuesday. But it did not mean we had to leave the canyon. I had consulted one of the guides I have for alternative camping spots and had discovered that there was dispersed camping available in the Kaibab National Forest. It was accessed from a road that started in the park and then exited it into the forest. After pulling out of Mather around noon, we proceeded to Grandview Point.

It is aptly named, containing a sweeping panorama of a bend in the canyon. From there we found the forest road a few miles later and drove down almost two miles to find the spot in the opening photo. While I have used dispersed camping in the Blue Ridge, where there are actual campsites, this was just open woods where you can pull off the road anywhere it makes sense. The woods have a very open under- story and you can see through them for a long ways. This is a wider view which may give some notion of what it was like. We were almost completely alone.

There was a little traffic on the road we came in on but not much. Since it was our anniversary, I cooked a steak and we had some potato salad we had picked up at the camp store and then some cake we had purchased for the occasion, all washed down with some wine. All very good.

The next day, July 4th, we pulled out at about 6:30 to finally leave the park. But we still had about 15 miles to go in the park and several overlooks to stop at. One other stop was at the Tusayan Ruins. This early pueblo site is preserved as an example of how the early native population managed to live in this area. It includes a path around the ruins and a neat stone museum that was closed at the early hour we visited.

When we hear about Indian ruins, we think of the pictures we've seen of Mesa Verde or other complete ancient housing with walls and rooms and ladders and maybe a pot or two sitting around. The truth of it is that most of the ruins are simply a ring or two of stones laid in the ground. Many of the early buildings were built by first digging a shallow pit in the earth and lining it with stones cemented together with a mud mortar. Then an upper part was constructed with limbs and branches and covered with a mud roof. In most cases, only the pit remains. There are literally thousands of these remains around the west but it takes some imagination to visualize the buildings.

The last stop in the park was the Eastern entry visitors center. While we got there just as the center was opening the big attraction was the watchtower. built in the 1930's as a replica of an Indian tower.

The tower has four interior levels which can be climbed via a stairway surrounding the inside. The center is hollow so you can see all the way down from each level. The walls are decorated with Indian painting and there are windows showing the view from various points on the way up.

The rooms at the base of the tower are a gift shop (what else?). But they have a lot really nice Native made ware.

After leaving the park, we traveled East on Rt. 64 out to Rt. 89. Along the way we saw many stands where the Navajo sell there crafts but most were empty. We traveled along the canyon of the Little Colorado, which is pretty impressive in its own right. When we reached 89, we turned left and went North one mile to the Cameron Trading Post.

This is the site of a famous stage/trading stop from the 1800's. Today it is one of the largest places offering both authentic Native American jewelry and rugs and lots of imported Chinese baubles. They also have a AAA rated motel, a post office, a gallery of really beautiful high end art work and a restaurant. We got there at about 10:00am, in time for a great breakfast. The walls of the dining room are decorated with hand made rugs.

One of the unique things about the trading post is that they feature local Navajo actually weaving rugs so you can see how it's done. No one was weaving when we were there but they did have one in progress.

These are not rugs for the floor. They are exquisite works of art meant to be displayed on the wall.

From Cameron, we traveled down to Flagstaff where we were invited to camp at my cousin's daughter's place. They have a lovely place in the country and they have a side yard that works just right for boon-docking. We ran power out from their garage and we were good to go. They have a wrap-around deck that overlooks a small fish pond with plants and flowers. They sit out on the deck at night and watch a local elk come in to the fish pond for water. They have named her Gertrude. This was to be my chance to see an elk close up. Well, you just know how that turned out. We were there three nights and Gertie never showed.