Climbing in Grand Canyon National Park

Today we trekked back into the Grand Canyon National Park.  It was a very busy day for them.  Big line to get in, very few parking places left.  But we loaded up with climbing gear and started out for the Wailing Wall, a climbing area we had explored the day before.  We got lots of stares with out climbing gear draped around us.  Most folks had a fast food sandwich and a camera.

It was a bit un-nerving to down climb past the cave and then traverse over a ledge to get to the climbing area. Not really bad, just no protection and a 60 foot drop if you trip or slip on the loose gravel.

Once on top we were fine.  Ate lunch.  Then we set up a top belay.  Not something we normally do.  Mostly we belay from the bottom.  So the angles are a little strange for us.  I didn't use the preset anchors, angles were wrong for a top belay.  So I set up a wrap around a boulder with web, backed up by more webbing to another anchor higher up.  Barbara jumped off first.  I rappelled her from the top, again, not something we are used to; then she climbed back up.  Along the way she set 3 quick draws.  Then as she made it over the second overhang she told me about leaving the quick draws behind.  I told her it would cost her $25.  So rather than have to cough up the $25 she says to rappel her down again and she would re-climb the route and pick up the quick draws.  And she did. 

There was another easier climb to the west of the route that Barbara did, so we re-did the anchors; I rappelled down and then climbed the easier route.  I slipped on the rappel and slammed Barbara into a wall.  No I didn't do that on purpose.....

There is a trail above and a trail below the climbing area.  Lots and lots of people walk both trails each day.  At any given time we would have a group of spectators hanging out on each of the trails watching us.  I got the impression that what we do is not common.  At least no one screaming Jump, Jump, Jump.....

It was a difficult place to take pictures and manage the belay.  As a result we have only the two pre-climb pictures.  You can't beat the scenery, it is awe-inspiring.  And of course bragging rights, "We rock climbed in the Grand Canyon National Park".  The images of that statement certainly bring out a more exciting picture that the reality, but it is not an untruth.

Chores and chores when we got back to the RV, off to Vegas tomorrow. 

I really need some new t-shirts. 

Grand Canyon 3-24-13

We arrived at the Grand Canyon Village on the south rim.  Lots of hotel rooms, not much in the RV department.  We found an RV park in Tusayan, AZ.   Ok place, same name as the NP place.

Its 17f at night.  Brrrrr!  Warms to almost 50 next day.  Having passes we cruised into the NP just to check it our and got a first glimpse of the Grand Canyon.

We scoped things out a bit and determined that we needed to take the red bus route out to Hermits Point.  Of course that is a 7 mile walk along the canyon rim, but we started off with good intentions.

It's hard to put the canyon in perspective until you can see people around it.

 

As we turn around the other way we can see this snow capped mountain near Flagstaff, AZ

 

The scenery stays pretty spectacular. Then it gets better......

 

You know you have climbed a bit, out of breath.  I guess 7000 feet does make a difference.

 

Along the way we spot a local resident.  Glad to see they are still around.

 

Of course you have to take a group picture.

 

And then you get back to the spectacular scenery of the Grand Canyon

It is pretty awesome to see the Grand Canyon from the tourist point of view.  Definitely a tourist trap in the Grand Canyon Village and surrounding area.  So if you want to really know the Grand Canyon you will have to book an excursion, best is probably the multi-day river trip.  Otherwise, you will get a tourist's view as we did.  Not a bad thing.....

Sedona Area

Wow, what an awesome place.  We actually stayed at the Dead Horse State Park in Cottonwood, AZ, 19 miles SE of Sedona.  It was fun to ride up the road to get to the “Red Rock Country” and see the terrain change as we went. 

One of our trip was on St Patrick’s Day;

Being centered in Cottonwood allowed us the opportunity to visit neighboring areas like Jerome, a retired copper mine. 

We started to do a forest road trip up to Jerome, but the terrain became too rough for us.  So we bailed on the forest roads and took the highway up. 

 

The highway was fun, climbing twisty turney road.  We spotted a couple of sport bikes just getting them some, but when we caught up to them in town they had a state trooper and local sheriff with them.  Apparently they were going a little too fast for the limits set.

 

We had a megamillion calorie lunch in Jerome, then rode the bikes down the mountain around the hill and down the road to the Hayfield OHV area.  I promptly broke the rules by riding around the Tot’s track, then BR had to be a joy kill and show me the sign; “For children 12 years and younger”.  Man, I was having some fun. 

 

Ok, on to the grown up stuff.  There was a big wash running through the middle that had lots of sand in it.  Bummer.  BR found the grownup MC track.  Around about 3 times and we were bored with that.  This is the part where I picked on her a little.  I pushed her into trying some whoop-ti-doos.  She wasn’t sure, didn’t like it, but gave it a shot.  Shortly after that I lost track of her.  Can you find Barbara in this picture;

 So we piddled a little in the OHV area, but it is really not our thing, give us more trail.

