Wandering Spirit

On Friday, April 29 we travel west just over 100 miles to what used to be home… the Monterey Peninsula area.  I plan to be here for about 3 weeks.  My friend Mary has graciously offered to share her home with us, yet again.  Also, she is allowing me to store my “stuff” at her house, so I’ll be cleaning out my 5×5 storage unit, and after downsizing AGAIN, piling what belongings I still have, in her garage.  I can’t tell you how much Mary’s kindness is helping to simplify my life.  I might add that I have a few things stored at Laura and Joel’s house as well!  Scattered….

In order to transport my belongings, I first empty out the truck bed of JR.  All of it goes temporarily in Mary’s garage and I’ll be going through it all  again too.  Yikes!  The downsizing task never ends!

Before the major work gets underway though, Mary and I take a drive down the Big Sur coast, and end up at Deetjens Big Sur Inn for breakfast on Sunday.

The Big Sur coast is possibly my favorite place in my known world, and I’d rather have breakfast at Deetjens than anywhere else I can think of.

An employee there was kind enough to take our picture together.

The food was so beautiful, I have to show you!

Big Sur is a magical place.  I just don’t know a word better than ‘magical’ to describe it.

Unless it’s “mystical”.

It’s not just the utter beauty of things here, it’s the wildness…the loneliness….it’s the knowing that nature rules….and it’s a FEELING too.  A feeling of mystery.  Hike these hills and you may catch a glimpse of fairy wings.  If fairies and druiads are anywhere in this world, they are here, deep among the redwoods and the ferns and the mist.

If you come to the Big Sur area with your rig, beware because there is just one road you’ll be driving on, which is Highway 1.  It winds along the ocean, one lane in each direction, and sometimes you feel like you are hanging on the edge of the world.  There are some places to camp, but most require rigs on the smaller side, and reservations need to be made well in advance. There are many places to hike.  The views you will encounter driving or hiking are drop dead gorgeous, and there are places to pull off the highway.  Traveling from north to south would be advisable, because you will be on the ocean side of the road with more pull offs and better views.

I feel unbelievably fortunate to have lived nearby for many years, and for those years I came here often to clear my mind, meditate, talk to the Great Spirit, open my heart, or just find some peace.

This is the place I’ll always come back to.

We spent four nights at Yosemite’s Hodgdon Campground.

Hodgdon is at the entrance to the park from Hwy 120.

I’ll tell you a little about the campground.  There are no hook-ups, but there are two bathrooms, no showers.  There is a sink outside the bathroom where you can get water in containers, but there are no water spigots around the grounds. There is a dump station in the village, about 20-25 miles away.   You can’t tell from this picture, but this campsite is VERY unlevel….as are  almost ALL the sites.  This is a pull through, but the front of WS hit the ground as I was pulling in.  A neighbor helped me get situated in the only spot within this site that was even slightly level.  A lot of the sites were for tents only, and for tents this is a great campground.  Each site has a picnic table, a firepit/grill combo, and a bear proof locker for food.  I was told that this campground usually fills up last, and it filled up most every evening that I was there.  This is April, certainly not prime time for Yosemite, so I would recommend reservations, literally months in advance, and especially if you want to camp closer to the village.  Some of the campgrounds in the park aren’t open until sometime in May.

Entering the park costs $30 now, free with the Senior Pass.  The campground regular price is $26 a night, $13 with the pass.  Shuttles throughout the valley are free.

Yosemite in the spring is a wonderland of water and green.  There is beauty just everywhere you look.

You desend into a valley with towering rock walls all around you….and a river runs and tumbles and falls through it…the mighty Merced. (Mighty at this time of year anyway.)

I think I could spend the rest of my life sitting and looking at the Merced River.  It mesmerizes me.

The first time I was at Yosemite when I was 16, I terrified my mom.  I wandered away and my parents couldn’t find me for awhile.  I must have been fascinated with the river even then because when they did locate me, I was sitting on a huge rock out in the river.  I’d climbed out there from one rock to the next, didn’t get wet at all, and because the rapids are so loud, I never heard them calling me.

