Grand Canyon: stuck in a rut

I have a preposterous number of pictures of the Grand Canyon, and I think you should see them all. Look away while I park you all in and start the projector.

"Clint" and "Handel"

If you know them by other names, just play along for now. Everyone is entitled to a nom de canard.

These are our very good friends from New York who tracked us down in the forest and brought us cat litter. It's a good friend indeed who can sense when you're running low.

Julie Handel is my better self, without ever making me feel like my lesser self. She is my role model for building a life outside the box.

Clint's first time at the Canyon

Clint is from New Zealand. He likes to practice Americanisms, and has a good ear for accents.

I appreciate your condor. Please carrion.

It's the right-hand side of the photo.

Bright Angel Trail snakes from the lower right corner until it drops out of sight at the end of the plateau in the first quadrant.

Desert View Watchtower. It's a Mary E. Jane Colter design, like several buildings in the Grand Canyon area.

Very involved in gravity studies.

We're on a rock. We're on an island.

High Chaparral

Gratuitous cat photo (Max).

We left the Flagstaff area for a while to try our luck at the Grand Canyon.  So far, so good!

On the side of a motel on Route 66, Flagstaff. I don't know the artist.

We spent fifteen days at a site further back in the woods: here. If you like knowing the coordinates, they are 35.070419,-111.662449. This was a good site, despite the freak paintballing incident. Very light ATV activity, and what there is seems to come from the nearby community of Mountainaire. Good hiking, good walking, good sitting. We saw one NFS truck. A guy jumped out, pulled up a numbered sign (officially decommissioning a road, I think), and drove off.

When we land in an area I like, I start fantasizing about a Tiny House on a Huge Piece of Land. But, I also want to keep boondocking full-time. I want it all.

Maybe down this road.

We're staying at Three Pines. I named it that.

These three in particular.

It's a flower, I guess.

Not a flower.

Maybe a flower?

You can call me Flower if you want to.

Along 64, from Williams to Tusayan, is a lot of empty land. To the east, someone has put up a sign that's just barely legible from the highway; it says "FREE TO BE ME by Vonshtain." It's a book, and I'm intrigued by why the sign would be there. A fan lives there? Vonshtain lives there? Any ideas?

It's your lucky day!

A cat twofer.

This is Lily. Her entire life, when she sees a camera she develops a palsy. I have 679 pictures of Lily, none in focus. Annie fooled her by using her phone. Lily was expecting a call, not a portrait.

I have a question for bloggers: how do you feel about a popular website whose main content is your blog, and who sells advertising based on your writing? In exchange for them "hosting" your articles, you provide advertising for them on your blog.

So I'm clearer, you are providing their content (for free). They feed your entire post to their site, and you pay them by putting their badge on your blog.

Your articles get much wider coverage than they might otherwise. However, none of the traffic moves to your blog, because the entire content is over there and there is no need for readers to click. You don't know how many people have read it there. I don't mean that the content is stolen, by any means. You have signed up for this arrangement.

I don't think I mean this nastily. *checks snarkometer* It's just a question that's been lingering around my lobes, and if I don't ask you, who am I gonna ask? Perspective check, please.

We've been told to STOP IT in classier joints than this.

"The Peaks." Also called the San Francisco Mountains, because they're not in California.

We got all rambunctious and went to Flagstaff this week. We like to stop at New Frontiers sometimes and share a plate of avocado roll. We would have liked to do that yesterday, but there was none made, so we went in search of something else suitable.

Photo blurred to protect the innocent ingredients.

Annie said This burrito gives vegan food a bad name. You know this is what people imagine when they think of it.

Burrito, you're the reason more people aren't vegan.

I've had tasty rice and beans. I know it can be done. It's one of my favorite foods. Someone worked very hard, or not at all, to make this outblanding dish. I guess it was nourishing...? Please don't nourish me again.

NOT BLAND:





 

This cutiepie is a Sportsmobile, a rugged 4X4 motorhome with a pop-top roof for penthouse sleeping, and standing up to put your pants on. Look at the clearance! We pulled up and ogled obviously. Heeeyy pretty baby, come to Mama! *kissykissy noises* Looooking goood! If I said you had a beautiful body would you show us your rustproofing? Did it hurt when you fell from heaven? *lewd remarks and gestures* and then the owner got out and asked us to quit.

We hiked for a couple of hours this afternoon and now my left earlobe doesn't hurt.

Heeeyy pretty baby, come to Mama! *kissykissy noises* Looooking goood!

Did it hurt when you fell from the truck?

  

Can you see it?

