Our first campout on the Arizona Strip
The trip with these lovely ladies began at the historic Jacob Lake Ranger Cabin, built in 1910 and is 30 miles from Grand Canyon's North Rim.
Jumpup Cabin provides a unique opportunity to stay in a historic cabin as part of Arizona's Rooms with a View cabin rental program. Since the 1900s, Jumpup Cabin has been used by ranchers as well as the Forest Service, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
We spent three nights here. Ellen and I slept in Coyote Hawk, Sue slept in her Four Wheel Camper Fleet, and the other two braved the cabin. There was a composting pit toilet, a trailhead, and some beautiful sunrises and sunsets.
We throuroughly enjoyed each others company and I found a new person to play guitar with! Monica, who used to come to my classroom years ago with her dogs to read with my students, plays in the Flagstaff Uke Jam. We found some songs we could play together and she has a beautiful voice which makes it fun to strum along with.
On the way out we went down the Brow Monument trail in search of one of the few remaining survey markers left in place from the John Wesley Powell surveying expedition of 1872.
The trail offers a number of Forest Service interpretive signs about the history of Brow Monument and its use in the first geological surveys of the Arizona Strip. The remains of the survey marker provides views from the “brow” of the Kaibab Plateau north across the Arizona Strip and toward the Grand Staircase of southern Utah. We also found three more recent survey markers.
Anniversary Trip to Cottonwood
On October 12th we headed to Cottonwood to celebrate, well, us. We've been together 26 years! On the way home we were gifted with this magnificent rainbow spanning the Verde Valley. Cars were pulling over all over the place to take a picture.
Pumphouse Wash HIke
In mid-October we headed out on Pumphouse Wash Trail from home to enjoy the flowing waters. We generally never have this much water running in the wash this time of year. But, then again, we don't usually have three remnants of hurricanes coming up from Mexico to dump seven inches of rain in the Northland. Our hike was cut short when we decided to keep our feet dry and not wade through the side canyon waters.
Wait until you see what the November 1st storm did! :0
Underground Flagstaff Tour
The underground tour was SO fun. However, we did NOT go beneath the streets of Flagstaff due to safety concerns. Our tour guide was a second grade teacher in town who has made himself a historical specialist on our Mountain Town. To the right is an old wall to a jail that was last used in 1914. Above is a door we've never noticed before where they used to toss out the newspapers to be delivered.
We also discovered new murals and wall art as we wandered through downtown.
Halloween Decor/Day of the Dead
Ellen's beautiful handiwork in decorating for Halloween. She also crafted our Dia de los Muertos altar of our loved ones. The altar is my favorite "holiday' decoration of the year as we get to remember and honor those who have gone before us.
Mango visit #2
Mango and Chels arrived on October 22nd in Phoenix, where we went down to pick them up. We went to the wetlands with our binoculars, of which Mango thought it was easier to look through them backwards which made everything farther away. But then he could use them EVERYwhere...in the house, in the car, in the store. He loved his 'noculars.
We also did a "big" hike down to the pond, up the ravine and back to our house.
Quiet times at home and snuggling with his new thrift store truck.
TRAINS!! We had to go see the trains which meant we HAD to get coffee at Macy's.
Olga invited us to Trunk or Treat at the Cancer Support Center. It was small but great fun and just the right size for little Mango. We then headed to Brightside Bookstore with a gift certificate Olga gifted Mango with. He chose a couple of books which mom had to read repeatedly the next couple of days.
We met up with these fine folks at Sunset Park in Sedona. Chelsea and Ellen have know Gary since forever. He was Sam Drucker's best friend from before he and Ellen were married. They live in Cottonwood. We don't visit enough.
Lake Pleasant
Someone had a rock painting party at a nearby camp and left these behind.
On October 28th, Ellen's birthday, she drove the family back to Sky Harbor early in the morning. I met her at Lake Pleasant for some birthday paddle boarding. We set up camp that afternoon, paddled on the 29th, intended to stay until Nov. 1st for a family event but the rains chased us home on the 30th.
A unique "tent" at a nearby camp.
Some local wildlife. This bunny was running from the coyote that was wandering through the empty camps. Kitty came and hung out one evening before slinking off at Coyote made it to the back of our camp.
The sunrise and rainbow the morning of the 30th. The rains began around 8am and didn't stop for three days.
On Halloween we decided to, in the window before the next storm, drive down to Dewey and watch game 7 of the WNBA finals with the Alis. The intent was to head on to Phoenix the next day for Maddie's bridal shower but alas, we forgot something important and drove home in the rain following the game. And it's a GOOD thing we DID!! You'll have to wait for the November blog to see the rest of the story. ;)
Create Your Own Website With Webador