The next day we rode the highway up to the Red Rock State Park.  Pretty area, we had a pretty good walk around the park.  Never did find the Apache Fire House. 

 

 

There was a river running through the valley;

And the trails up through the Juniper trees are very pretty.

After buying some chap stick we rode up to the Hananki Indian Ruins.  It is amazing to me to observe places that people lived a full 600 years before Columbus sailed the ocean blue. 

 

Of course along the way we are always respectful of the local inhabitants. 

 

 

 

 One never knows whether or not they will become venomous.

 

 

 

We ended the stay by taking a side road that the guide book said was a “moderate” trail.  Kind of like a blue on the ski slope.  BR did good.  She got into some really rough rocky stuff and ran off the road.  When I got back to her she was laughing, saying she really shouldn’t have tried to take that section so fast. I think she may finally be over her fall she took in the Guadalupe National Park.  

There is so much more riding we could do here, maybe some hiking. .  We tried canoeing the Verde River, which was a disaster resulting in me carrying the canoe a half mile through branch and bramble back to the truck.  There was just not enough water in the river (creek).

 

 

 

 

The Road to Sedona

There are two roads from Dead Horse Ranch State Park to Sedona, AZ.  One is the highway, the other is forest road 258 to forest road 761 to forest road 525a to forest road 525 to forest road 152c to forest road 152. 

You start off in the bottom of the Verde River Valley then climb up to a big plateau;

It’s fun to explore the different roads.  Here is the first shortcut;

 

It’s nice of the forest service to post signs so you can figure out where you are at.

 Little did we know when we started, but this area has a very organized off road society.  They developed this color coded sign of the area that we road in.

 

Each color has a different rating.  We managed to stay on easy to moderate roads.  I got a glimpse 9513, one of the red routes, I am not sure I could have climbed a couple of its hills. 

As we got closer to Sedona we saw some of the tourist tours, a flock of ATV’s with guide, and several of these Pink Jeep Tours. 

I think Barbara really enjoyed her ride.  As we reached the red rock country the views became prettier.

And prettier;

We moved north from Tucson; the temperatures in Phoenix/Tucson are hitting a record high of 95.  We are near Cordes Lakes at the intersection of I-17 and highway 69.  The high temperature here is around 82. 

We decided to take a little trip to the Pueblo La Plata archeological dig.  Ok, it was just a pace on the map to get to, I have no idea what is there.

We found a back road to get to Cordes, upper left side of the map.  When we got there it was pretty much abandoned, there was a store;

And an old barn: is it leaning or is that me?

 

BR got to meet some young cattle that had gotten out;

As we cruised into the Agua Fria National Monument we came across some interesting signs; 

This sign is obviously for the cowboys that chew tobacco; you must slow down to get a good dip or you will spill it. 

Of course any xt’er will get a little shiver down their spine whenever they encounter one of these signs;

Along the way did get to cross the mighty raging Agua Fria River

 

We eventually turned off the main dirt road and started down the road to Pueblo La Plata Archeological dig.  Not even sure we had the correct road.  We went down a ways until the road kind of got a little rough.

 

BR just wasn’t feeling it, so we walked down a bit.  After a while we spotted what we thought were a couple of antelope up on the hill.  Turns out it was just the twins.

We turned around and headed back the way we came;

We started to go down a different National Forest Trail; it was a bit rougher than the Bloody Basin Road that we had been on.  Barbara was ok when the track got narrow and she was riding on dirt;

Then we got to a place where they had to put down some rock to stabilize the road; she was ok on the rock;

But then we came to a brand new gate. 

Since we are usually guests in the area we don’t push the limits, but the locals just get annoyed.

 

As we were pondering the gate a family of 7 came rolling up on a big gator.  They were on the other side of the gate.  So they got out and looked at the gate a bit, dad proceeds to drive the gator around the gate.  No easy feat, we all thought it was going to roll at one point.  He mentions that the gate on the other side is open.  While the family is climbing back in the gator one of the boys; about 5 years old; pipes up and says: “The gate is open because my dad shot the lock off.”  Ok…..

 

We opted to just call it a day; after all I hadn’t brought a gun along to shoot the lock off with. 

Barbara took second place in the Forest River Owners Group photo contest.  This honor comes with free entry into all FROG rallies in 2013 and a gas card for $500.  Congradulations to her.

You can see all the photo's entered here; FROG photo's.  I don't know how long the link will be up, since the contest is now over. 

Resurrecting the blog

2009 - 2013.  I went to facebook to capture some of our adventure.  Posting pictures and comments was easier.  But now I am rethinking this, so have pulled this up to see if I can post some stuff. 

Perhaps we will pick up our tale from the Saguaro National Park near Tucson, AZ.... 

Here are some more pictures;

Saguaro National Park Pictures

or try this photobucket story....