A Year About

Did you know that one of a potbellied pig’s favorite snacks is microwave popcorn? Yesterday as we were finishing up with horses, we went into the Horse Haven building. Inside, we could smell and hear the popcorn popping. I thought, “Oh, how cool. On Fridays the staff has popcorn to celebrate the end of the week. Kind of like we did for our kids when I was teaching.”

Not. I looked down and saw 5-gallon buckets filled with popcorn and was then told that it’s for the pigs. Some pigs are walked on leashes and some are not. One way to get the ones who are not leashed to follow you is to walk ahead of them leaving a trail of popcorn for them to follow. And they do. I would too, come to think of it.

Yesterday, I forgot to tell you Alex’s story. He is a horse that broke his leg. His owner called the renderer to pick him up and left him for dead in the field. It snowed and the renderer never showed up. I don’t know whether the owner forgot about Alex or didn’t realize the renderer had never shown up or whether he was just outrageously cruel, but it wasn’t until spring when the snow melted that he realized that Alex was still alive and his leg had healed. Badly, but it was healed. Now he is at Best Friends and doing fine.

Another amazing horse story? OK. There is a horse coming to Best Friends that also broke his leg, this time it was a break much like Barbaro’s. Everyone was sure he would have to be put down, but he was taken to Wyoming for surgery. The veterinarian amputated his leg below the hock (what looks like the horse’s knee) and fixed him with a titanium prosthetic leg. Apparently, the horse was up and walking on it the day after surgery. You can’t make this stuff up.



Elise and I struck out on our own this morning while Bobby stayed back at the trailer and got us ready for departure. Our first stop was dogs. We were assigned to go to Old Friends, an area of older dogs who get taken on walks every day. Before we got here, we were told that Elise wouldn’t be able to walk any of the dogs on her own because of her age. The lady who worked at the runs, Joyce, was very kind and found two that Elise was able to handle on her own, Zoot and Tipper. There was a path near the buildings that we took the dogs on. They always seemed to hurry up toward the end of the walk and we found out why. They get treats when the walk is over. Incentive to get them to come back!



We spent over an hour walking all kinds of dogs and since I don’t know my breeds, I will try to remember their names: Zoot, Brittany, JC, Sir Blackie, Gramps, Brandon, Vern and Tipper. My favorites were Gramps and Vern, but we safely left without having adopted any.

Mid-morning, we headed over to cats. We hadn’t planned on going to cats at all but after Elise saw them on the tour, she really wanted some time with them. We were assigned to head over to Jill’s Diner (not sure why it’s named that) to help out. There we met the caregiver and another volunteer and got to work. The building is divided into four narrow rooms, keeping the cats separated. Some of the cats were diabetic, some had FIV (the feline version of HIV). Each section had an indoor and screened outdoor component, allowing the cats to move freely between the two. Every day, the runs get cleaned. This is what is involved: sweep and mop the floors, wipe down all hard surfaces with a bleach solution, wash the windows, brush all of the mats and blankets that the cats snooze on, and clean and empty the litter boxes. Every day.

I have to admit that I was hoping we would get assigned to a place where all the cats just wanted to snuggle. To my surprise, Elise loved the work! She kept asking the caregiver what she could do to help. We finally left close to noon to pick up Bobby for lunch.



Lunch was yummy once again. This time we had mac ‘n’ cheese, nachos, a tomato soup, fruit, and the salad bar. Gabriel (the founder we met yesterday) came in after us and joined us again. He is such a nice guy. Elise thinks he looks “cool”. He does, too. He looks a little bit like one of the Bee Gees with slightly less volume to his hair but the same accent. He’s got a great smile and asked Elise lots of questions. They talked about the merits of being an only child versus being the youngest of four.

After lunch, we had one precious hour left and it was back to the cats. This time, we merely visited and snuggled. I spent some quality time with Chester, a black cat who didn’t like to be in the outside enclosure so we hung out inside. Elise found Tinkerbell to sit with for a while. We also found that there were some cats that just wanted to play. Elise found a string toy that she dangled and some of the cats went wild. We had cats leaving the ground completely in an effort to attack this fiendish string! Bobby visited with Mitzy a little bit but it turns out she is completely crazy and he left her after a scratch or two.



Finally it was time to leave. Elise’s temperament had been wonderful these past two days. She has been agreeable, kind, fun and thoughtful. As soon as it was time to go, she just fell apart. It was just too much to think about leaving.



She has already planned our trips back. Our first trip will only be a week, then one for two weeks, then three. After those trips, we will come back for a month and the next thing you know, we will be here for a year!

We would all love to come back and see our friends again, both human and animal.

