Letter 5: Grand Canyon NP to Lake Meade.
From the Traveling Harrington’s.

The camera has been busy so we are sending the pictures in separate messages. Hopefully they will be in order of the bold print in this letter.

When we left Cottonwood, AZ, we turned north to Flagstaff and on to the Grand Canyon. We took Hwy 180 out of Flagstaff and were pleasantly surprised at the pretty scenery. Snow capped mountains in the distance with a variety of trees from tall pines down to shrubs near the road. Part of the way snow covered the ground under the pines.
We also had short stretches of 8% grade – both up and down.. Upon arrival shortly after noon we found no campsites for our size, in this huge trailer campground. But the man said come back after 1 and he would see if some had checked out and not told him. Sure enough he did have a spot. It pays to show up just about check out time. We then took the free shuttle and went to several view points on the south rim.

See Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon. Fred is going to notify OSHA (haha) about unsafe work conditions. There were spots where a person could just step off and fall 3000 feet –no guardrail or protection! He had seen all he wanted to see. He was sweet enough to go with Olivia to see some other vistas,




Sunday morning we left camp before church time and drove east along the canyon to Cameron and north to Page. Several pull outs allowed us to see canyon views outside the Nat’l, Park were Indians selling their jewelry, blankets and pots along the roadside. We stopped at a pull out for the



Little Colorado view, see L Colorado where Muddie & Cecil stopped with Olivia in 1950 and, a whirl wind nearly blew us off the bluff. While Olivia shopped Fred noticed the awning had pulled out a little and looked like it was tearing and coming unrolled. A kind angel man climbed on the roof and tied the awning to the roller and we proceeded. The wind has been so high on this trip and especially today it is making mincemeat of the awning. The canvas part of the awning is totaled. We will replace it later – after the March winds quit! Fred estimated the gust at 45 mph or more. The Suburban and trailer held the road REAL well. The strong winds weren’t a factor in driving.
Today has really been a roller coaster on our emotions. First the Grand Canyon vistas, then wind, then after turning north at Cameron a sand storm crossed our path. After the sand storm the scenery for about 25 miles was bleak, gray color, absolutely nothing growing. The Indians living here were in very poor circumstances. We saw single wide trailers, hogans, dirt mounds, prefab homes. Most had shingles missing, or siding missing. They would really deserve a few oil wells after existing in this squalor! Olivia thinks the US really did these Indian dirty sending them into this area.
At Page we crossed the Colorado River and the Glen Canyon dam. The water was blue but the mesas on the other side were surreal. It was like being on the moon. All white. We found the Glen Canyon National Recreation area and a very nice campground. After we made camp, we returned to the dam to take the tour.



Glen Canyon Dam 1, 2
Sure enough the wind had stopped the free tours but we enjoyed the information center and the very helpful guides. We drove on to Page, bought gas, propane and ate out. When we came back to the campground the sky to the east was dark rain clouds, the sun was shinning on the cliffs and the water was even bluer. God really does work his wonders in this world.



The rocks are swirled, colors change to make even bad scenery pretty.



One of the rock formations close to the water looks like Manhattan Island.
Monday, March 31 we left Lake Powell and drove to Kanab, Utah, then Glendale UT and left the trailer at our first RV park of this trip.



Fred enjoyed this meadow of snow on the drive to Bryce Canyon National Park.

It has “Hoodoos”. That’s the sandstone spirals. In Bryce you drive along the top of the mountain and at look outs see the canyons.

See Bryce pictures. On the way to the canyon we saw a beautiful forest camp on Hwy 12. We recommend it for summer travelers. Myra there was a great bike trail through Red Canyon on that highway. We did find out that all the water on one side of the Bryce divide went to the Colorado River and on the other into a huge basin (Great Western Basin?) covering several states where there is no drainage exit. Water entering the basin either soaks into the ground or evaporates.
Tuesday April 1 took us to Zion National Park. When Olivia was in 4th & 5th grades her teacher was Mrs. Sheets (the other teacher for our grade was our friend Betty Johnson’s mother Mrs. Adams). My teacher and her family traveled over the summer months. Olivia remembers Mrs. Sheets telling about Bryce and Zion National park. Therefore Olivia has wanted to go there ever since. If you have not been there then please add it to your list of places to go.

