Sedona to South Rim of the Grand Canyon

-- Sedona --

I went for a short walk on a couple of trails in Sedona and admired the view and plant life -- lots of juniper trees and flowering cactus.

Sedona seems to be an upscale, artsy community. Lots of nice houses and something for everyone.

The lady at the visitors center last night told me the Chapel of the Holy Cross church had a "must see" view, so I visited it.

As for hiking trails, I really likes the Baldwin loop trail that I hiked last night, with the Crescent Moon side trail to the water.  I drove to the Soldier Pass Trailhead this morning, and judging by the number of hikers waiting for the shuttle, that is probably the most popular trail around here, although there are a lot to choose from.

-- Grand Canyon --

I arrived at the East entrance of the Grand Canyon, took in the view, and went to the visitor center for some  advice.

The East entrance visitor center is on the first floor of a tower, and you can get free tickets to go upstairs. The artwork inside the tower was beautiful.

When I registered for my site at the campground, the campground host told me there was a chance of another aurora event tonight, and we might get to see the northern lights, so I decided to sleep on the ground tonight without my tent and admire the sky.

I drove to the main visitors center. It was already closed for the day but the weather predictions were posted on the wall. It is warmer at the bottom of the valley. The air is more stagnant at the bottom; the wind helps cool things at the top.

Sunset at South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Sedona

I arrived in Sedona yesterday afternoon. After astop at the visitors center for advice, I drove to the Baldwin trailhead to hike the loop trail. The lady at the visitors center said it would give me the view you typically see of Sedona in books and on postcards, and she was right!

I hadn't expected the water, or I wouldn't have left my swimsuit and water shoes in the care! Evidently everyone else knew and came here to cool off.

I had to settle to soaking my feet in the cool, flowing water, which felt great!

After a bit of relaxation, I resumed my hike on the Badwin loop trail. The river was actually a small side trip on the Crescent Moon trail. I wouldn't have known about it, but I was hiking with a couple from Vancouver, BC, and they knew you had to take a side trail to the river --- plus, from a distance we could hear the people splashing and having fun!

The loop trail was scenic near sunset.

The lady at the vistors center had given me a map of dispersed camping sites in the area, so I headed there next, and arrived after dark and settled in for the night. It was basically a big dirt field where you could park your car or RV and set up camp. I slept in my car, as usual.

Around 6:15 in the morning, as I was getting ready to get out of the car and break camp, I heard some loud snorting noises. I thought maybe some cows were grazing nearby, but when I looked out my car window I saw air balloons!

The balloons were actually landing, not taking off! I asked the outfitters whatit cost, and they said $350 a head -- which isn't cheap. The prices in Albequerque are more like $200, but Sedona is an upscale tourist are.

The town of Cottonwood is about a 10-15 minute drive South of the dispersed camping area, and they have a Walmart and Planet Fitness gym, so I headed there for some grocery shopping and a shower. The walmart had Bluebell ice cream, which is good stuff!!! Too bad they're all full half gallons, because I'm not going to eat that much!

Now that I've showered and used the Planet Fitness wifi to update my blog, time for some more hiking. I can't stay in Sedona too long because I have a campsite reserved for tonight at the South rim of the Grand Canyon, so I'll be driving there this afternoon! 

Info about Camping on BLM land

I failed to mention that I also visited the Coconino National Forest Service Supervisor's Office in Flagstaff on Tuesday morning. I've been doing dispersed camping on BLM land, but since there is also private land around, I wanted to make sure where of the boundaries. I showed the ranger on google maps where I have been camping, and he verified they were all legitimate and gave me a map. (Someone had told me I coudn't camp in a particular area on Monday night, but I showed the ranger the area on the map and he said it was indeed BLM land and valid for dispersed camping. 

The ranger gave me a map for the Coconino National Forest, so now I have 2 maps because I already had a similar map for the Kaibob Ranger District, where I camped near the north rim of the grand canyon.

The ranger explained that wherever there are dots by the side of the road, it is ok for dispersed camping.

For example, last night I got off I-40, turned right onto forest road 171 and then right onto 222A. I continued past curve, well into the area with dots on both sides of 222A, pulled off the road and camped. Monday and Tuesday I drove from Flagstaff on hwy 180 and camped on forest road 222, which is also on this map and has dots on both sides of the road where I camped.