We have stumbled upon an amazing place. I thought stopping here would be a nice interlude and something that Elise would enjoy. I had no idea the scope of the place or how much we would love it. It quickly became Elise’s favorite stop of this whole trip.

Best Friends Animal Society was started by a group of friends who wanted to rescue cats and dogs who would otherwise be euthanized. They started out with around 200 acres near Prescott, Arizona. One of the founders traveled through the Kanab area, liked it for the dry climate and more moderate temperatures year round, and asked if there was any land for sale in the area. The land Best Friends bought, after soliciting family and friends for money, was once a working cattle ranch with 3,000 acres. Eventually another 800 acres were acquired. The organization leases 30,000 acres from the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) to create a buffer zone.


The Welcome Center

The sanctuary is located in Angel Canyon, one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. The bluffs are an incredible combination of reds and creamy whites. It is much greener than you would expect the desert to be (or at least than I would expect it to be) with cottonwoods, juniper and heavenly smelling sage bushes dotting the landscape. It turns out that this canyon has been in a lot of movies. The landscape is perfect for the quintessential westerns. We saw a barn that was once a prop for a Disney movie, One Little Indian, starring James Garner and a young Jodie Foster. The barn is now used as a shelter for three horses, one of whom, Alex, has an amazing story (more on that later). We scooped poop out of that barn today. The Apple Dumpling Gang was also filmed here, starring Don Knotts and Tim Conway. Elise was excited at this since she has seen it. We’ll have to rent it again now that we know where it was filmed.


The barn from One Little Indian

In order to volunteer here, you take a 90-minute tour of the sanctuary. It is here you really begin to understand the scope. There are over 300,000 active donors. The sanctuary employs 3-4 full-time veterinarians and Best Friends is the largest employer in the county. Currently, there are over 650 dogs here and almost 900 cats. And all of the facilities are amazingly clean, thanks to the staff and the many, many volunteers who donate their time.


Lots of voracious hummingbirds here too

Among the animals that call Best Friends home, you have horses, dogs, cats, sheep, goats, parakeets, parrots, cockatoos, cockatiels, peacocks, mules, bunnies, pot-bellied pigs and some wild animals that are being rehabilitated so they can be released back into the wild. And these are just the animals they take care of. On the land they own and lease, you will find (and sometimes see) wild turkeys, cottontails, jackrabbits, coyote, mountain lions, grey foxes, mule deer, quail, bobcats and lynx. Surprisingly, they have never had any trouble with the wild animals attacking any of the animals that are part of the sanctuary. There are enough wild prey animals for the predators that they don’t bother with the others.



The dogs are kept in octagonal buildings with access to outdoor runs 24-hours a day. There is natural light coming from the top, a fan to circulate the air, swamp coolers to cool them off in the summer and radiant heat in the cement floors for those cold winter days. They’re not hurtin’.

Best Friends runs the nation’s largest sanctuary for abused and abandoned animals. During Hurricane Katrina, Best Friends was one of many organizations that went down to help. April, one of the horses we groomed today, came to the sanctuary four months ago literally covered with sores and with the care she has gotten here, only has a few scars to show what her previous life was like. There are dogs here that have been rescued from “puppy mills,” essentially breeding factories, where the moms live in cages and the pups are taken away to be sold soon after they are born. These dogs, having lived in cages all their lives, some for over 10 years, must be taught basic skills, like how to climb stairs.

Twenty-two of Michael Vick’s dogs are here. They are called the Vicktory Dogs. No volunteers are allowed to work with them and staff are with them 24-hours a day. In an effort to socialize the dogs, some of the staff live there and the dogs even sleep with them. They are hoping that all but two will eventually be adopted. The courts have ordered that two of the dogs must stay at Best Friends for the rest of their lives. We saw the dogs today in their runs and they seem to be doing great.

After our tour we headed over to the horse area to see a demonstration by one of the trainers. Linda was working with a Mustang named Dewey rescued from a Utah herd. For about an hour she showed us how they train the horses and while Bobby and I were fascinated by the Parelli technique, Elise got a little bored, though she was happy to watch a horse.


A horse on a teeter-totter, hmm

As a volunteer, you are invited to join the staff and other volunteers for lunch at the Angel Terrace. This building sits on top of one of the bluffs, overlooking the canyon. For $4, you enjoy a wonderful vegetarian buffet. Today was salad bar, fruit crepes, a soup (I didn’t check to see what kind), bean salad and fresh fruit. There is dessert, too. While we were eating lunch, we realized that we were sitting next to the National Geographic film crew that was on site to film episodes of their show, Dogtown. Apparently, they have shot and televised several episodes already. They have been extremely popular so they are back to do some more. Also at the table with them was one of the founders of Best Friends, Gabriel. When the crew left, Gabriel was still eating his lunch so we struck up a conversation with him. He is very pleasant and told Elise funny stories about the dogs he had growing up. Bobby and I asked him some questions about the organization and facilities at Best Friends. It was an delightful way to end our lunch.