Everyone should see this wonderful canyon with 2-3,000’ sheer walls, Straight up! In the Grand Canyon many people float through or hike or ride a donkey to see what it looks like from the bottom. In Zion, you are in the bottom looking up. It is awesome. There are emance slabs of sandstone.

(2000’ vert wall) (Looking straight up) In the Temple of Sinawava we were surrounded by these vertical walls. I wished for a panoramic camera to take it all in. It is truly amazing what God has done with water and sandstone.

We saw the three Patriarchs, Abraham, Jacob & Isaac;

the weeping rock;



The altar and the pulpit,



The organ pipes,

and enthusiastic hikers walking up switchbacks on the sheer walls. (Look to right and below the star). By the way a Methodist minister named the landmarks in the canyon.
We entered the canyon from the east and the drive was very dramatic. Please come in that way if your rig isn’t too big. While we were waiting to go through the tunnel, the ranger pointed out





a family of Desert Big Horns (Angie be sure Muddie sees this picture).There is a one mile tunnel through the rock with openings ever so often allowing a canyon view. The first one Olivia looked through she saw

the middle of Zion’s Arch, right there! WOW!

Tunnel Window When we came out of the tunnel there were 6 switchbacks to get to the bottom of the canyon. Too bad there wasn’t a pull out at the top to get a picture of them.
We met lots of foreign tourists: Belgium, France, Germany and lots of Canadians. They were all impressed. We have seen many rental RV’s and Fred found out that some of them are foreign and come to see the US by RV. We think we might do that in other countries????
The tunnel and switchbacks have very strict size requirements and we were too wide and too long. So we had to detour around to the south to go to Las Vegas. We had planned to drive through and stay in the campground on the south entrance. We really missed a good campground. It was on the river, with trees and nice camp spots and for seniors we could have stayed for $10 per night, full hookups, and on the river. So those of you with a RV enter from the south, and then drive over the switchbacks and thru the tunnel without the trailer. There is a free shuttle to take everyone into the best part of the canyon and it runs year round. In the protected part of the canyon is Zion Lodge and it looked like a great place to go for several days. We would have stayed in the campground several days, but we didn’t get to it or have timeWednesday, (Teenya’s 40th Birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TEENYA!) On our way to Vegas we thought the drive would be desert, but were we surprised. We saw some new to us cactus and

the Virgin River Gorge. It became so narrow one bridge ran with and over the river. When we came out of the gorge then we were on flat land. We started seeing houses with Air Conditioners on the roofs.

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We were scheduled to meet Jo Ann Wilmoth Clark, class of ’61, who took us to the Rampart Casino for their wonderful buffet, and a good time reminiscing and talking about Waxahachie. We found out she and her brother own the lake on the west end of Main Street where people enter the town. They have 5 acres but most of it is underwater. They would love to sell it and told us to bring them an offer. It would make a wonderful entrance park, if cleaned up. Our odometer rolled over 3000 miles today.
Thursday, after my annual mammogram, we met the Fenton’s for a drive to see their land near Kingman, AZ.

We did drive over Hoover Dam both going and coming from Kingman. It was a long, but pleasant trip. The desert was blooming yellow and even the barren mountains had a yellow cast. It may have been Brittlebush or maybe Snakeweed. Occasionally there would be bright pink or orange flowers too. We also enjoyed the visit with Mike and Nancy and the tour of the Las Vegas strip and supper. We were very glad to hit the sack that night.
Friday, Fred decided to get out of Vegas, without playing poker! We slept in, then packed up and headed out of town, hunted for another spot to roost and ended up at Lake Meade National Recreation Park near Hoover Dam. Olivia washed and cleaned house (we both miss Ranell’s housecleaning work in Waxahachie at our house. We wish she would clean the trailer for us!) and Fred is making minor (MAJOR to us) repairs. The sliding door was off the track, the box under the bed cracked because Olivia put too much weight in it, TV connection cord was too short, hang the clock and book cases, etc. We plan to stay here and rest until we are ready to drive to Las Angeles to see Daniel. We want to be there when he is not working so we can spend some time with him.
Saturday, April 5, Lillian’s (Fred’s mom) birthday and we are hoping she has a nice day.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANNY!
PS. So far we have enjoyed Angie’s Turkey, Dressing, Green Beans and Sweet Potatoes,
Nancy’s Chicken Pot Pie and Frank’s Coq au Vin. Sure is nice to have a freezer with casseroles in it.