I didn’t do that this time.  🙂  Not quite as sure-footed at age 66 as I was at age 16!

I have a lot of concern about the amount of visitors Yosemite sees every year.  Even in April in the rain and snow, parking areas were often full.  People can be careless with trash, and not much regard is paid to speed limits, which causes the deaths of animals that wander into the road, like deer and bear.

But I would urge you to see this place if you never have!  Just be respectful of all that is here.  I know you will be!  If you like to hike there are endless trails that open awe-inspiring sights at every turn.

Please treat this awesome place and the wildlife within  with a huge amount of respect, so it can survive and thrive!  If you can walk or bike or take shuttles in the valley rather than drive, that’s excellent!  

I have to say, this is one of the most difficult places for taking dogs, that I’ve been.  Trying to find the limited trails that I could take Joy and Shiloh on wasn’t easy, and I may have ended up in some places where they weren’t supposed to be, although no one said anything to me.  It was much easier to follow the ‘dog rules’ at the Grand Canyon, because they were clearer.

We found another quiet area of the river near a picnic area where they were able to take a dip…

It got deep quickly here.   Shiloh (left) doesn’t like deep, but Joy doesn’t mind at all!

The other issue  I had was getting in and out of the park.  There is no easy way from the south or west…all the roads are mountainous, winding roads.  When I went in on Sunday, I used the route recommended by my GPS and by Google, which was from Chowchilla to take Hwy 140 to 49 to 120, with a couple of connecting ‘shortcuts’.  Ugh. Hwy 49 was especially scary and 120 was no picnic either.  If I were just driving this route, it would be ok, but towing, I wasn’t happy and I didn’t want to use the same route coming out.  After talking to a couple of rangers I decided to leave using Hwy 140.  Much better!  Except if I was coming IN by 140 could I make it through this?

This is the Arch Rock entrance to Yosemite from Hwy 140!

AND, Hwy 140 allows nothing longer than 45 feet shortly after the tiny town of El Portal just outside of the park, because of some construction that is happening now, and looks like it will be happening for quite awhile.

Possibly next time I go, if I’m towing my little home, I may leave it at an RV park somewhere outside of Yo, before the twisty, turny, road.  Just a thought.

At any rate, however you get there, once you arrive, it’s WELL worth the effort!

Yes, we are here at Yosemite, and I would have posted sooner but internet/cellular is hard to come by.  This is the 6th time I’ve been here in my life, the first being when I was 16 years old. I’m enjoying the spectacular beauty more this time than ever before…as I find usually happens for me these days.

I will concentrate on pictures today, (although the pictures I’m taking are a disappointment to me)  and try to give more information in the next blog.

There has been rain, sleet, hail and snow…

And some fog…

El Capitain in fog.

And in the sun.

Lots of Lupine along the road…

It’s hard to take pictures of it because there is no where to pull over….

The Dogwood are blooming everywhere this time of year…

Dogwood along the Merced River.

And the water is running strong…all the falls are flowing full force.

I HAD to let Joy and Shiloh take a dip in the Merced River…

I was surprised they wanted to get into that cold water.  As soon as they got out it started to snow!

The beauty here is so far beyond what I’m showing you with these pictures!  It’s another bucket worthy destination, but the crowds even this time of year are astonishing!  I’ll talk more about that in the next blog.

Leaving here tomorrow, Thursday, and planning to be back in the Monterey area on Friday.    The drive out will be a nail biter, as was the drive in.  Slow and steady is the name of the game!

I’ll be back on line after I leave here, hopefully by Thursday afternoon.

Can you guess where I am from these pictures?

Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield, California!  (highly recommended!)

I thought the oranges would be all gone by now, but in the early evening yesterday, there was a BIG wind.  It only lasted a couple of hours, and gusted at 35 mph….so they say…but when it was finished,  the last of the oranges (almost), were on the ground, to be harvested by the folks who are here at the park.

