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Winter Road Trip – The Great American Southwest
Part 1 – From Yosemite to the Grand Canyon
Our first year on the mainland was a roller coaster and it took a lot of adjustments and learning. We collectively spent over 3 decades in Hawaii. The lifestyle there is completely different and roadtrips are typically, half a day at most. Now it takes half a day to go to the grocery store. For my January birthday we usually embark on an adventure and this year it wasn’t going to stop. Last year we were in the middle of our move so celebrations and vacations were put on hold. With open roads and endless options we left Yosemite and headed to Arizona and New Mexico.
Leaving our home we actually had no reservations for our first night. I was just going to drive until I was seeing double and then find a place on Route 66 to lay our head for the night and then get back on the road and do it again. We left on Tuesday and didn’t actually have a hotel reservation until Thursday night. The Subaru was loaded, camera batteries were charged and we found ourselves cruising along. Listening to 90s jams always keeps my navigator awake and helpful, so we sang along to the last great generation of music as we drove into the Mojave Desert.
We ended up in Barstow, CA after a good 6 hours in the car. It was pretty late and we wanted to get a good night sleep so we were rested and ready for the next day. Barstow is conveniently located right at the west side of the Mojave desert and is pretty much your last chance for anything until Las Vegas or Kingman, AZ. We awoke to an amazing desert sunrise and planned our route for the day. Again, we had no reservations, so we were improvising. We chose a detour to check out the towns of Lodi and Amboy. These are some real rough ghost town relics on Route 66. I really enjoy abandoned building photography, it helps us remember the past and soon these things won’t even exist because of the harsh climate.
Through the desert we continued, crossing the Colorado river, passing through Kingman and continuing on the old historic Route 66 instead of the freeway. I had taken this route a long time ago and wanted to revisit some memories. Old Burma-Shave signs still stand on the side of the road, these were for advertising back in the day and were a series instead of conventional billboards. On this old highway you pass through the Hualapai Reservation which is also the route to the Supai Reservation at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. It is very scenic with wide open spaces, straight out of an old western and we like to say the “joy is in the journey,” so we really enjoyed the slow route on this day.
We made it Sedona, with plenty of light to explore. I had been to Sedona a handful of times but my wife, had never been. We headed to the Crescent Moon Ranch to get a nice peak at Cathedral Rock and play along Oak Creek. It was winter and there had been some flooding this year but it was quite different than the few times I explored this area before. All the foliage was dormant and also there were no rock cairns. In the past, this being one of the famous vortexes in the area, I remember there being thousands of rock piles almost hard to avoid knocking them over. The area was still very beautiful and we decided to head to the other side of town and get some sunset photography at another vortex, the Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte area. With some leftover snow, the red rocks contrasted so nice in the late evening light, what we didn’t know was we were in for a nice snowstorm the next day as well.
From Sedona, we were headed to Bright Angel Lodge on the south rim of the Grand Canyon. We had all day to make it there so we were going to take our time. Nature agreed, and a blizzard was how the day started. 4WD on the Subaru gets us around pretty much through all the elements. Our first destination was airport mesa, another vortex. We made it up the slippery slope just a short trip from car, but could only see what was right around us. The snow was sticking and fast. It was really special and red rocks were only amplified by the snow and the water from the melt. We hung out for awhile hoping to see some of the buttes and ranges across the way but gave up cause it was snowing so hard. We headed to Boynton Canyon even though visibility was non-existent. We waited in the car and enjoyed the windy sideways snow falling. We were rewarded for our patience and the snow slowed and even a little blue sky was starting show. We got out and explored, capturing a few images of the fresh snowfall on the amazing red stone. It felt like we were on a different planet at the point, what a great start to the day and our adventure.
The snow slowed and that was good cause we were worried we might not be able to continue our trek to the Grand Canyon. I decided to take the scenic route through Flagstaff and on the high route. This was risky but we had time and we were going to go slow. The snow was deep but luckily the wind had blown some of the snow off our side of the road. The aspens and evergreens were covered with fresh snow in the high elevations and opened to the high desert where the sage brush and junipers were freshly dusted. We saw quite a few dead elk on the side of the road, I’m sure trucks that had poor visibility had no time to stop for these poor creatures. Coconino county is famous for its elk population and we were now on the Colorado Plateau which we would be exploring a lot of over the rest of our trip. The Colorado Plateau is a unique geographical part of the United States and I think it doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves. Anyways, we white knuckled all the way through the snow and wind and single digit temperatures and arrived to the Grand Canyon. I spent over a year of my life living here and have been back to visit many times and it always feels like home when you see the El Tovar towering above the rail depot.
This would be wife’s first time so I was playing tour guide. It was winter and it was really cold, we were only staying one night so we weren’t planning on too many outdoor activities. We splurged for my birthday and booked a fireplace canyon view room and we were not disappointed. We checked in right at 3pm and had wine, charcuterie and a fire going for sunset. The winter shadows in the canyon were long and beautiful. What a wonderful introduction to the southwest in the winter.