And now for the funnest part of the day: volunteering with the horses! We showed up at Horse Haven at 1:15 and watched the obligatory video with its information and guidelines. After that the fun began. We spent the afternoon with Steve, who worked there, and two other volunteers, Mitch and Deb. Part of what you see on the tour are paddocks throughout the property for the horses. There are about 25-30 horses there right now and they all need their space. Most paddocks have 3-4 horses in them. Some cannot socialize with others for various reasons and are kept to themselves.


Danine, Elise and Deb grooming Strawberry, I believe

In the afternoon, we rode in the feed truck with Steve to muck, water and groom the horses. All three of us rode in the bed of the pickup along with Mitch, the poop scoop rakes and poop wagon. It was a wonderful afternoon. Steve has only been working at Best Friends since last October, but has worked at the San Diego Zoo and at Sea World (with the Anhesier-Busch Clydesdales), among other things. Mitch is from Ohio and came here with his wife after she spent a girls’ weekend here some time ago. Deb found out about Best Friends in 1991 on a trip through this area to see the national parks. Without seeing the place, she has been a member since ‘91 and this is her first time visiting. She and her husband Bruce have been here for almost two weeks and they have adopted two dogs already! This brings their total animal population up to four (they already have two cats) in their 30′ fifth-wheel trailer. They will be featured in one of the National Geographic shows since they adopted Gracie, one of the puppymill moms.


Elise and Deb scoopin’ poop

OK — back to the horses. Ask Elise who her favorite horse was and she will tell you, “Beetlejuice”. She was great with the horses. She scooped poop with the rest of us without complaint, and loved grooming them. Deb had been around the horses before so Elise relied on her expertise when grooming, asking her which brush she thought would be best, etc. I wasn’t needed once. There was a point when I was grooming the same horse she was so that I could spend time with her, but she asked me (nicely, of course) if I could go groom another horse! She wanted to be a big girl and do it herself, but I think she was also thrilled to have other people to talk to!

We finished up with horses close to 5:00 and headed back to the trailer for showers and another meet up with my cousin, Shannon. She took a leave of absence from her job and is traveling full-time with her two dogs, Angus and Lucy. She arranged her schedule a little so that we could meet up while we are all traveling. In a very small-world kind of way, it turns out that she is staying at the same campground as Deb and Bruce and is actually right behind them! When Deb got back from Best Friends she saw Shannon outside and asked her, “Are you Danine’s cousin?”


Bruce, Deb, Danine, (Felicity), Elise, and Shannon

Shannon came over to our trailer for dinner, and a game of Life that Elise won, last night and tonight we decided to head out for sustenance. Turns out Bruce and Deb were going out, too, so we all met up at the Rewind Diner in downtown Kanab. We quickly went for the Retro Burger, at Bruce’s recommendation, and never looked back. Dessert was fried dough in the shape of a pretzel, filled with sweet cream and topped with vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce and whipped cream. Completely decadent, but necessary after a day with the horses, or so I told myself.

After dinner, we ventured over to see Shannon’s trailer and say “hi” to Angus and Lucy. While there, we met up with Deb and Bruce again and met their cats, Bubba and Yoda, and the new dogs, Gracie and Dolly. They invited us in and we had a wonderful time visiting. It was another one of those instances when you just click and you find you could talk for hours. But another day of animals awaits us and so home we went. Shannon leaves tomorrow for Lake Mead and we are heading to Zion after some quality time with some cats and dogs. I’ll tell you more of the animals’ stories in my next post.

We’ve stayed in our share of campgrounds at this point and experienced a broad diversity of campsites. I use the term campsite for convenience. While some have been truly camping sites, many have been parking spaces.

Our site at Best Friends is in their “RV Park.” It was empty when we arrived. Then it was about half full. Now it is filled to capacity. It has two sites. This makes it the ideal size for an RV Park unless you are trying to get a space and none are available — if you’re already there, it’s perfect.



This campsite has several good things about it. The two sites are separated by mature junipers which screen you from your neighbor and provide shade on both sides of the trailer. The site has a concrete pad that is as level as any we’ve parked upon.

