Hello, friends! Hi, family! I’m sitting at our camp spot on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in Kaibab National Forest, soaking in the view and feeling so humbled and grateful for this life we get to lead.
We came here to beat the record setting heatwave that hit the southwest and I’m so glad that we did! It’s been in the upper 70s during the day and the 30s (!) at night. We had some heat on the way here — let’s see how we got here:
Coconino National Forest
When we left off last time, we were camping near Strawberry, Arizona in Coconino National Forest. We didn’t want leave, but in order to beat the heat we had to head on down the road. Our first stop was…
Montezuma Castle National Monument
We arrived at Montezuma Castle National Monument on Monday a little before noon and we were shocked to find the parking lot was full! Luckily a spot opened up and we were able to hop in, whew!
After checking in at the Visitor Center we were off to see the “castle”. According to the park website:
Despite being called a castle, the dwelling at Montezuma Castle is actually a collection of 20 rooms originally belonging to multiple families, similar to a modern-day apartment building. Other apartment-style buildings called pueblos, like those found at Montezuma Well and Tuzigoot also had multiple rooms and were built with local materials. But unlike Montezuma Castle, these pueblos are free-standing and have large common areas for gatherings. The Sinagua lived in pueblos and cliff dwellings until around 1400 CE.
Seeing these 600 year old homes was truly awe inspiring:
Can you imagine using a series of ladders to get to your home? I can’t! (See my post from Bandelier National Monument when I overcame my fear of ladders to climb up to Alcove House, another cultural site.)
Montezuma Well
After seeing Montezuma Castle we went to another unit of the park, Montezuma Well. It wasn’t nearly as crowded. The cliff dwellings here are tucked into limestone cliffs and overlook the well:
This area has been home to many prehistoric groups of people since as early as 11,000 CE. I had to really stop and let that sink in.
Flagstaff, Arizona
Next we stopped in Flagstaff, Arizona to pick up groceries and do a few errands, and when we pulled into the REI parking lot I spotted another AEONrv!
I was super excited!
This is the first we’ve seen on the road since we got ours in back in November.
As luck would have it, Sherry and Rick, the owners of AEONrv #32, were coming out of REI as we were pulling in! So we compared rigs and ended up talking for about an hour. We could have talked more!
It’s so fun being part of the AEONrv community — there’s an instant bond. There’s an active Facebook group, but chatting with someone in person is so much better! We shared road tips, places to go, storage ideas, modifications to our rigs and more.
Hope to meet up with Sherry and Rick again someday!
Back to Coconino National Forest
After finishing up our errands in Flagstaff we headed off to find a camp spot in another area of Coconino National Forest.
We got to our campsite after dark and woke up to this incredible view of the San Francisco Peaks:
It’s hard to believe this is just a few miles from town.
We only planned on staying here one night, but it was so beautiful we had to stay for two! Behind the van was a whole hill of cinder, which we’re guessing came from Sunset Crater Volcano — more on that below.
Look at these views from our walk:
In addition to the San Francisco Peaks, we also had views of the San Francisco Volcanic Field, with Sunset Crater Volcano on the right — and that’s where we went next!
Sunset Crater National Monument, Arizona
Wednesday morning we drove 11 whole miles over to Sunset Crater National Monument, where we hiked the Lava Flow and Lenox Crater Trails.
From the park website:
Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument preserves the 1,000-ft (300-m) Sunset Crater cinder cone—one of the best examples of this type of volcano on the continent. Sunset Crater was built through an especially vigorous eruption for a cinder cone, producing an eruption column 65,000 feet (12 mi, 20 km) in height that deposited ash over 270 square miles (700 square km).
Together, the Sunset Crater cinder cone and associated lava flows and volcanic features make up a stunning volcanic landscape on the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau.
If you’re interested in volcanoes like I am, check out this list of National Parks dedicated to volcanoes!
Wupatki National Monument
Then it was a short drive to Wupatki National Monument, home to Ancestral Puebloan people from approximately A.D. 1100 to 1250.
Here’s some info on the monument from the park website:
People have lived in the area that is now Wupatki National Monument for over 13,000 years. By the early 1100s there were around 2,000 people within 50 miles of Wupatki Pueblo. They were communicating, cooperating, thriving, and trading until the mid-1200s when an extended drought and strong cultural ideas in migration led people to move into other areas. Many different groups have utilized this land over the last few centuries. Today, 13 different Tribes officially recognize the area within Wupatki National Monument as culturally significant. These are important ancestral lands.
Here are just a few favorite photos from our time there as we visited Wupatki, Lomaki, and Box Canyon Pueblos:
It’s hard to describe what it’s like walking in the footsteps of the Ancestral Puebloans.
Peace comes over me, and I wish I could have known them.
Navajo Bridge and Condor Sighting
After we left Wupatki we drove for several hours, not knowing where we’d stop for the night. We stopped to stretch our legs at the Navajo Bridge — and as I was taking this photo of the Colorado River, Jason came running over and said there was a California condor sighting!
Can you spot him on the old bridge?
Here he is — you can even see his tags:
It was so cool to see one — our first ever sighting!
Lee’s Ferry and Grand Canyon National Park
After we crossed the Navajo Bridge, we noticed signs for Lee’s Ferry Campground in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area just a few miles away and we looked at each other and said “Hey — how about we camp here?”
So we pulled into the first come, first serve campground and got one of the last spots! We were both beat, so we went to bed early with the sounds of the Colorado River singing us to sleep.
The next morning we went for a walk down to the river — and into Grand Canyon National Park!
It was our first time in the Grand Canyon since 2018, when we stopped there on a road trip. We were tent campers back then, but had to get a night in a cabin since the forecast called for 1 degree — and snow! It felt like we’d come full circle.
While the Colorado River was super cold, the temperatures were supposed to soar into the upper 90s so we decided not to stay and stick with our plan to head to higher elevations.
We dumped our gray tank and filled up our fresh water and headed to…
The North Rim of the Grand Canyon
I’ve always wanted to go to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and I suggested it to J since it would be higher elevation and hopefully cooler temperatures. News of last year’s Dragon Bravo fire broke my heart — as it did many people all around the world. I wasn’t sure if we should go or not, tho.
Jason did a ton of research and found that much of Kaibab National Forest, northwest of the Grand Canyon National Park area didn’t burn. We checked the weather and it was going to be in the 30s at night and 70s during the day — that sounded perfect!
After a long drive on dirt roads through mud and snow we found a camp spot…
This was the sunset an hour after we got to camp:
This is the view out the door of the van:
Wow! Just wow.
To give you some perspective, we’re parked in the National Forest, and 6 feet down from the ledge is Grand Canyon National Park. Both work together to preserve and protect this landscape.
Here’s the view from the bedroom window by our feet that we’ve been waking up to:
Just so incredible.
Jason made my North Rim dreams come true!
Since this post is so long I’ll save more about our time here in this special place until my next post — see you then! —Lisa, Jason, and Henry-the-Van
