Cortez-Gallup-Flagstaff - STR-2021-16

Friday, 9 July

With Tom and Heidi's truck sorted out and our reservations at Ridgway State Park at an end, Sprinty headed off for his next adventures. First up was to get some golf in, so we headed southwest to Cortez, CO, to play golf at Conquistador Golf Course.

Enroute, we enjoyed another section of the San Juan Skyway Scenic Byway. The San Juan Skyway is one of the most scenic drives in America, spanning elevations from 6,200 feet near Cortez to 11,008 feet at Red Mountain Pass.

Along the route you will find fresh subalpine forests, historic mining towns, expansive cattle ranges, and prehistoric Indian ruins. And beautiful Colorado mountain scenery. The route connects Ridgway, Ouray, Silverton, Durango, Marcos, Cortez, Dolores and a Telluride.

Sprinty's adventures this week completed the Cortez to Silverton sections. Sprinty completed the Cortez to Durango section in March 2017 on his inaugural trip with the Van Huttens. Next up is the Durango to Silverton section - an adventure planned soon.

We allowed extra time to enjoy the trip, and still arrived early. We both had a mix of good shots and ones we wondered where they came from. The course layout was nice, and the grass was in great condition. The greens were fast, and got faster as they dried out from the watering early in the morning. Darrell managed to lead at the turn, and held on for the back nine to take honors on the day.

At the end of the round, the temperatures had climbed to near 100 degrees. We made a stop at the only Starbucks in Cortez for Darrell to pay up, picked up some groceries at Walmart and checked into the KOA campground in Cortez by 2 PM. Plugged in and tried to cool Sprinty down with the air conditioner.

We spent part of the afternoon coming up with a plan for the next few days, including calling a campground to inquire if they had any campsites for tomorrow, a Saturday night. SCORE! We secured a water-electric site (desired for the anticipated temperatures) for a Saturday night with less than 24 notice.

Saturday, 10 July

Our original thoughts about this segment of adventures were to visit some National Monuments in northeast Arizona. The National Monuments are located on the Navajo Reservation and the monuments were closed to protect the Native Americans from COVID.

So we headed south to Gallup, NM to Red Rock Park, east of Gallup. The county park seems set up for hosting rodeos, and has a campground. Set against red rocks, it also has two hiking trails, both highly rated on AllTrails.

We had to choose between the Church Rock Trail (2.4 miles) or the Pyramid Rock Trail (3 miles). The photos attached to the trail descriptions suggested the Pyramid Rock Trail might be slightly more scenic, even if one of the review comments warned that the trail was actually 3.5 miles.

It was already 87 degrees when we set off on the Pyramid Rock Trail at 10:15am.

The red rock formations reminded us of Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada, and Sedona, AZ area.

As we hiked up, we could see Church Rock to the east

Near the top, we saw a number of hoo doos.

The final ascent to the top of Pyramid Rock was steep, so Kris let Darrell climb up by himself.

Returning to Sprinty was downhill, and the loose, dry sand we had slogged through in places on the way up was a welcome foot landing spot on the way down to cushion our feet.

We filled up with fuel while in Cortez as we are starting to see some minor issues with gas and diesel availability. We are trying to "live off the top of the tank" so we don't encounter a surprise that curtails our adventure plans.

We headed west on I-40 to Painted Desert/Petrified Forest National Park.

Our plan for the day was based on "How To Spend A Day At Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park" (https://www.travelawaits.com/2484810/a-day-at-petrified-forest-national-park/). We started at the Painted Desert Visitor Center.

We stopped at several of the Painted Desert overlooks.

Tawa Point

In the distance, we could see what appeared to be a rain storm, which was an interesting backdrop.

We even saw a very tall dirt devil or tornado on the left edge of the clouds

We kept an eye on the sky for the rest of the afternoon.

One of the features of Painted Desert/Petrified Forest National Park is a 1932 Studebaker where the original US 66 crossed the National Park, making Petrified Forest the only National Park in the country with a portion of Historic Route 66 within its boundaries.

We continued to stop at many of the overlooks, but one of the two major highlights for us was Blue Mesa. Starting with a 3.5 mile loop drive to the mesa, we stopped and hiked the one-mile, paved Blue Mesa Trail that enters into the vibrant badlands with equally colorful petrified wood.

The badlands area reminded us of our recent visit to Toadstool Geological Park near Harrison, NE.

We also checked out the Agate Bridge, a petrified log that became exposed due to erosion. It is supported by a concrete beam that was placed in 1917.

As the sign says, inevitably, water now carving the small gully under Agate Bridge will cause its collapse. Water will always have its way.

Our last stop was at Crystal Forest which has many petrified logs that glimmer with quartz crystals along the 0.8 mile loop Trail. Despite the temperature being over 100 degrees, we hiked the loop trail.

Crystal Forest was the only thing we saw today that looked familiar from our brief visit in July 1986, 35 years ago this month. We probably remember the weather more than any of the park's features - it was over 100 degrees, hot, sunny and we were traveling in a 1966 Porsche 912 that did not have air conditioning.

By now, the winds were howling. While hiking at the Blue Mesa, the winds were gusting over 20mph. The breeze made the hike more comfortable feeling, although we continued to monitor the sky for lightening and rain. While at Crystal Forest, the winds remained high.