The hookups are in the right order. This means the sewer hookup is the farthest back, just like it is on the trailer. Otherwise water and electric have to cross paths with the sewer hose. That’s not a good plan. We’ve had no major sewer mishaps, thankfully, but a good campsite helps to minimize the possibility. Oh, the other thing about sewer. It’s downhill. Sometimes the landscape doesn’t permit the sewer connection to be downhill of the trailer. Sometimes it’s just poorly placed.

Good electric is better than no electric, which is better than bad electric. Bad electric is when the voltage fluctuates a lot based on the demand and dips down below 110 if your A/C or heat pump kicks on. Voltage much below 110 can burn out an A/C unit, and that requires a very expensive repair.



Lastly, we back up to a small cliff overlooking Kanab Creek and looking out on a red rock canyon ornately sculpted by wind and set off nicely by deep blue sky and green juniper and sage. At night the stars are thick and clear. This, I don’t have to tell you, beats neon signs any day of the week.

You know those life-size posters of Shaq and other basketball stars? You can really appreciate how big those guys are. I’m happy with our pictures, but they can’t convey the scope of the Grand Canyon. So it would be handy to have a life-size picture to show people. Maybe one I could fold up and keep in my wallet.

It sounds like folks were impressed with our pictures from our first day here. Today was better. We played a little Monopoly in the morning, then went into the park after lunch. As you saw, we attended the ranger talk on condors. Here are the basic facts: California Condors are very ugly, about four feet tall with a nine-foot wingspan, and weigh 18 to 24 pounds. Like most birds, they can’t smell well. So they follow the turkey vultures to the latest big dead animal. (Turkey vultures are the exception to the poor sense of smell thing.) Turkey vultures soar like drunken sailors. California Condors soar smooth and flat. The ranger had a picture of one in flight with a raven flying directly behind it (and at the same height). They look very similar in silhouette — except the condor is four times larger.



After the talk we drove along the only other road on the north rim, which takes you to Cape Royal and some amazing overlooks. At each pull-off on our 45-minute drive we clambered out of the truck and stood in awe at the view. One advantage of the north rim is its elevation. Because it’s about 1,000 feet higher than the south rim, you can look out across the plains beyond the canyon. At one point the far side was roughly 8.5 miles away and beyond it lay a vast green plateau, unbroken by any man-made construction save for one thin dirt road fading into the distance. We were looking out on the western reaches of the Navajo Indian Reservation.



Cape Royal sits at the tip of a peninsula of forested plateau that stretches far into the canyon. We were surrounded by juniper and pinyon pine woodlands. This is the habitat at the very edges of the cliffs along the north rim. Daredevil trees. Pinyons are small, bush-like in growth habit, and gnarled with handsome green needles. Their cones yield a feast for the pinyon jay: pine nuts. The same ones you mixed into your pasta dish the other day.



Speaking of habitats, the extreme elevation differences here mean there are several widely varied habitats. The highest, where we were camped, are alpine meadow and boreal forest consisting mostly of firs and quaking aspens. A little lower and surrounding the lodge and visitor’s center is the ponderosa pine forest. Ponderosas are great trees. They have long needles, prickly cones, and like fire. Fire clears the forest floor — you probably remember me saying exactly the same thing about redwoods and sequoias. Ponderosas work with one of the unique animals on the north rim, Kaibab squirrels. We saw exactly two while we were here. There are red squirrels too, but they don’t look nearly as distinctive. Kaibabs are charcoal gray, almost black, and have long feathered ears and a big, wispy white tail. They live way up high in the ponderosas and eat the cones. Unlike other squirrels, they don’t store food for the winter. If the snow is deep and they can’t find any cones, they break off the end of a ponderosa branch, discard the bit with the needles, and eat the bark off the stick like you and I eat corn on the cob.



Below the woodlands, the habitat changes to Sonoran desert. We saw this in southern Arizona way back in February. No squirrels down there, but one unique species, the pink rattlesnake. Frankly, I’d prefer squirrels. We didn’t see the creosote, prickly pear cactus, and yucca first hand this time. Maybe Danine and I will come back and do the rim to rim hike. This means descending one mile in elevation, traversing 14 miles to the Colorado, and then ascending another 7 miles (and 1 mile in elevation) to the South Rim. It’s best to do this over a few days. Or watch someone else do it on the Discovery Channel.

The desert gives way to the narrow riparian habitat along the Colorado. Here cottonwoods and willows should be growing and giving shade to critters who live near the water’s edge. Unfortunately, tamarisk trees have taken over. These are Mediterranean trees introduced in Texas for shade and their ability to hold onto the soil of river banks. They’ve muscled out the indigenous trees though. We saw them last at Big Bend and tasted their salty, cedar-like leaves.


