Making It Up as We Go: Lee’s Ferry Lodge, AZ 6/23/08

This is Ned again, taking my occasional turn as blog scribe. The sun woke us up this morning at 6 a.m. and we got up at 6:30, eager to explore the canyon on our bikes before the sun warmed things up too much. After breakfast, we drove Winnie down to the visitor center, and started our bike tour of the Chaco ruins. We almost had the place to ourselves. Walking around the ruins, especially Pueblo Bonito, was really magical. Having first visited here about 15 years ago, I am still amazed with the intricacy of the stonework. We both marveled at being able to walk through some of the actual rooms in the pueblo, with their very low doorways (actually, almost perfect height for Debi), and try to imagine what it would have been like to live here about 1000 years ago. About 10:30, having logged 10 miles on our bikes, we were ready to attempt our exit from Chaco over the dreaded 16 miles of washboard road. Rather than repeat the disaster of the night before, we stowed the bikes inside the van. With Debi praying the whole way, and me driving like an old lady (35 mph on our way in and 15 mph on our exit), we mercifully made it to the paved road after a very long hour without losing any parts or bikes. We made several comments for the rest of the day regarding the amazing technological marvel of asphalt roads. We drove to Farmington, a very large city seemingly supported by an economy associated with the creation and maintenance of oil wells and natural gas fields. The upside of this was that we were quickly able to locate an auto parts store where I purchased some very long stainless hose clamps. I set up shop in front of a nearby motel that offered free Wi-Fi, so that Debi could upload her blog and support her political junkie habit. After about 30 minutes of futzing, and only one failed attempt, I was successful in getting the mysterious smog control canister reattached to the frame of the van, where I trust it will stay for the duration of the trip. After stopping for gas, and getting an impressive amount of black grease washed off of my hands, we headed down the road towards the Grand Canyon. We drove past lots of very wide open landscape, most of which is in the Navajo Nation in the northeast corner of Arizona. Our plans were rather vague at this point, and upon reaching the fork in the road of Highway 89 reading “Grand Canyon, South Rim / North Rim”, we chose North Rim! Neither of us has ever been there, it is considered “the road less traveled”, and it is closer to Zion, where we are planning to meet Polly and Eric on Thursday afternoon. We drove past dramatic multi-colored cliffs, under fluffy white clouds, until we arrived at the Navajo Bridge, which crosses the Colorado River right at the beginning of Marble Canyon, just upstream from the Grand Canyon. Having not had showers or electric power the night before, and uncertain of the prospect of a campsite with showers tonight, we pulled into a funky little Route-66 vintage cabin motor lodge, called Lee’s Ferry Lodge. We decided to have a picnic dinner in front of our room with our leftover wine, cheese, bread, apples, and brownies. (See photo of me dining, while watched adoringly by the very mellow, resident dog, “Took”.) It still feels a little like camping, with the pine paneled walls, lack of TV, and microscopic shower, but Debi was VERY pleased to have a shower tonight! We hope to view the Grand Canyon from the North Rim tomorrow morning.