They aren’t all good, some are over-ripe, but many are as juicy as they can be!

And this….

easily becomes this!  Yum!  Too bad I didn’t have any champagne!

They are even in the dog run area.

And the flowers compliment the color scheme.

The temperature here only reached 76 degrees yesterday, which was a great relief from the 100 degrees it topped out at in Needles when we were there, and the 87 degrees near Barstow where we stayed.  Ugh.

Tonight the plan is to stay in Chowchilla, and then on to Yosemite National Park…where it looks like we’ll be seeing snow again!

Tuesday morning I’m having coffee by 4:15 am, and we are out the door an hour later, searching for sunrise.

I head east to an obscure place, no one else is here.  We walk down the trail until just before the sun breaks over the canyon wall, where I sit on a rock that juts out over the canyon.  Joy and Shiloh seem to sense my excitement and happiness and they laugh when I start singing softly, “morning has broken, like the first morning….”.  I know they are laughing…I just know.  ‘It’s coming!’, I tell them.  ‘Here comes the sun, little darlings!’….and the sun peaks over the canyon and spreads delicious colors over the canyon walls.  More tears!  Sorry, this place makes me cry.

I whip out my IPhone to take pictures.  Dead battery!  Well, that just means I get to concentrate and meditate on the beauty, all the more.

After a bit we walk back to JR and continue our drive east to see the early morning sun all the way to Desert  View  and the Watchtower, 27 miles from camp.  My IPad is with me, so for the rest of the morning I use it to take pictures.

Joy looks intensely, trying to figure out what she is seeing!

The dark areas are where the sun hasn’t reached yet.

Beautiful pastels!

The far East end of the canyon is less deep and it’s easier to see the Colorado River.

The Watchtower, at Desert View.

I am so awed!  So wowed!

I take close to 200 pictures before leaving the canyon…just can’t stop.

Some statistics:

The Grand Canyon is 277 miles from Lees Ferry to the Grand Wash Cliffs.

It’s approximately a mile deep and 10 miles across.

At 2,600 square miles the canyon is slightly larger than the state of Delaware.

Scientific surveyers found 1,750 species of plants, 90 species of mammals, and 362 species of birds.

also I should tell you that dogs are allowed on the trails here, but not below the rim.  They are not allowed in buildings or on the shuttle buses.  Shuttle buses are regular full sized buses, and there are a LOT of them with various routes throughout the park, all free.  Entrance fee to the park is $30 now, but still free with the geezer pass.

As I write this we have begun our trek to Yosemite, and are now in Needles, CA where the temperature is a whopping 97 degrees!  Needless to say we are inside WS with the air conditioning on!

You understand there are no words for this, and there is no picture ever taken or painted that can do it justice….though I’ve seen some beautiful ones.

That being said, I still try to express and photograph this….this….work of Godly art, The Grand Canyon!

This place over-rides your senses in every way:  distance, color, time, place…become things I don’t comprehend. Depth perception loses all credibility.  It’s like the earth looks normal, and then it falls off into this indescribable magnificence and grandure.  A canyon of such magnitude that my mind loses it’s ability to grasp the reality and the proportion.  Color….oh to be able to describe colors such as those!

When I get alone with the canyon (and yes, though 4 million people visit here in any given year, it is not hard to find your own private spot as you walk the rim trail) I allow the tears to fall.  They come in handy at moments like this, when there is no way to express what you feel…the gratitude for this moment….the beauty of nature….life itself.

All I can really say is COME here and see for yourself.  You may have to deal with traffic and people…how much and many depends on when you come….but it’s worth it.  It’s SO worth it!

I lived the first half of my life in Michigan, and that is the state slogan there.  Funny, I never thought to apply “Winter Wonderland” to Arizona….until I woke up this morning!

When I looked out the window this morning, I saw this!

Shiloh is rolling, Joy is sniffing.

Shiloh running with ears flying!!

Now Joy is rolling.

Trees…and snow covered ground.

Shiloh….he had a great time playing in the snow!

