Flagstaff

What a day. For some reason I actually thought I’d avoid the car today. Boy was I wrong. I started out with a late breakfast at La Bellavia, an excellent breakfast spot downtown. Eggs Benedict, pancakes and bacon. Just a wee something...

Next door at Macy's I have a coffee and use the internet to get the addresses for my day’s sightseeing. Back to the room then in the car I get. My first stop is Walnut Canyon. The canyon was home to cliff dwellers called the Sinagua around 800 years ago. The buildings are built into the natural overhangs that circle around the canyon’s walls. They’re incredibly simple, but I wouldn’t mind living there. What more do you need?

The roofs and parts of the canyon’s walls are still covered in soot, and while you can see remains of buildings dotted all around the canyon, an unknown number have been pillaged and destroyed by trophy hunters in the 1800s. Pure ignorance, I suppose, but it’s hard not to be frustrated.

I spend about an hour and a half walking down and back up the canyon, enjoying the sun that has poked through, and chatting with the guys who are rebuilding the path. Sometimes I wish I was a park ranger. I reckon I’d be good. Not too sure about the uniform, but beggars can’t be choosers. 

From Walnut Canyon, I head towards Wupatki and Sunset Crater Volcano. At least, I try to. I’ve no idea what’s going on but I somehow manage to get really quite lost. My GPS won’t recognise the address, so I revert to my map book. I find it, and head towards it, only after about 40 minutes realise I’m on the wrong road. I don’t know how I didn’t realise sooner. I pull over and ask for directions, and the bloody woman put me on another wild goose chase. Another 20 minutes go by – all with very nice scenery mind you – until I finally get on the right track. The plus side to this is that I drive past Twin Arrows, an abandoned Indian trading post that I had marked on the map to look at but forgotten about! I am very pleased.

One careful owner...

Once I’ve nosed about, I head on to the bloody volcano. I doubt I’ll have time to do the last two things on my list today, but that’s how life is sometimes. You can’t climb up the volcano anymore as those pesky people from the 1800s did what they do best and tore it all up. Now you can look at it from a distance and check out all the lava.

Pretty cool. It erupted less than 1000 years ago, so in geological terms, it’s a wee baby. Anyway, on I go to the Wupatki pueblos, aka really old houses built by the Wupatki people.

They are beautiful, stark and exposed. Needless to say that when the volcano went bang, life here changed quite a lot. Some came back, others moved to Walnut Canyon, and others went…somewhere else. I imagine a lot of that is guesswork but that’s what we’re told.

The wind really picks up as I wind my way through the park, and rain clouds gather overhead. I move through the last buildings, which is actually a village, quite quickly, and as I get in the car, the rain comes. I drive back towards the highway, passing one car, and loving the landscape.  

I realise I do have time to make it to the Lowell Observatory, where Pluto was discovered, so off I go, pretty happy with things. There's a beautiful rainbow as I head back in to Flagstaff, but because I'm a good driver I don't try to take photo. I do think about it though.

Outside the observatory there’s a big kaleidoscope. I have a look, turn the handle and think it’s all very pretty until boom! Marvin the Martian pops up. My view of Lowell Observatory has just skyrocketed. No pun intended.

I arrive just in time for Cosmic Zoom, a 45 minute talk about the universe. It’s just me, so I have to answer all the questions the incredibly intelligent and equally geeky guide has to ask. I don’t remember what planet comes after what planet and feel stupid, but the guide is nice and doesn’t laugh.

He talks and I listen as my brain leaks out of my ears. By the time he’s talking about the edge of the known universe I’m busy trying to tell myself that despite what the rumour that went around school said, I won’t go mad if I think about it all too much. Still, I feel myself questioning this and try to think about something else, like the fact I missed lunch. It’s an amazing lecture and I wish I could have recorded it because information overload. Space, man. It’s something else.

Only me here.

I head up to the Clark Telescope, through which the first evidence of the expanding universe was discovered (careful, madness that way lies). It’s big and old and hard to take photo of. All the guys who work here are adorably geeky and I think they're awesome. They clearly love their stuff and just want to tell you everything about space. 

Then I have a wander around the gardens, and head to the visitor centre to have a look. It’s very spacey and very cool.  

Whoa...

I don’t have the time to do the Museum of Northern Arizona, but might do it after my hike, for which I leave tomorrow! I’m very excited. It will be nice to leave the car behind, get some exercise, and experience the Grand Canyon like never before.  

For now though, it's dinner, pack and hopefully a movie on TV in bed. What luxury! There’ll be no update for a few days, but prepare for a mammoth one on Saturday when I’m back.  

Until then!