That little green line in the window is the Colorado River.

Near Cape Royal is another short trail leading to Angels Window. We saw an opening along the rim and walked over. We looked across to a narrow pier of creamy limestone (ancient, dead sea creatures) with a giant square knocked (eroded) out of it. Through it, we saw for the first time the Colorado River.



We walked out on top of Angels Window too. There are beefy steel railings along the outermost section. None of us could imagine walking out there, wind blowing hard, without those railings. The view is not at all bad. As I looked out, I was not only trying to take in the details of the canyon, but I was trying to wrap my head around the distances. My little brain worked furiously in the background trying to make sense of the 6,000 feet of drop to the Colorado, and the eight miles to the other side. I never really did it.


Vishnu Temple, 2 miles away. The far rim is 8.5 miles away.

At Cape Royal we wandered from southern view, to western, to eastern and back around again. The tapered butte called Vishnu Temple stood in the middle ground and seemed close, maybe 500 yards. Nope, it was two miles away! A couple we passed on the trail said they had seen a condor off to the west. We hoped to get lucky, but didn’t see any soaring birds. As consolation we simply gazed at one of the biggest, most elaborate and beautiful clefts in the earth.

The California Condor talk at 2:00 p.m. was a hit, if only because Elise got to get up in front of over 50 people and be outfitted (human-style) like a condor. This is the story from Elise’s perspective:




I was a weirdo-hysterical person at that moment. At first, the ranger put a showercap on my head to make me bald like a condor. Then she put a paper beak on my nose and a boa around my neck to show my feathers. The sunglasses were hysterical. They were made to represent that I had red eyes, even though they were kind of an orange. Then she put white socks on my feet. It was supposed to represent that I peed and pooped on myself to cool myself off and that was very, very weird! I was very, very, very giggly. I’m a gigglin’ condor.

Just when we thought it was safe to put away our fleeces and turn off the furnace, we came to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Last night was close to freezing and even set at 50 degrees, the furnace ran quite a bit. In the morning, the sun quickly warmed the trailer which enabled us to start a game of Monopoly, drink hot chocolate and coffee and begin our day.

Our first stop was, of course, (everyone say it with me) the visitor’s center. Elise picked up her (again, everyone) Junior Ranger packet and we checked with the ranger on a few hikes we were thinking of taking. There are lots of ranger talks going on already. Every day there is a morning nature walk, a condor talk, a geology talk and evening talks at the campground and lodge. We are heading back tonight for the talk at the lodge and we will go to the condor talk tomorrow and nature walk Thursday morning. I think we are looking forward to the condor talk the most. The Grand Canyon is in the largest range of the California condor. All of the ones here are tagged and you are encouraged to report sightings.



Our first walk was on the Bright Angel Canyon trail. This is the easy (paved) walk behind the visitor’s center and cottages. Elise and I looked down at the ground on the way to the overlook so that we could see it all at once and not bit by bit. I cried when I saw it. It is the most magnificent thing I have ever seen.



From the overlook, we wandered down the path to the end of the trail. There was an elder hostel group there listening to a talk given by one of their leaders about the geology of the canyon. I listened in from a perch above the trail and learned me a thing or two. Scientists’ best guess is that the earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago. For the first “while” (I can’t remember if he said a million or a billion years, but I think it’s a million) there was no water on earth. It was there, of course, but the earth was too hot and the water couldn’t condense. That’s pretty cool (figuratively speaking).



It was about 11:30 by the time we walked off of the trail and decided to have a little lunch at the lodge deli before heading to the North Kaibab Trail. Bobby and I split a yummy turkey sandwich and Elise made her way through a roast beef while we sat on the lodge veranda with front row seats looking across to the South Rim. As the crow flies, the South Rim is 10 miles away. By car, you have to drive over 200 miles to get around the canyon and it will take you a good five hours. Today was incredibly clear and we could see all the way to the San Francisco Mountains, over 60 miles away.



We discovered we got lucky on the weather when we stopped for gas on our way to the North Kaibab Trail. I asked the very nice lady who filled our tank how the weekend had been. She said the snow really kept people away. We have seen snow on the side of the road, but hadn’t realized how fresh it was.

The North Kaibab Trail is the only trail that goes down into the canyon from the north rim. The canyon is one mile deep, but the trail from here is 14 miles to the Colorado River. The rule of thumb for hiking here (because of elevation differences and the heat) is to divide your time into thirds. Use one third of your time heading out (or down). The last two thirds is what time you will need to get back. We hiked two miles (and about 1,450 feet) down to the Supai Tunnel which took us an hour and 10 minutes. Hiking back took one hour and 40 minutes. We sped up at the end because Elise had bet Bobby on what time we would get back to the trailhead and her time was sooner! Going back wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be, if the heavy breathing and red faces of uphill climbers was any indication. We took it pretty slow, though.









