day 14 -- flagstaff to the north rim

I was well-positioned in flagstaff for a quick run to the grand canyon and had lucked into a last minute opening at the north rim lodge (campground full). leisurely ride, early arrival, time to settle in and then drive to a good spot for the sunset. but that's not how this trip is going. as always...too much map to cover -- in this case couldn't resist a loop south to sedona and from there to the sinagua sites of montezuma well and 'castle.' logically I knew this would make the trip to the canyon tight, but I can't quite shake the have-to-use-all-daylight-hours to ride imperative, so off I went winding down through the spectacular oak canyon to sedona. there I hoped for a quiet breakfast and some blogging time, but chintzy main street sedona, despite the redrock beauty, was too much. I can see finding a tucked away spot to stay for a week and explore the canyons, but the tourist strip was too much. it didn't help that at the outdoor breakfast buffet I was accompanied by a small wedding party that was retelling some nightmare accommodation story repeatedly for every new couple who wandered down. so I moved on to the beaver creek valley.

I had no idea what montezuma well was other than its likely prehistoric-ness. from aztec in wisconsin to toltec in arkansas there was for a while in the 19th century a tendency to give north american sites fanciful mexican names. whether this was part of an intentional program to strip north american indians of a connection with 'great monuments' or just part of the siam to attica thing, who knows. anyway, montezuma castle sounded more interesting than montezuma well, but I got off at the montezuma well exit anyway just in case there was a non-interstate connector between the sites. happy that I ended up on the way to the site, though, because it's like nothing else I've seen. cliff dwellings and remains of pueblos surrounding a giant collapsed limestone aquifer, one fed by 1.5 million gallons of water a day and that since around 11000 bce has formed a deep pond in the middle of desert, complete with an outlet suitable for irrigating fields below. the only thing the lucky inhabitants were missing was enough land to use all that water. chatted with park rangers who were inspecting a check dam they'd built on the pond side of the outlet to catch algae that was clogging it and listened to them discuss a monumental poison ivy-clearing enterprise. the glorious life of a park ranger. montezuma castle was a more conventional cliff dwelling, albeit five impressive stories high and next to an even larger but now collapsed structure. I realized I was stepping into the grand canyon penumbra with the throngs of school kids and vacationing families crowding the short loop path in front of the ruins.

now past time to head north I got back on the interstate and stopped over in flagstaff to recharge the camera battery at the largest mcdonald's I've ever seen. and a clientele of baffled european tourists and nonplussed locals. headed out toward the north rim but decided to spin through one more detour, a NF loop past the volcanic landscape of sunset crater (erupted last in 1064) and then north to the pueblo and affiliated sites of wupatki NP before rejoining SR89 toward page, AZ. the parks are joined not just incidentally, since it's quite possible that the pueblos were built by sinagua pushed northward by the ashfall that buried their crops and ruined their fields. rolling cinder hills, trees still struggling to take root, rumbling lava flows, vast red scree slopes...unforgettable. I thought I'd scratched the volcano itch in idaho and iceland a few years ago, but this was fascinating still. a brief low-piney interlude with a preview of the painted desert, then into wupatki; first stop wukoki ruins. nothing more than a small pueblo built on top of a projecting rock, but the red rock here made it spectacular, as was the case for the main pueblo complex. tried hard not to delay too much at these sites, but didn't succeed -- back on the road north after 4.30.

two-and-a-half hours for 170 miles. I figured I'd encounter another straight fast stretch through the painted desert, but SR89 is something else completely. it's the main artery toward lake powell, so it was packed with drivers just as impatient as I was trying not to be. slowpokes were doing 80mph, but that wasn't enough for some. there were occasional passing lanes, but for the majority two-lane stretches it wasn't an easy task. not just the oncoming traffic, but ADOT's practice of putting a rumble-stripped trench down the middle, plus deep gashes that held reflectors, are not so motorcycle-friendly. so I tried to settle in and pick spots, but overall the breakneck pace was a bit much. all the while passing stunning scenery -- the plateau edges that make the painted desert look so colorful from a distance. deeply incised and veined red rock faces with formations pouring down like mud, as well as lower more subtle mudstone and sandstone formations closer to the road. low humps of brown and grey that likewise looked like claymation clay worn with rivulets -- nothing dramatic about these but the colors and shapes were marvelous. on the narrow racetrack that was SR89, though, no chance for photos.

counting down the miles to page, gritting teeth through a sloshy tar-and-chips stretch, and then an unexpected reprieve as SR89A turned off toward the north rim earlier than I expected. the traffic disappeared, the wind softened, and making the turn toward the destination was a positive. I was planning on filling up in page, so gas was a minor concern, but one that was swallowed up by the redrock scenery as the road descended toward what is the far upstream end of the canyon at lee's ferry. bridge over the mini-canyon and then a run along the brilliant vermillion cliffs on the north, the just-visible and deepening canyon to the south. still stupidly trying to make the sunset and didn't pause to take a shot of the cliffs as I climbed the kaibab plateau. finally reached the park and wound through the spectacular open meadows and juniper/pine to ash/spruce forest. and the late timing was fortuitous in at least one regard...in one of the last meadows before descending into the rim forest I saw a brown shape jogging through the grass. I figured coyote, so I slowed down to watch, but then realized that it was a bit too large. and the way it moved was suspiciously feline. I got off the bike and fumbled for binocs but didn't find them in time. as it ambled into the woods, though, the last couple of bounds made me pretty sure that this was a lion. I realize this sort of lion isn't much of a grassland denizen, but at 7pm that's where the deer were...

stuck to the plan even though the sun was nearly down and headed to pt imperial to the east of the north rim lodge/campground, gradually getting seriously cold on the bike for the first time. the sun was indeed down when I arrived but there was still a pink glow washing over the canyon, and that I could see back across the plain I had just crossed a couple hours before was perfect. switched to the clear face shield and puttered back to the lodge (so as not to hit a deer) and checked into the 'rustic cabin' they'd assigned me in lieu of the motel. took some time to stare up at a sky full of more stars than I've ever seen -- overwhelming really -- and caught the tail end of the perseids meteor shower. several meteors-with-smoky-trails in just a few minutes, a darn sight better than last summer when I battled mosquitoes at caesar creek state park south of dayton in search of a reasonably clear sky in the right direction. and finally to bed and the sounds of the couple on the other side of the cabin wall watching an episode of the simpsons. he thought it much funnier than she did.