On a stormy looking day we rode a section of the Arizona Trail to the north border of Grand Canyon National Park and back. This section passes through forest and across meadows repeatedly. There is at least one view point of the canyon, and lots of quiet miles.
Vermillion Cliffs National Monument is a remote 280,000 acre geological treasure. A lot of the hiking trails in the monument require a permit because they are so popular. That’s not really worth it to me to have to hike with a bunch of people. There is still plenty of cool stuff to see out here …
Derek and I have wanted to ride this for awhile but the timing hasn’t worked. The highway to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon where the ride is located is closed mid October to around Mid May and maybe later depending on snow. For the last two weeks we have been boondocking up in …
Having gone south on the Arizona Trail on the Kaibab Plateau the other day, north seemed like the obvious choice for another day. This way the trail starts with a gentle climb up through the pine forest and turns to double track a couple miles in. After about 4 miles it turns back into singletrack. …
After our stopover at Navajo National Monument we drove up to the Kaibab National Forest to camp for a couple weeks. I’ve mentioned it before; we normally boondock in each spot for a full two weeks then leave to dump and refill water and find a new spot. This forest is huge and there are …
On our way out of Colorado we stayed at Navajo National Monument to do some hikes and check out the area. This monument is in the northwest portion of the Navajo Nation territory in northern Arizona and was established to preserve three well-preserved cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Puebloan people: Keet Seel (Broken Pottery) (Kitsʼiil), Betatakin (Ledge House) (Bitátʼahkin), and Inscription House (Tsʼah Biiʼ Kin). The monument is …
Walnut Canyon National Monument in Flagstaff rounded out our stay in the area. We hiked about a mile into the canyon passing 25 cliff dwelling rooms constructed by the Sinagua, a pre-Columbian cultural group that lived in Walnut Canyon from about 1100 to 1250 AD. Sinagua is Spanish for “without water”, an acknowledgement that the …
The trails in Flagstaff are tough in that there is a lot of climbing and with exposure. Derek rode some different loops out here and I’ll just lump them together. We do most of our stuff on weekdays so there wasn’t many other users out. I did see some trail runners and he came across …
After hiking around at Sunset Crater Volcano, we continued driving through the monument to the Wukoki, Wupatki, Citadel, Nalakihu, Lomaki, and Box Canyon Pueblos. These pueblos all have a distinctive deep red color and made from thin, flat blocks of the local Moenkopi sandstone. We stopped and walked out to and around the Wukoki Pueblo …
Around the year 1085 CE, the Sunset Crater Volcano erupted. The ground split open along a great fissure nearly 6 miles long, and lava erupted out of it to heights of 850 feet or more. (The Statue of Liberty is only 305 feet). This type of “curtain of fire” created a sheet of lava that …