OK — we’re back from the 8:00 p.m. ranger talk…

I hadn’t realized this but the north rim is twice as far away (hiking distance, anyway) from the Colorado River as the south rim. The watershed for the north rim is the canyon, but the watershed for the south rim is just farther south. This means that the north rim is eroding faster (due to the water traveling to the Colorado River) than the south rim. The canyon walls are much steeper here too.


The San Francisco Mountains in the distance

I also learned that 90% of Grand Canyon visitors go to the south rim. Only 10% come here. Having not seen the south rim, I still say this is the better side. The meadows and boreal forest on the plateaus you drive through are worth the price of admission themselves. And there are far fewer people.

Something that you come across often in national parks and forests are fires — controlled and not. In Yosemite, we drove through a controlled burn area and on many trails we have seen signs of past fires. There is evidence of a very large one as you drive up into the Kaibab National Forest by Jacob’s Lake. The fire was started by lightning from a summer storm and was burning on the ground well. The forest managers decided to let it burn, since conditions seemed good. A few weeks into the burn, the wind kicked up and the fire crowned, which means that it went from the ground to the tops of trees and just started jumping. It even jumped the road. The whole north rim had to be evacuated, since the fire was along the only road in or out of this side of the park. Not the way I would have wanted to spend my vacation.

We’ve gotten lucky and found WiFi nearby at the Kaibab Lodge!



Reluctantly we left Las Vegas. This was the first RV Park where we noticed (Elise too) folks drinking before 10:00 a.m. Mostly malt liquor: Colt 45 and Old English 800, or whatever it is. Ah, how we’ll miss it.

We didn’t make reservations for Grand Canyon and had originally planned to go to the South Rim. Then we realized that it is packed with tourists from May to September. It also necessitates a longer drive up to Kanab, UT, our next stop. So we opted for the North Rim where things are quieter and the drive is relatively shorter.



The drive alone was worth it. We began our day on I-15 heading northeast through Nevada, popping into Arizona, then into Utah and back to Arizona. The landscape became more stunning and more dramatic as we drove. Creosote-dotted desert broken by dark craggy mountains gave way to sage colored scrub on red earth and huge buttes and plateaus of red striped rock. This was complemented by a blue sky and vast fluffy cloud arrays. I’d say this was my favorite drive to date — even better than the drive on Hwy 1 to Monterey.



Las Vegas sits at 2,000 feet. We are now camped in Kaibab National Forest at over 8,000 feet. The drive went up, but in a gradual way, not like the drive to Kings Canyon. The land kept getting wider, more expansive. And greener. Temperatures dropped from the 60s to the 40s.



The North Rim campground in Grand Canyon NP is full. Till October. So we stopped in Kaibab NF at a lovely, nearly empty campground. There aren’t any hookups here, but three nights should be just fine. We are on the edge of an alpine meadow and there’s still snow banks in the shade of the trees. Tomorrow we’ll start exploring.


This is a bag of Trader Joe’s Wasabi Peas. It was puffy in Las Vegas. Now, 6,000 feet higher, it is just about ready to burst!

Ethel M was a dud since we hit it on a Saturday. Apparently, this is a chocolate factory that gives its workers the weekend off. Luckily for us, the gift shops were still open, so we were able to get our chocolate fixes. Ethel M is part of the Mars family so Elise got some M&Ms and I very judiciously got myself three small chocolate bars. Bobby, of course, got ice cream.



The cactus garden on the grounds of Ethel M reintroduced us to the desert plants we hope to see again in the next month. Many of the cacti were in bloom which we hadn’t seen before. Elise wasn’t feeling great so we cut short our wanderings and headed to Trader Joe’s.



Have I mentioned how much I love my Trader Joe’s cookbook? Love it. I made a huge list before we left the trailer of everything I would need for yummy lunches, dinners and a dessert and got everything I needed. I filled up the cart as much as I could and still wished I could get more. But the fridge is stocked, the pantry is full and delicious meals are in our future. It’s all good.

After TJ Elise and I were dropped off at the trailer while Bobby headed to the nearest Starbuck’s to post. Elise’s stomach was bugging her so she watched a movie while I put away all of our goodies and puttered.

We treated ourselves to a dinner out and filled up at The Olive Garden. I know, I know. I had all this Trader Joe’s food in my trailer — why head out? Elise asked me earlier in the day what I was craving and I told her that I was craving feeling full. Our food supply had been dwindling the last few days so I ate, but never felt full. I wanted to feel full. Olive Garden took care of that nicely.

