Hello, Sunshine

After a restful night of sleep at Desert Pearl Inn, we again woke to a cloudy morning and fresh snow on the ground.  For breakfast, we decided that we had found a good thing the previous morning and returned to Oscar’s Cafe.  We even had the same thing to eat.  We are easy to please:)

While we were eating, we noticed that there were glimpses of blue sky through the clouds.   The thought of blue skies, white snow, and red rocks had Woody absolutely beside herself - thoughts of beautiful photographs floating around her brain.

We decided to leave Springdale via the Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway.  That road climbs and climbs in elevation out of the east side of the park.  Woody was so enthralled with the scenery that she completely forgot about me!  But given the beauty of Zion, I can hardly blame her. 

Eventually she remembered me and let me join in the fun.  Did I mention that I am an awesome co-pilot?  

 

 

With my wild animal magnetism, I knew we would see wildlife and I was not wrong.  Say hello to my little friend.

 

 

As we descended in Kanab, Utah, we were greeted by these gorgeous vistas.  Just south of town, we had to make a little detour to Pipe Spring National Monument so Woody could get her park stamp.  Has she told you about this obsession she has with visiting national parks?  So trust me when I tell you this was a little detour, just 1/2 hour out of our way.  She has been known to force us to drive several hours to visit a park.

This little detour also played a part in Woody’s master plan.  It made the route on the less travelled road seem like a logical choice.  Off we went.  We went up in elevation.  And up in elevation.  And up in elevation.  Woody seemed very excited by it all.  The ice on the road was apparently not part of her plan so she ignored it.

But the less travelled road took us to some fun places.  Like the crazy lady’s house.  Sometime back in the 1920s, she was travelling and her car broke down.  She was forced to spend the night on the side of the road.  She loved the place so much that she bought the land and stayed.  The land that she purchased was a huge boulder field.  So she used the standing rocks as part of her house.  Each room that she needed was built around a rock.  We thought it seemed like a pretty harsh place to live.

Woody’s route also led us to Navajo Bridge.  It is the last crossing of the Colorado River until you reach Hoover Dam, a distance of several hundred miles.  And let me tell you, it was WINDY on that bridge.  But it was a beautiful place.

Our next stop was Cameron Trading Post.  We were starving.  Did you know that eating establishments are few and far between in middle of nowhere Arizona?  We had been told to try the Navajo fry bread and that’s just what we did.  Harley Rider had a Navajo taco, which was a nacho-like dish but served on fry bread instead of chips.  Woody had the Navajo Hot Beef, which was roast beef in gravy served atop fry bread.  Both were really good.  And both were big enough to be shared!

From there, it was a straight shot to the south rim of The Grand Canyon.  Everyone needs to visit this place.  Words cannot describe the beauty.

 

Did I mention that there was snow?  The south rim had received over a foot of fresh snow during the previous evening.  Oh yeah, that is some serious snow!  But even cold, you just can’t help but look and look and look.

Once we were thoroughly frozen, we headed to our accommodations for the evening, Maswik Lodge in Grand Canyon National Park.  It wasn’t the best place in the world to stay but the other rooms were around the $200 mark for one bed and we needed three beds.  So we went with it.  Thankfully, it was just for one night.