Grand Canyon National Park to Billings, MT (Hwy 64 east to Hwy 89 north; Hwy 89A to Kanab, UT; Hwy 89 north to I-15; I-90 to Billings)
The weather has taken a long-term turn for the worse with Augie and me wakening to snow the last day in the Grand Canyon. The original plan had us heading north into central Utah for a week but the forecast for a winter storm has derailed those plans and now after the Grand Canyon we are just going to head for home. But first, the rest of the Grand Canyon!
The eastern third of Grand Canyon National Park is not as visited as the rest, primarily because the road (Hwy 64) east really isn’t on the path to anywhere. There is no shuttle bus and I found easy parking at the pull-outs. The views are different here in that I am in the middle of snow showers, fog and rain but the spectacular nature of the canyon shines through. Heading east on Hwy 64 my first stop is Grandview Point.
Grandview Point
The vistas from Grand Point show the variety of weather taking place around the canyon as spots of sunlight alternate with snow squalls and low clouds.
Next up is Moran Point, a popular starting point for hikes down to the canyon floor. The weather at the point is not great; cold, windy and spitting snow but it is even worse down in the canyon. I overhear a guide telling a small groups that winds gusting up to 60 mph with low visibility are delaying their departure but that the weather can change in an instant. The picture says it all…
The view just continues to unfold in all directions…
Next up is Lipan Point. The view shows that the canyon is getting wider and the river bottom is visible below.
Lipan Point
The rather “flat” delta in the center of the picture on the north side of the river is Unkar Point, home to human habitation for thousands of years. Natives grew corn, beans, squash and cotton along the river below.
Turning to my right I can just see the tip of Desert View Watchtower to the east (upper right.)
Devil’s View Watchtower
The Desert View Watchtower was built in 1932 and marks the eastern edge of Grand Canyon National Park 22 miles from the main village. Designed by Mary J. Colter to resemble an ancient Puebloan ruin, the tower rises four stories from a base deliberately designed to look decayed by the ages.
The interior of the base is decorated with Navajo designs and a steep spiral staircase curves up to the viewpoint at the top of the tower.
The views open up in all directions showing how the canyon narrows to the west.
A sad bit of US aviation history is that in 1956 two airplanes actually collided above the river in the picture above on the left in one of the greatest air disasters of early US aviation history. A United Airlines and TWA airplane were both trying to avoid thunderstorms when they hit each other with the loss of all 128 people on board. A grim reminder that the glorious view can mask the hidden reality of the remote canyon. Life is not a post card…
You can’t really tell from the pictures but it was actually quite windy, cold and snowing heavily. I didn’t linger! It’s easy to forget just how high the elevation of the park is until you leave it. Heading east on Hwy 64 to Cameron Junction the road passes down through at first dense juniper forest and then out onto the arid plains of the Colorado Plateau.
Cameron has been a trading post along the Little Colorado River for over a hundred years. The Little Colorado cuts a deep canyon through the plateau as it heads north to the Grand Canyon, barely visible from the highway running along the south side.
A suspension bridge was built in 1911 over the Little Colorado River, providing easier access to the lands of the Hopi and Navajo in northeast Arizona. It’s a bit difficult to see but in this picture the suspension bridge is black and the modern highway bridge is behind it with only the pillars rising from the riverbed visible.
The trading post is an oasis in the arid and sparsely settled northeastern corner of Arizona and the primary site of tourist services before setting off into the plateau with a hotel, large Native American gift shop, restaurant and gas station clustered at the southern end of the bridge.
Highway 89 heads north under threatening skies as we head towards Lee’s Ferry, the first opportunity to cross the Colorado River since the Boulder Dam outside of Las Vegas hundreds of miles to the west.
The Vermilion Cliffs loom across the plateau to the north, the Colorado River runs along their base.
Lee’s Ferry has been a crossing point of the river for thousands of years as it is virtually the only spot for hundreds of miles in each direction where the river is easily forded from both sides. The Navajo Bridge, built in 1928, provided the first bridge over the Colorado in the entire Colorado Plateau and replaced the ferry. The river runs calmly in both directions, now tamed by the Glen Canyon Dam to the northeast.
The highway now runs west along the base of the spectacular Vermilion Cliffs.
The river angles away to the southwest as it enters the Grand Canyon and the highway heads northwest, climbing and falling through the rugged southern Utah landscape.
Note the threatening skies, snow is in the forecast along with high winds (which you know are not my favorite environment for travelling) so I cut short my time in Utah and head for home. This has been an epic exploration of Arizona and I continue to be grateful that readers are interested in our adventures. The plan is to spend the summer in Montana (maybe a short journey?) and then head out onto the open road at the end of August. Destination? Not sure, but in an election year, maybe Washington D.C. beckons…
Thanks again!
Larry
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