Early morning sunrise at the Grand Canyon:

We said goodbye to the canyon and headed Northeast.  Our first stop of the day was Navajo National Monument:

We took a short hike to an overlook of the Betatakin ruins:

Onward to Monument Valley.  On the approach, we passed Agathla Peak:

Driving into the valley:

We drove the dirt road through the valley.  It was amazing.

Click on the panorama for a larger version:

On our way north, we passed the Mexican Hat:

Next we stopped at Goosenecks State Park.  There was a bit of scrambling involved in getting this shot, which is a four photograph panorama:

We ended our day driving into the Valley of the gods:

We found a nice spot to set up camp at the North end of the valley.  The nearest people were about 10 miles away.  I would have to say this spot was tied for the best dispersed camping spot to date:

The next TrailManor brochure cover:

The kids mixed water with the clay to make adobe:

Trish relaxes:

Moonlight over the valley:

We drove 250 miles today.  Navajo NM (B), Monument Valley (C), Mexican Hat (D), Goosenecks SP (E), Valley of the gods (F):

This morning, B decided to set herself up as an Indian princess.  I tried to explain the concept of political correctness to her, but I didn’t get far:

We went to a ranger talk given by Ranger Bob Kelso, who did an excellent job.  Trish was very impressed with his pedagogy.  A cursory web search indicates he may have been the principal of the Grand Canyon School District at some point.

We took the shuttle to the South Kaibab trailhead.  There was lightning in the canyon, but it appeared to be moving away, so we started down:

The first part was pretty steep:

We turned around a couple miles down at “Ooh Aah Point”:

Pensive M:

The switchbacks we came down can be seen working their way up the canyon wall:

Capturing this hummingbird was tricky.  70-200 2.8L IS @ 200mm, 1/8000 of a second:

Switchbacks below:

Next we took the shuttle to Yaki Point.  Here’s a panorama.  Click on it for a larger version:

In the afternoon, we took the shuttle to Hopi Point:

Gotta love the glasses:

Tomorrow, we say goodbye to Grand Canyon.

Not much driving today.  Huzzah!  South Kaibab Trailhead (B), Yaki Point (C), Hopi Point (D):

Waking up Monday morning in the Coconino National Forest:

The nice thing was that we were very close to the entrance to Walnut Canyon National Monument.  We drove over and hiked down the trail:

The trail explores 13th century cliff dwellings:

More cliff dwellings across the way:

After Walnut Canyon, we headed into Flagstaff to visit Lowell Observatory.  The first thing we saw was the 1896 24-inch refractor Lowell used to map the features on Mars:

The 1930 reflector used to discover Pluto:

The reflector’s observatory:

Research observatories:

A reflector chassis:

After Lowell, we went to Sunset Crater National Monument, a volcano.  We hiked up adjacent Lenox Crater:

Trees growing in the ash field:

Sunset Crater, seen from Lenox Crater:

We went for a hike through the Bonito Lava Flow:

Next we went to Wupatki National Monument to see 11th century pueblo dwellings:

Ancient ga-ga court:

Heading north, we arrived at the Grand Canyon.  We stopped first at Desert View:

Enjoying Lipan Point:

We arrived at Mather Campground in the Park towards sunset.  This is the first official campground of the trip.

We drove about 140 miles today. Walnut Canyon NM (B), Lowell Observatory (C), Sunset Crater NM (D), Wupatki NM (E):

We left Phoenix early Sunday and headed North to Tonto Natural Bridge State Park, the largest travertine bridge in the world.  The “trail” goes along the bottom of the canyon:

At last we reached the natural bridge.  A spring dissolved the limestone canyon wall, and the dissolved limestone came out of solution to form a travertine dam across the canyon.  The creek at the bottom of the canyon then wore through the dam to form the natural bridge.  There’s some nice diagrams here.

The hole is 187 feet tall, so the travertine wall must be about 500 feet high:

Textures and contrast:

Trish and the kids are on the right side of the photograph:

Looking back the way we came.  The tunnel is 400 feet long. There was quite a bit of water seeping down through the ceiling:

A surface creek cascades over the edge:

There was a side trail to a nice little waterfall:

Saw this rice-grain-sized spider on the handrail.  He appears to have caught something:

Heading back up:

Continuing north, we crossed the Mogollon Rim and stopped at Meteor Crater.  It’s 3/4 of a mile across.  Click on the image for full resolution:

Tasty rock:

M looks around:

Storms on the horizon:

Heading west on I-40, we visited the ruins of Two Guns, Arizona.  There was a zoo and other attractions here until I-40 was laid down, at which time Route 66 was decertified.

Route 66 bridge:

Abandoned buildings:

Checking out the zoo enclosures:

The sky grew stormy, but as the sun approached the horizon it punched through, so the ground was brighter than the sky:

The zoo entrance back in the day:

…And now:

Leaving at sunset, we continued West to dispersed camping in the Coconino National Forest, just outside Walnut Canyon National Monument.

We drove 244 miles today.  Tonto Natural Bridge SP (B), Meteor Crater (C), Two Guns (D):

Friday morning we headed North to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.  We got to see a screech owl:

B mimics the gila monster’s tongue:

The kids coming out of their non-shell:

We saw javelinas and coyotes too.  It was a great museum!

Next we went to the Western unit of Saguaro National Park:

Next we visited Biosphere 2.  Imagine their surprise when it turned out replicating the planet in a glass box was more complicated than they thought.

Having said that, it was an interesting tour.  Looking up!

We toured the various biomes.  Here’s the “ocean”:

The rainforest is well on its way to taking over the dome:

There’s a desert biome too:

There’s quite a bit of equipment down below keeping everything up above running smoothly:

Since it’s a closed system, the air pressure changes as the temperature changes.  To avoid popping the facility, the “lung” has a flexible membrane that raises and lowers the center disc, changing the effective volume of the facility:

After the tour, we headed to Phoenix for Shabbos.  It was in the low 110s, and fairly humid due to the monsoon thunderstroms.  We had meals with wonderful families, and the community was great!