Day 3 of our 30-day Southwest Grand Circle Caravan

Day 3 begins and the adventure continues … we departed Grand Canyon Railway RV Park as a group. It brought back memories of military convoys! As we departed Williams, I noticed that the welcome to Williams sign, is one of the few signs in the US that the year is the same whether you are coming or going from Williams!

We moved onto I-40 East, heading toward Flagstaff. On the Grand Canyon Railway, our car attendant, Brenda, spoke about Arizona’s highest mountain. I thought she said it was the Santa Fe Mountain. But upon research I determined that it is not the Santa Fe Peaks, but the San Francisco Peaks. They were again visible from Interstate 40.

I tried to capture a shot of the “convoy” that our caravan created. You cannot see all of us, but there is a good portion of them here!

We drove through a portion of the Coconino National Forest. It is one of the most diverse National Forests in the country with landscapes ranging from the famous red rocks of Sedona to ponderosa pine forests, and from southwestern desert to tall alpine tundra. Visitors can explore mountains and canyons, fish in small lakes, and wade in lazy creeks and streams.

Also on Interstate 40 was a marker for the Arizona Divide. The elevation is 7,335. The Arizona Divide is high point that defines the watershed & changes the direction of the flow of water from south and east to south and west.

We left I-40 and transitioned onto 89 North. Just a little bit north on 89, there is the Flagstaff Mall on the east of the road. On the west side of the road is the Elden Pueblo Ruins. The Elden Pueblo is the site of an ancient Sinagua village, inhabited from about 1070 to 1275 AD. The site is unique because it makes archaeology and the study of ancient peoples accessible to the public. This site is thought to have been part of a major trading system. This is evidenced by discoveries of many trade items, including items from Mexico, and the California Coast. The ruins also suggest that the Sunset Crater volcano may have erupted over a much longer period of time than previously thought.

When we crossed the Arizona Divide, we were at over 7,000 feet in elevation, as we drove on Route 89 we descended to 6,000 feet in elevation and eventually down to 5,000 feet. Driving on Route 89, you pass many colors of the painted desert walls of northern Arizona. Offering you many wonderful landscapes. Ancient pueblo outcroppings spring up across miles of prairie. Where food and water seem impossible to find, yet people built pueblos, raised families, farmed, traded, and thrived.

Just north of the Town of Cameron still stands a one-lane bridge, but now it only carries an oil pipeline, having been superseded by a broader modern highway bridge. Here is the history for that suspension bridge. In 1911, a sway-back, one track suspension bridge was erected over a gorge of the Little Colorado River, near the edge of Navajo and Hopi country. The Mormon Trail originally crossed the Little Colorado River at a rocky ford six miles upstream. That became known as Tanner's Crossing, in honor of Seth Tanner, a Mormon prospector from Tuba City who built a house nearby in the 1870's. He later expanded his operations into the Grand Canyon area, where he also gave his name to the Tanner Trail. After the danger from quicksand and flooding at Tanner's Crossing led to the construction of the first suspension bridge across the gorge in 1911, Cameron – named for another legendary canyon prospector, Ralph Cameron - sprang into being on the south side of the span. The suspension bridge that was built for the Office of Indian Affairs. Hubert and C.D. Richardson built a small trading post there in 1916. The Cameron Trading Post is still open today!

Just before Arizona Route 160 cuts north east from Route 89 toward Tuba City, we pull off for a rest stop. All of our units fit into the pull-off and we enjoyed a few minutes of down time.

The most unique man-made features along the route were the Navajo Stands for selling their goods. Many were very bright and unique with colorful paintings. Also, there were several buildings with beautiful black and white painting on them. This is what I learned. The Painted Desert Project was conceived by photographer Chip Thomas. This project connected urban street artists with communities in the southwest‘s Navajo Nation. Chip Thomas first set foot in Navajo Nation over 25 years ago when, as a new

doctor. He wanted a way to repay his medical scholarship was by volunteering to serve a community with limited access to healthcare. Somewhat of a Renaissance Man, Dr. Thomas displays a very different skill set when he “becomes” Jetsonorama – a street artist whose favored medium is blown-up black-and-white photos applied to a range of outdoor structures. Thomas’s subjects are the Navajo people and their traditional symbolism, including sheep. 

We climbed back to over 6,000 feet and then drove through the top of the rock face and started back down to 5,000 feet, as we headed to Page Arizona. No wonder my ears kept popping!

Along this route, we could catch glimpses of Lake Powell and three smoke stacks from a coal burning energy plant.

We arrived at our home for the next two nights, Page Lake Powell Campground. It is tucked into some of the red rock face and offered tiered sites.