We spent Saturday, October 23rd, getting our camp set up, dog pen setup, lights put up on the pen and on the fence to the side of the campsite and the projector that illuminates the trees. We don’t always put up lights and the projector, but they make the campsite glow and are nice to have.
We drove into Camp Verde and looked around Fort Verde State Historic Park. The fort was a base for General Crook’s U.S. Army scouts and soldiers in the 1870s and 1880s. The park is the best-preserved example of an Indian Wars period fort in Arizona.
We drove north out of Camp Verde on Sunday, October 24th, to Montezuma’s Castle National Monument (https://www.nps.gov/moca/index.htm). Established December 8th, 1906, Montezuma Castle National Monument has been the center of attention for archaeology in Arizona. The twenty room high-rise apartment like complex is both amazing to look at and full of mystery. We next drove to Montezuma Well, a natural limestone sinkhole, through which some 1,500,000 US gallons of water emerge each day from an underground spring. The well is geologically very similar to the sinkholes and cenotes found in Florida and the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico, that is, a limestone cave that has collapsed to expose its subterranean water source. The ruins of several prehistoric dwellings are scattered in and around the rim of the Well. Their inhabitants belonged to several indigenous American cultures that are believed to have occupied the Verde Valley between 700 and 1425. The well looked very inviting until we learned that the water is highly carbonated and contains high levels of arsenic. It also contains the Motobdella montezuma leech (Ugh!).
As with Montezuma Castle, the label “Montezuma” is a misnomer: the Aztec emperor Montezuma had no connection to the site or the early indigenous peoples that occupied the area.
We drove north on Monday, October 25th, to Sedona, Arizona, famous for it’s red rock canyons and rock formations. Sedona is a very trendy location with restaurants, boutiques and tours, including the iconic “Pink Jeep Tour” that takes visitors on off road adventures. We had lunch at the Open Range Grill and Tavern (https://www.openrangesedona.com/), with great views of the red rocks. We had visited Sedona in 2001, using our timeshare to stay at the Hilton Resort at Bell Rock.
We returned to Sedona, very very early on Tuesday, October 26th, to meet Great Ventures Grand Canyon Tour (https://www.greatventures.com/grand-canyon-railroad-tour/), with driver/guide “Steveebe” Benson. With 7 other passengers, we drove north on AZ 89A climbing through Oak Creek Canyon. At the top of the canyon, we continued on to Flagstaff to pick up one additional passenger. Steveebe provided great commentary and historical details to the sites we passed. From Flagstaff, we drove west to Williams, AZ, a featured point on the old Route 66 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_66). Running from Chicago to Los Angeles, Route 66 served as a primary route for those who migrated west in the 1900’s.
At Williams, we boarded the Grand Canyon Railway (https://www.thetrain.com/) for our trip to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Our coach was named Kokopelli, a fertility deity, usually depicted as a humpbacked flute player. Beginning with the first national parks in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, the railroads were the best/only way to visit the parks. The railroads invested heavily in this tourist trade, including building inns, such as the El Tovar (https://www.grandcanyonlodges.com/lodging/el-tovar-hotel/) at the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon Railway is a remnant of the railroad involvement in tourist travel. Other entrepreneurs became involved in providing services for railroad travelers. In early railroad days, there were no decent accommodations for overnight stays or dining in the towns on railroad routes.
An entrepreneur named Fred Harvey saw this need and developed the Harvey House lunchrooms, restaurants, souvenir shops, and hotels, which served rail passengers, the first restaurant chain in the United States. He was also a leader in promoting tourism in the American Southwest in the late 19th century. Fred Harvey and his employees successfully brought new higher standards of both civility and dining to a region widely regarded in the era as “the Wild West.” He hired women between the ages of 18 and 30, “Harvey Girls”, did not permit them to marry until they had put in a full year of work and housed them adjacent to the restaurants, where they were supervised by the most senior Girl, who enforced curfews and chaperoned male visits. Roughly 5000 Harvey Girls moved out West to work and ultimately married. The book “Appetite for America” by Stephen Fried details the Harvey company. It is on Walt’s reading list.