Well, they both did. 🙂

We head for the Grand Canyon tomorrow!  After a few days there, our route will take us into California, where the weather forecast says it will be in the 90’s!

I prefer snow!

Ok, I prefer snow as long as it stays to 1 inch and melts fairly soon…:-)

Sunday, April 10 after 8 pleasant days at Meteor Crater RV Park, I pack up and hook up and we head west on I-40 towards Williams.  Our journey is short today and I have extra time so we stop at Twin Arrows Casino and Hotel near Flagstaff, which is run by the Navajo Nation.

This is my first stop at a Casino since I began this adventure!  I’ve heard RV’s can use the parking lot here and spend the night, so I wanted to check it out for future reference.

The lot is huge and at the far end I see a few RV’s.  Big trucks are at the other end of the lot, so noise from them wouldn’t be an issue.

It’s rainy and cold today so I can leave Joy and Shiloh in JR for a little while without worrying about them getting too warm.

I load my pockets  with loose change (for the slot machines!) and head for the bright lights!

It’s big and flashy and colorful and noisy…just like a casino is supposed to be.  I wander towards the fancy machines, and I begin to study one.  It says bets start at 1 cent but I see only slots for cards and bills….nothing for change.  So I wander to another machine, and another….nope….can’t play my pennies, nickels and dimes!  Silly me!

There is no way I’ll go to the window with my loose change…or use my credit card in one of these things!  Besides, I’m watching people play various machines, and, well, I don’t get it.    They sit so casually pushing buttons and pulling levers….it couldn’t be hard, but I’m too embarrassed to ask how it’s done.  🙂

I see there is a soda dispenser and it’s apparently free.  I can figure out how to use this machine and I pour myself a coke with lots of ice.

I settle for the gift shop.  It’s very nice with lots of Navajo jewelry.  Easy for me to spend money here and I settle on a small pair of beaded barrettes for my hair.  The design on them is Eagle feathers, for protection, the lady tells me.  They are made on a loom.

We continue on our way to Williams.

Bill Williams (actually William Sherley 1787-1849) was a mountain man, among many other things.  He managed to get this town named after himself, along with a river and a mountain.

Today the town is small and touristy, and is known for the train to the Grand Canyon.  Any of the many hotels, motels, or RV parks  here will happily book you a seat on the Grand Canyon Railroad.

Down town Williams.  There are a lot of souvenir and gift shops with some beautiful local wares.  And some stuff from China too.

We are staying at The Canyon Motel and RV Park.  Two reasons I chose this park…(besides the fact that the NF campgrounds aren’t open yet).

1. They accept Passport America here for the first 5 days of a stay.  That gives me 50% off for 5 of my 7 days here.  2.
2. The other reason is the location….right up against Kaibab National Forest.  We simply cross the property line and we are in the National Forest where dogs are allowed off leash.

Happy dogs!

I had to back into my RV site.  Look!  Look!

It took me 15-20 minutes.  The employee who they sent to ‘assist’ me knew less about backing up a trailer than I do.  She was no help.

Then of course….as usual in Arizona, the sunsets can be amazing!

Sunset from The Canyon Motel and RV Park, Williams, AZ

“Place of the little hills” is the traditional name for the Winslow area in the Hopi language….they call it Homolovi.

On Thursday, April 7 we make the short trip to the Homolovi State Park, just a few miles outside of Winslow.  First we head for the visitor center, but I’m not seeing any other visitors.  None.  The Ranger is there, and he takes my $7 for day use of the park, and hands me a map with an explanation of the park.  I ask specifically about dog rules and he tells me that they are allowed everywhere here, even in the buildings.  He says it gets too hot here to make them stay inside vehicles.  Makes perfect sense to me.

Oops.  Missed part of the H.

There are three major trails here, a small campground, and two areas open to the public where archaeologists have identified more than 300 sites.  They are called Homolovi I and Homolovi II. (at Homolovi II it’s estimated that there are between 1200 and 2000 rooms.) The other archaeological sites  are not open to the public.

