Prowl'n America

Monday, June 11, 2018

Grand Canyon NP, North Rim

June 5 2018

There’s no direct way to get to the North Rim from the south. Leaving Bonito campground at Sunset Crater, we took highway 89 north to Marble Canyon (crossing the Colorado river and the start of the Grand Canyon).

Echo Cliffs on the east side of highway 89 heading north toward Marble Canyon.

Highway Alt-89 passes along the Vermilion Cliffs

Vermilion Cliffs

Kaibab Plateau rises to the west.

Eventually we started climbing the Kaibab Plateau.

View the flat Basin and Vermilion Cliffs in the distance from the Kaibab Plateau.

After stopping at the Forest Service Visitor Center at Jacob Lake, we turned south on AZ 67, the North Rim Parkway.

Along the way there was some burn damage and it seemed that Aspens were the only trees coming back, this sign explains why.

Our campsite at DeMotte forest service campground 5 miles outside the park.

Here's pictures of our first day at the North Rim...

Staying for the sunset, we had dinner at the Grand Canyon Lodge

View from the North Rim at sunset.

On our second day we drove about 40 minutes onto the Walhalla Plateau to Cape Royal

Angels Window

On the return trip we stopped at these view points.

Roosevelt Point

Vista Encantada for lunch.

Point Imperial, at 8800 ft, the highest point in the park.

In the morning we noticed these huge solar panels behind the visitors center, pointing east.

During the day they track to sun, pointing west in the afternoon.

Coming next, Bryce Canyon NP.

Sunday, June 10, 2018

Alpine AZ, Wupatki and Sunset Crater Volcano NM

June 1 2018

After leaving Portal we made 3 stops before traveling 40 miles. Our first stop was for fuel in Animas, NM. We discovered the fuel price at, little out of the way, Animas (the closest gas to Portal) was cheaper than Lordsburg, NM. (the first “big city” on our route to the north). Once in Lordsburg we stopped at a New Mexico visitors center to replace our missing New Mexico map. Lastly, we stopped at a Loves truck stop with a Subway for lunch.

View from Aldo Leopold Vista (rest stop)
on US 180,Gila National Forest NM,
on the way to Alpine AZ.

Our destination this first day out was a forest service campground, Luna Lake, just outside Alpine AZ. At 8000 feet it was about 20 degrees cooler the Portal. When we arrived (about 4pm) it was 79 with an expected low in the 40’s.

Campsite #25 in Luna Lake campground, Alpine AZ

Luna Lake

We passed this way last fall heading south, staying at a free forest service campground called Head of the Ditch.

Head of the Ditch campsite, Oct 2017.

After the last 7 months in full hookup campsite, it’s nice to get off grid and rekindle our Boondocking skills. The sites have no hookups with only central water sources and pit toilets (which are in excellent condition). Obviously, no Wi-Fi (Netflix) but there was three bars of LTE Verizon service. We liked our spot at Luna Lake so much, we spent 3 days just relaxing.

June 4 2018

Sunset Creator Volcanic Nation Monument is about 12 miles north of Flagstaff, AZ on US 89. After the relatively pleasnt mid 80’s at Alpine, we arrived at Sunset Creator to low 90’s. The plan was to spend 2 nights and have one full day to explore the volcanic features and the ruins at Wupatki.

Sunset Creator is cinder cone Volcano. One of more than 600 in the 2200 square miles north of Flagstaff, AZ.