Arriving at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, Stevieebe met us with the van and we drove east along the canyon rim, stopping at Yaki Point, Grandview Point, Navajo Point and Desert View, with the Desert View Tower. We had lots of fantastic views of the Canyon. We had visited the Grand Canyon in 2001 and Walt and the kids had hiked down to the bottom on the Kiabab Trail, camped at Phantom Ranch campground and hiked back out on the Bright Angel Trail. It was 113oF at the bottom. On this van trip, it was in the 40’s and very windy. We exited the park at the East Gate and drove to the Cameron Trading Post (Navajo Nation) where highway 89A crossed the Little Colorado River. Walt had been eyeing a cowboy hat for some time and was able to purchase a real nice Stetson hat. We returned to Sedona and then drove back to our motorhome at Zane Grey. A very long but very enjoyable day.
We spent Wednesday, October 27th, resting from the Grand Canyon trip and doing laundry.
Walt had taken a virtual course to become a Certified Interpretive Guide (CIG) from the National Association for Interpretation – NAI (https://www.interpnet.com/), in January and February while we were staying at Trail’s End RV Park in Floral City, Florida. Our son, Michael, who used to work at the Georgia Aquarium, in Atlanta, had taken this course and recommended it to Walt. Interpreters connect visitors to important natural, cultural, and historical resources at parks, nature centers, historical sites, aquariums, zoos, and anywhere that people come to learn about places. The certification is useful for working as a park ranger or a volunteer who guides visitors and gives nature or historical programs. Walt is hoping to use this certification when we work as camp hosts next summer.
On Thursday, October 28th, we met the instructor of Walt’s CIG course, Nikki Julian, for dinner at the Colt 804 Grill (https://coltgrill.com/) in Cottonwood, AZ. Nikki works for an Arizona Fish & Wildlife organization, teaches CIG courses as a side job and lives in Payson, AZ, up on the Mogollon Rim, east of the Verde Valley. Walt had really enjoyed the course and the participants who hailed from California, Arizona, Missouri, Maryland, Florida, Ohio, Oregon, Calgary, Alberta and even as far away as Australia. Nikki had made the course special and it was great to meet her in person. We hope to see her again on our travels through Arizona.
We rested and worked around the motorhome on Friday, October 29th.
On Saturday, October 30th, Walt hiked the McDonald Trail to some small cliff dwellings above the Clear Creek Valley. This was a ½ mile trail up to the top of a mesa. Just below the rim, in natural rock cavities were cliff dwellings with stone walls and granaries for food storage. Walt didn’t enter the dwelling out of respect for the anthropological value of the ruins, but enjoyed viewing them. The views of the Verde Valley were also spectacular. That evening we enjoyed a Halloween Party at the RV Park. It was held at the “ramada”, a southwestern shelter equipped with a roof but no walls.
We spent Sunday, October 31st, relaxing in camp and then packing up for the drive to Tucson. We were really looking forward to “winter camp” at Voyager RV Resort. We plan to be there until March 1st (four months). We were getting a little bit tired of the packing/unpacking and moving. Packing up camp normally takes about two hours. Walt handles all the outside activities: putting the dog pen in the Thule basket on top of the car, putting the bikes on the rack on the back of the motorhome, taking down the cellphone booster pole (if we needed to improve our streaming power), dumping the black water (sewage), flushing the black water tank with water, dumping the grey water (shower/sink water), unhooking the water and electrical. Martha packs up the interior, making sure that all loose items on counters and the table are secure so that they don’t go flying when we hit speed bumps or travel unevenly over driveway entrances. Together, they put in the slideouts (four of them) and retract the stabilizing jacks. They then hook up the car on the Blue Ox hitch and drive away.
We traveled to Tucson on Monday, November 1st. We left the Verde Valley and traveled south on I-17 to Phoenix. In Phoenix, we turned east onto I-10 and continued south, past Casa Grande, Picacho Peak and the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch, arriving on the north end of Tucson. We drove past downtown Tucson to the southeast side of town to Voyager RV Resort (https://voyagerrv.com/) on South Kolb Road. We had booked our site at Voyager more than a year ago and had site 11-260. The 11 signifies 11th street and then site 260. Voyager is a large place with over 1500 sites, about 900 of them permanent “park models” and 600 RV spaces. A Park Model is a manufactured house of about 400 square feet. Our site is in the red circle in the below diagram, 2nd from the end on the upper street. We are a green site (blue & green sites are pets allowed). We are very close to the dog walk and to the central activities: ball room, library, craft rooms, pickleball courts, pools/hot tubs, Fat Willy’s restaurant, Activities Office and Administration.
