Goodbye, Beautiful Canyon

Vol Fan Update: We are home from the hospital. And he has been able to keep breakfast down so far. So things are looking up!!

Since we were leaving the Grand Canyon, we decided that we MUST get up in time for sunrise. We had tried before but I don't really do morning. But it was now or never! And boy, was I ever glad I did. It was spectacular, watching the colors of the canyon come to life.Then we packed up and hit the road. We left the park via Highway 64, headed east. There are many viewpoints along the way. So travel was slow for us. It is really hard for me to pass up a viewpoint, especially when it offers a view like this.But there were other things to see, more national parks stamps to get. But along the highway, we spotted this.We needed to get closer.Then we hit our first national park of the day.Wupatki was once one of the largest pueblos in the area, a meeting place of different cultures. One of those places that the people mysteriously disappeared from. I'm no archaeologist but I think the answer to their leaving is pretty simple. And the answer was in the next park we visited. Sunset Crater Volcano. When there is a volcano erupting nearby, would you hang around?Sunset Crater Volcano erupted around 1000 years ago. You can no longer hike up and look into the crater but there are plenty of lava flows to explore. But the thing about lava flows - while they are really cool to explore, they don't really translate into good photos. Especially when visited midday!

One thing we are always sure to do - ask the people at the visitor center for a restaurant recommendation! So we headed toward Flagstaff and stopped at Pig in a Poke BBQ. It was really good! And the portions - we could have shared a sandwich and been satisfied!

Next up was Walnut Canyon. Another pueblo community lived here around 700 years ago. I would have loved to have spent more time here. Unfortunately, my bum ankle wasn't up to several hundred stairs to walk among the ruins.
So we were off to Flagstaff to find a room for the night.After finding a hotel, we left to explore the Flagstaff area and kept seeing signs warning us to be watchful for elk and since we've never seen elk, we decided to go hunt for some. And in doing so, we found out the most wonderful thing about the Flagstaff area.

It is surrounded by federal lands which are crisscrossed by dirt and gravel roads. On these lands, you can find a spot you like and camp. For free. For up to 14 days in a row. How cool is that!

It was obvious that many people (probably hunters) had their favorite spots and kept them maintained. If I lived here, I sure would.

We picked an exit off of Interstate 17 and immediately found ourselves on a dirt forest service road. The sun was starting to sit low in the sky and we were hoping to see some wildlife. So off we went.

We had the best time exploring those dirt roads. We never saw any wildlife though. Eventually we found out why. We had stumbled across an area that had recently been burned by the forestry service. So recent in fact that areas were still smoldering!

But our appetite had been whetted. So we were looking forward to doing the same tomorrow!