The Hopi people today consider this area part of their homeland, but in an effort to protect these sites they support the idea of Homolovi State Park.  The park was established in 1986 and opened in 1993.  It serves as a center of research for the Hopi from the 1200’s to the late 1300’s.

In other words, this area is considered something like Holy Ground for the Hopi, because it is where many of their ancestors lived and died.  Less than 100 miles north is Second Mesa and the Hopi Reservation.

I didn’t know quite what to expect here.  What I found shocked me.

From what I could tell as we walked among the ancient homes, the sites have not been rebuilt like they have been at most places.  Usually rebuilding takes place to help recreate what we assume things looked like ‘back in the day.’  This area looks like the real thing, and the real thing only. (I’m not positive of this, but this is definitely an archaeological work in progress).

This was the most built up area that I saw.  Most were just an outline of stone on the ground.

The other area that seems very intact is a kiva.  It’s 6 feet deep and something like 17 x 12 feet.

This is the biggest Kiva that I’ve seen.  It would have been covered of course, and there are even built in airways.

But the biggest surprise to me is that there are pot-shards (pieces of broken pottery) all over the ground!

Many have been collected on just about every flat rock surface, and still more lie on the ground.

I had no idea that there was anywhere left in the USA where pot-shards were just lying around on the ground, in the open, unclaimed.

There are MANY signs to remind me that taking or destroying anything found here is a state AND federal offense.  And then I remember what I read in the information given to me: “The Hopi tell us that the broken pottery and stones are now part of the land and are the trail the Bahana will follow when he returns.”

“Take only pictures.  Leave only footprints.”

I’ve never seen anything like this….or felt anything like this.  The presence of the people is so palpable….they are all around me, I just can’t see them….

I always get that feeling when I visit these places, but here, even more-so.  It probably helps that the setting is perfect and there are no other visitors around, only Shiloh, Joy, and myself. There is complete silence.  The sun shines with no clouds, there are no trees, just the empty landscape as far as the eye can see.  The Little Colorado River flows by, shallow and brown.

It’s just us and the earth and the spirits of the old ones….

Eventually we walk back to JR and the dogs have a long drink of water before they settle in for the ride back to present time.  I drive through the quiet, mostly treeless campground and see that there is a camp host here. Not half the sites are occupied.   It’s $20 a night for electric hook-ups, and there is a bathroom with showers.  There is a dump station available.  The elevation here is 4900 feet and it makes quite a temperature difference from the 6300 feet where I’m staying, or the 7000+ feet at Flagstaff.  I would  very much like to camp here some day though, when the weather is cool.

As I write this, I’m wrapping up my pleasant stay here at Meteor Crater RV Park. Today we will move on to Williams, and do some more exploring before spending a few days at The Grand Canyon!

“I was standin’ on the corner in Winslow, Arizona….”

Winslow, Az is about 20 miles east of Meteor Crater RV Park on I-40, and I would be remiss if I didn’t go stand on the corner!

The song by the Eagles “Take It Easy”, from 1972, was their first big hit, and it put little Winslow on the map.  Glen Frey sang it, and he passed away in January of this year, but his statue still stands on the corner of Route 66 and Kinsley Avenue.  Now it’s decorated with flowers and candles.

There was a constant stream of people there to have their picture taken next to him, so I had no problem getting someone to take ours.

Notice the Eagle in the window above my head?

Joy WAS sitting next to Shiloh, but she wanted to smell the flowers…

There was a big souvenir shop across the street, and I must say, I made use of it.  My pink hat reads:

Standin’ on the corner….Route 66….Winslow, AZ.  And so does my shirt. 🙂   I’m bad.

The souvenir shop.  Notice the Eagles tour poster. 1979.

Here is the flat bed Ford referred to in the song.  It’s always parked there.  You can even see it on Google Maps.

You can also see this sign in the road on Google maps!  Not easy to miss.  🙂

The place has good, happy vibes.  It was fun and I’m glad I visited, and took it easy!