Elise and I finished off the night by driving down I-15 parallel to The Strip to see the casinos all lit up. Bobby was too comatose from his meal to want to see it, so we dropped him off at the trailer. Elise’s favorite was the pyramid again, this time with a huge beam of light coming out of the top into the night sky.


The support structures for the new bridge over the Colorado River.

This morning’s Mass was brought to you by Prince of Peace Catholic Church. Afterward we headed back to the trailer for lunch before heading to the Hoover Dam. I have heard for a few years now that they are building a bridge near the dam that crosses the Colorado River. Why, I wondered, since there is already a road that goes over the dam. Today I figured out why. The traffic getting to the dam is terrible. Over four and a half miles from the dam, we hit stop and go traffic that crawled for the next 45 minutes until we finally got to the parking garage on the Nevada side.


Looking over the edge of the dam, very carefully.

The Hoover Dam is massive. Let me give you the superlatives first. It is 726.4 feet tall. At the bottom, it is 660 feet thick. At the top — 45 feet thick. Enough concrete was poured to create a four-foot wide sidewalk around the earth at the equator.


Arizona turbines are in the building on the left, Nevada ones on the right.

The dam regulates the Colorado River. I knew that, on the surface. What I didn’t think about was the reason why. Turns out the snowmelt from the mountains would flood farmland every spring, but by late summer there wouldn’t be enough water in the river to take care of the crops. The creation of the dam was the solution and the electricity generated would pay for the cost to build it.



Working on the project was a boon for many who needed jobs during the Depression (construction began in 1931 and ended in 1935). It wasn’t easy, though. You worked an eight-hour shift, seven days a week and had two days off a year: Christmas and Fourth of July. If you were sick for any reason, you were fired. And we complain about only getting two weeks vacation in the U.S. . .


Paintings in the visitor center.

Neat fact I learned: A guy asked our tour guide how many fish get into the pipes. The answer is almost none. Water gets taken in over 400 feet below the surface. The fish don’t live down there because there isn’t enough oxygen for them. They hang out near the surface and so don’t get sucked into the pipes. Smart fish.

One of the most impressive pieces of the dam is the concrete. If the concrete had been poured all at once to make one huge, huge slab it would have taken 125 years for it to cure. Knowing this would slow things up, the engineers came up with another plan. The concrete was poured into interlocking blocks, five-feet thick. Before it was poured, pipes were laid that ran refrigerated water through the concrete to cool it, thus helping it cure faster.


We are over 500 feet underground here, looking at the pipes that carry the water.

We took a tour that showed us the giant pipes the water runs through and the turbines that generate the electricity. There are 17 turbines — 9 on the Arizona side and 8 on the Nevada side. The size of them is hard to describe. What surprised me most is that less than one percent of the electricity generated here goes to Las Vegas. Most goes to southern California. That last bit doesn’t surprise me, but where does Las Vegas get its electricity from?


The turbines on the Nevada side.

After the tour, we walked across the dam. The first thing you notice is the high water mark — and how far below it the water is. You hear lots of people talking about water shortages, but you don’t really think about it (or I don’t) until you see something like this. Makes you think about taking a shorter shower.


Lake Mead. The tower to the left is one of the water intake towers.

Pssst — Ralph! Lots more pictures of the dam and new bridge on our Flickr site!

We will again be out of touch for a few days. Tomorrow (Monday) we are driving to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We will be there until Thursday when we drive a short distance to Kanab, UT to spend two days at the Best Friends Animal Society where we will volunteer with the horses and dogs. I found this place in my Family Fun magazine and Elise is beside herself with glee. She has been huge on horses ever since she visited Dana in West Palm Beach and she is excited to spend the day taking care of them. After Kanab, we will be in Zion for five days. Hopefully there, we will have wi-fi and we can let you know what we have been up to! Have a great week!

Sorry to be out of touch. Three posts below.



Las Vegas makes me feel weird. As you know, the name is Spanish for “I just lost my life savings in a building that looks like a cartoon.” Although some translate it as “We have no natural water source, but the ribeye’s only $6.99!” It just doesn’t seem to belong, like a big, civilization-sized Oops.

We left Kings Canyon at a brisk 36 degrees and very light snow flurries. Elise and I went to the visitor center to collect her nine hundred and fifth junior ranger badge. I was marveling at the number of folks who had rolled into the campground on Thursday. Then Danine reminded me it was Memorial Day weekend. Huh, weekenders.