 

  
Quality programming all day long.

Fauna and flora in the pines.

My camera has a setting for pets. You just swing it around the room and when it recognizes an animal, it automatically takes a shot.

Tucker insisted I crop his outrageous obesity.

Ellen has more toes than Tucker has mealtimes.

Penny

Penny and Bob

Lilykins-Poo Honey Baby Kitty Peaches Gumby Poohead. You can tell she's oldest by her name.

 
Flagstaff has a Farmer's Market with actual farmers, none of whom you'll see here:

There had better be some biscuits in those bags, Mister.

Years ago, when the only organic produce I had ever seen came from GreenStar, I thought "organic" meant "overpriced and shrivelly." 
Later, we joined a CSA whose owners grew luscious and plentiful produce without chemicals (they couldn't call it Organic®, because years and dollars are required to buy into that trademark), and I got reillusioned. The CSA (and others in that area) also participate in Healthy Food For All, a program that subsidizes half the cost of a season's produce for low-income families.
Then there was the amazing produce our friends, Linda and Bill, grow veganically on their Unexpected Farm. They don't even use poop!
I do miss that particular connection to community. That sense that my food was growing in dirt three miles up the road from my house, and that the family who worked hard growing it was making a decent living.

This weekend: Art in the Park, at Wheeler Park, Flagstaff. To which we are going. There are more places to boondock around here than you can shake a pine bough at, so come on up! The weather's fine.

Excellent boondocking location...nah, I shouldn't say.

On the other hand, I'm going to. This is the first place we've stayed our full 14 days and still weren't tired of the spot. Ajo doesn't count, because we didn't stay 14 days.

• Route 17 (Arizona) to exit 298. 
• Go east on Forest Road 618. [If you go west, it's Rte. 179 into Sedona.]
• 0.4 miles past the first cattle guard, you come to a four-way stop. Go left (north). This is Beaver Creek Road and Forest Road something something.
• 1.3 miles later, you're there.
• Coordinates roughly  34.697493,-111.723889

We covered this road in the Duck (38.5'), but never did it with the toad attached. That was just circumstance, though, and Annie says she'd do with the car and dolly.

You could spend two weeks in this area without ever needing to go to town for entertainment. Beer, yes. If you parked at the green arrow, you could hike down the left tine of that fork, turn left at the edge of a canyon, and follow a road right down around to the floor. There are said to be petroglyphs there, but I didn't find them. FREE

 









If you want something a little further off the trail, explore the right fork. The road is better, and we considered a few camping sites down there, too.

The Arizona Safari jeeps passed us every evening at 7PM. Feel smug knowing you're seeing the sights for free. [Arizona Safari: NOT FREE]

 Or, you could follow F.R. 618 down to the same draw (Red Tank), park at a turnout, and take a few steps to more petroglyphs. FREE

 Or, tour V-V Ranch and see a huge and well-preserved collection of glyphs. Bring your lunch and eat under a big tree along Wet Beaver Creek. FREE, needs Interagency Pass or Red Rock Country pass to park.

 Or, Visit Montezuma's Well. FREE

 Or, pad on down to the creek and cool off. Bring your lunch to the shady picnic tables and your garbage to the big garbage cans. FREE

Park at the trailhead off FR 618 and take any trail. There are two strenuous trails, and one moderate. I took the easy trail to the pit toilet. FREE

Best of all, this campsite is on a dead-end (sort of). A few hundred feet down the road is a gate that serves as a cattle guard. People have to stop to open and shut that gate, and first-timers often just turn around there. Feel smug knowing you've hiked on the other side of that gate. Smug: FREE

You may see cowboys. You will probably hear cows. I never, ever knew there were so many cow-sounds. If you think they only moo, you're living in a fool's paradise. Fool's paradise: FREE

Head toward Sedona on Rte. 179, and you'll come to the USFS Ranger station. This is a worthwhile stop, because here is where you can get a copy of the new Motor Vehicle Use Map for this area. A ranger will want to explain it to you if you tell her you're interested in dispersed camping; let her do it.  The map itself is a little less than self-explanatory, as well as being actual-size. Will the rig fit in this spot? Let's pull up onto the map and see. So, a little help is a good thing.



The map is also good because you will be AMAZED at all the dispersed camping there is available in the local forests. I hated to settle without seeing all of them. Pick an altitude, then pick a site.

We've taken on fluids and headed for higher altitude and lower temperatures. That's one thing that will chase you out of town, but the hardier souls are now enjoying the quiet of a not-very-touristy Sedona, and perfect nighttime temps. And remember, it's a dry heat.