 The blue dot on google maps shows where I camped last night.

Lowell Observatory -- where Pluto was discovered

I spent the morning at the library updating my blog over wifi, had lunch, and then went to the Lowell Observatory. Their claim to fame is the discovery of Pluto, among other things.

Percival Lowell searched for the best conditions to build an observatory, decided Flagstaff was the ideal place, and set up the Lowell Observatory. Astronomers of that time suspected there might be planets beyond Neptune, and referred to the search as the search for Planet X.

Lowell didn't find the planet (he died in 1916), but he used mathematical equations based on the orbits of other planets to calculate his suspected orbital path for Planet X. Some of his estimations weren't quite right, but they were close enough that Cyde Tombaugh, scanning the sky in the area around Lowell's calculated orbit, was later able to discover Pluto.

The discovery of Pluto was made in 1930 here at Lowell Observatory using this telescope:

The telescope is an astrograph... instead of having a viewing eyepiece, it has a place to insert a photographic plate to record an image. The exposure time used by Clyde Tombaugh was about an hour. The telescope had a pendulum motor to track the movement of the earth.

Tombaugh would take two images a few days apart. He would develope the images and then put them onto the below device, which allowed him to flip between the images and visually look for differences. It was tedious and took about 4 days to compare each set of  images.

Eventually he detected a dot that moved in the projected path (see arrows in images below), which was determined to be Planet X and was renamed Pluto! Historic stuff here!

The observatory also has a 24 inch Clark refractor telescope that is still in use today. The red shift of galaxies, which indicates the galaxies are moving away and we have an expanding universe, was made with the 24 inch telescope shown below:

Again, historic stuff! The sky was clear tonight and we were allowed to look at the night sky through several telescopes. None of the planets were visible in the night sky, but I got to see the beehive open cluster, the sombrero galaxy, the cigar galaxy, the ring nebula, alturas, and one of the gemini twins on various telescopes that were set up.

Best of all, I got to look through the same telescope used to discover the red shift of galaxies, and viewed globular cluster M5. I had to wait in a long line for that one, but it was the highlight of my night. 

Flagstaff

When I asked at the visitors center what Flagstaff was known for, they replied trains and the grand canyon, but said that other cities also claimed the grand canyon. I thought being known for trains was a strange answer, but I'm starting to understand.

The train tracks go through the middle of town, just like historic Route 66 does (another source of pride?). I have witnessed an endless stream of very long freight trains on the tracks. After one passes by, another one usually isn't far behind. Flagstaff must be the crossroads of the west!

It's a nice town. I think I could get used to living here.

I hear they get a lot of snow in the winter, though. The local ski resort is still open.

Today was laundry day. I found a great laundromat that is staffed and has new, clean machines. It feels good to be wearing clean clothes again. 😊

More pueblos -- cliff dwellings this time

I drove downtown to the Flagstaff Visitors Center this morning for tourist ideas. 

The visitors center gave me brochures for a couple of downtown walking tours (I'll save them for another day), and told me about the Walnut Canyon pueblos, which are actually cliff dwellings! So I spent another afternoon looking at pueblos again, but this time they were built in steep Canyon walls.

Seeing the steep cliffs and limited footing around some of the entrances, I wondered how the residents managed to get in and out and get around. The ranger told me they used ropes and ladders if necessary, and that if they grew up that way then that was all they knew and they'd be used to it.

Some of the cliff dwellings look like they would be easier to access than others, though, due to some having natural walkways in front of the entrances.

This part of the continent used to be an inland sea a very long, long time ago, and as the water rose and receded, it left limestone or sandstone layers that were softer rock and got eroded over time. The eroded layers formed natural roofs and back walls for the pueblos. The pueblo builders Just needed to build the side and front walls.

The doorways were low enough to keep the heat out in the Summer and the cold out in the winter. The ranger said there is even some evidence the cliff dwellers in this canyon were snowbirds... living in south-facing rooms in the winter and north-facing rooms in the summer.

The eroded rock layers were even a good height for rooms!