Grand Falls (and Beyond) September 6-11, 2006
For our "honeymoon", we trekked north to "Niagara Falls" -- Arizona's own magnificent and mysterious Grand Falls on the Little Colorado River. The falls is on the Navajo Reservation northeast of Flagstaff, and many are the web sites that warn you that outside of spring runoff, the falls is "just a trickle." But 2006 hasn't been an average year, with the sixth wettest monsoon in recorded history as of this writing. Passing through the High Country on Route 87 north of Payson we encountered torrential rains and even some granular snow -- quite a change from torrid Tucson!
In lowering light under troubled skies, the falls was a wall of tumbling tomato juice.
The Little Colorado River drains virtually the entire backside of the Mogollon Rim, from the New Mexican Border to the Grand Canyon. It picks up plenty of sediment from the soft Kaibab, Moenkopi and Coconino sandstone before slamming into a basalt river from the San Francisco volcano field and plunging approximately 185 feet to the canyon floor.
We revisited the falls on our way back to Tucson and found both the color and the volume radically altered after several days of heavy rain.
Indian Route 6910 runs smack into the Little Colorado, but gives no hint of one writer described as "a violent chocolate milkshake" a stone's throw downstream.
For more great photos of Grand Falls, visit Flagstaff Central.
As evening approached we found ourselves within 10 miles of Merriam Flight Park, where Dennis learned paragliding. We called and obtained permission to camp in the park, and took the opportunity to see the world from the top of 6300' Merriam Crater.
The trail to the top was almost too steep to walk. That Taco Ma is a tough little gal!
Dennis gets his morning shower from a five-gallon jug on the tailgate. We are totally self-contained, with a foam mattress on two half sheets of 3/4" plywood, and all our gear stowed under the bed.
After a thrilling tour of First Mesa and Walpi, we took advantage of free camping in the tribal park at Canyon de Chelly. The foul weather canopy is a good concept but needs a bit of refinement.
We squeezed in an early morning hike between rain showers to White House Ruins in Canyon de Chelly.
Changing Woman Espresso is still the best coffee stop within many miles. This year they've added a prefab hogan and a stockade, but choices are still somewhat limited (cups were optional, for example).