Just as we pulled out of the Crystal Forest parking area headed for the park exit, starting up a hill, the transmission shifted abruptly and Sprinty's dash lit up with the lights for Electronic Stability Program (ESP), Anti-lock Brake System, and Collision Avoidance System, affectionately referred to in Sprinter forums as "the Three Stooges". Having experienced this a couple of times before, we suspected it was either due to the gusty winds overwhelming the ESP sensors or a defective wheel sensor (a known issue with Sprinters that have been up fitted to RVs). We immediately wondered whether the affliction that impacted Tom and Heidi's Ford F-150 was contagious. Next, we started running through scenarios including drivability and repair options.

We continued to Winslow, AZ. As we headed west, the winds seemed to pick up. At one time, the winds were easily 50-60mph and Sprinty was getting blown around, especially with the Electronic Stability Program shutdown. We also got alerts from our go to weather app, Dark Sky, with a Severe Thunderstorm Warning - hail, high winds with gusts over 60mph.

Our stop in Winslow was brief - we just had to stand on the corner in Winslow, AZ, at Standing on the Corner Park. A rite of passage for anyone traveling to Winslow, especially RVers.

Well, I'm a standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona

And such a fine sight to see

It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford

Slowin' down to take a look at me

"Take It Easy" is a song written by Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey! It was most famously recorded by the Eagles (with Frey singing lead vocals).

While parked at Winslow, the Three Stooge lights self corrected. Maybe a good sign. Well for awhile. As we continued west on I-40, a sudden gust of wind (40+mph) resulted in the return of the Three Stooges.

We were happy to get off the road about 20 miles later and stayed at the Meteor Crater RV Park west of Winslow, AZ. Amazingly, we made our reservation for a Saturday night last night.

Sunday, 11 July

We started off early to arrive at the Meteor Crater and Barringer Space Museum when they opened at 7am. And took great delight that the Three Stooges did not make an appearance. We are hopeful the cause was just the gusty winds and a visit to the Mercedes Urgent Care is not required.

The meteor crater was created by a huge iron-nickel meteorite estimated to be about 150 feet across and weighing several thousand tons. Traveling at 26,000 miles per hour, the impact created a bowl-shaped crater 700 feet deep and over 4,000 feet wide - a force 150 times greater than an atomic bomb.

The Discovery Center and Museum were very well done, and Darrell was very impressed with the overall condition of the facilities (the engineer in him slipping out). Unlike so many tourist attractions, this one was being maintained at a high level, and constantly improved. The exhibits were well done.

With a full day planned, we opted not to do the 30-minute guided tour. After viewing the exhibits and taking in the crater from three of four overlooks, we continued west.

Next stop was the Bearizona Wildlife Park in Williams, AZ (https://bearizona.com), west of Flagstaff. We first heard of the park from Joe and Cait Russo of YouTube channel "We're the Russos": https://youtu.be/3fOakL5OpfE

We called ahead to confirm we could drive Sprinty through the wildlife park. They confirmed it was permitted and they let us know we would have to take the eBikes off the rear bike rack - apparently the wolves and bears like to play with things on the back of cars and vans.

After removing the eBikes, we started with the 3-mile drive through the park. The drive-through area showcased Rocky Mountain Goats, Reindeer, Pronghorn Deer, American Burro, Alaskan Tundra Wolves, Arctic Wolves, Black Bears, Bison, and Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep.

After completing the drive-thru, we toured the walk-thru area. The Jaguar and the black bear cub were probably our favorite exhibits.

Sprinty then turned east and headed for Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument located just north of Flagstaff, AZ.

Erupting sometime between 1040 and 1100, Sunset Crater is the most recent in a six million year history of volcanic activity in the Flagstaff area. The cinder cone is remarkably well preserved. And off limits to hiking to the top to examine more closely.

After stopping at the visitor center, we drove the 34-mile scenic loop that winds from Highway 89 through Sunset Crater Volcano and Wupatki National Monuments. The scenic loop leads from the high Ponderosa Pine forests of Sunset Crater, down nearly 2,000 feet in elevation to the red rocks and painted desert vistas of Wupatki.

We stopped and hiked the 0.2 mile A'a Trail. This trail leads through sharp blocks of rough, basaltic a'a lava that formed as the Bonito Lave Flow cooled over 900 years ago.

A little further down the road, we hiked the one-mile Lava Flow Trail at the base of Sunset Crater Volcano. We saw a squeeze-up, a spatter cone and one of the many lava tubes.

We continued on the scenic drive to the Wupatki National Monument and the Wukoki Pueblo, a unique four-room pueblo recommended by the Ranger. By now, it was 104 degrees, so visiting each of the pueblo ruins in Wupatki National Monument was more than we wanted to do in this heat.

We set out for Page, AZ, and along the way, temperatures got to 109 degrees.

Our campsite for the night was at Page Lake Powell Campground in Page, AZ. Despite the name of the campground, it is not on Lake Powell, which fueled several negative reviews. The park itself was just fine. And with the temperatures, plugging in to run the air conditioning was a key factor in picking this camping option.