The descent on Highway 180 wasn’t bad at all in second gear, unless you were in a hurry and behind me. I pulled off when it was reasonable and let folks by, of course. By the time we got to Fresno it was 71 degrees and dusty, dusty everywhere. We felt good and kept at it, cruising down Highway 99 and thinking we’d stop overnight in Bakersfield. But once we arrived, we still felt good so we started heading East, this time, more or less, for good.



The green conifers had turned to orchards and vineyards and vast stretches of farmland. We pointed to it and told Elise, “This is where much of the fruits and vegetables we eat come from.” “Cool,” she said. The strip malls and freeway ramps in Bakersfield broke up the transition to the desert. As we left it behind, we looked out on an endlessly fascinating landscape of tan, rolling hills and surprisingly colorful stony mountains in the distance. Here, the sky becomes part of the view again and the clouds were busy: we seemed to be following a modest rainstorm as drove.



As we crossed the southern tip of the Sierra Nevadas, the road climbed and the tan hills became dotted with live oaks. At the top of the pass, we looked out onto the Mojave. Not since Anza-Borrego had we seen it and now it was everywhere again: creosote. Our goal was to get to Barstow and stop for the night before heading to Las Vegas and the Hoover Dam.



Still feeling good, we passed Barstow and stopped at the rest area 35 miles farther on. Not much to recommend about the rest area, but it was a convenient place for the night. We slept a little fitfully, but still restfully and always with the sound of diesel engines thrumming nearby. It rained a long time, off and on, during the night and early morning — and it isn’t hot, it’s around 60.

Friday’s long drive made today’s pretty short. We met Las Vegas in the morning, shining absurdly in the brown desert waste. That’s why it makes me feel weird. The waste was much more pleasing to the eye. Elise was impressed though, particularly by Excalibur (cartoony castle) and New York, New York (cartoony New York skyline). She also said they looked, “Cheesy.”

We’re staying at an RV park in the southeast of town, for convenience. We are hoping to go to the Ethel M chocolate factory, Lake Mead, and the Hoover Dam.

Heat wave’s over. We woke up to an outside temperature right around freezing. Unlike yesterday, the sky was blue and that seemed to be a good omen for our drive into Kings Canyon proper. Danine and Elise did some math in the morning, then we crammed snacks and our favorite trail lunch, peanut butter sandwiched in saltines, in our hip pack and drove down.



Almost as soon as we began the temperature slid to 34 degrees and the sky spat wet snow. We curved our way into the first part of the canyon, which is not glacier carved, but only water carved. This produces a steep v-shaped canyon. The snow and rain stopped and the sky was bright blue with wispy clouds trailing by. We only had about a quarter tank of gas, so we stopped at the Kings Canyon Lodge for seven gallons. It was $4.50 per gallon. I think it’s that expensive because it comes from antique pumps, 80 years old.


I hope the gas isn’t antique too.

Our next pit stop on the way was Boyden Cavern. This is in Sequoia National Forest. You leave the national park, pass through national forest and then back to the park as you descend. The cave has been a remote tourist trap for years. It wasn’t bad, but it isn’t well protected like Kartchner (no cave is that well preserved) and is relatively small. It had the familiar food-oriented formations: popcorn, bacon, soda straws. Still, having been spoiled by the caverns we’ve already seen, we weren’t wowed by the features or by the somewhat cavalier way it’s cared for.





In a thirty minute drive at about 30 miles an hour we dropped 2,000 feet and entered the glacier carved section of the valley, which (like Yosemite) is u-shaped. The walls are incredibly steep, craggy granite dotted with firs, pines, and — surprisingly — yuccas, which were in full flower. The south fork of Kings River twists down the middle. It’s a grand place, not grandiose like Yosemite: no monoliths like El Capitan or high falls like Bridalveil. There are people here, but it’s a far quieter place than Yosemite. It’s a better place for reflection.


Grizzly Falls in full swing

We stopped to admire the beautiful Grizzly Falls, then made our way to Roaring River Falls. The Roaring River is aptly named, pouring at an incredible rate (and decibel level) through a granite trough. From there we took a 3.2 mile round trip hike along the valley floor. We followed the river and passed from forest to meadow and back as we went. This was one of the most delightful walks we’ve done. If the miniature forest of ferns or the elegantly draped firs don’t catch your attention, you can look a little past them to the stunningly high granite cliffs.



Our turn-around point was a suspension bridge over the river. Elise saw it and was immediately disappointed. She thought it would be a wobbly rope bridge. That would’ve been cool to me too! This one just didn’t wobble much. It did provide some lovely views.



I’m glad we braved the steep winding drive to get here. If you are reading this post, then we made it down from here too!