Durango to Flagstaff, AZ

Yesterday morning we said our goodbyes to Kathleen, visited the Durango Farmer's Market and then left for Arizona. Ry had never been through Monument Valley, so we decided to take a little detour for spectacular scenery that has been featured in countless western movies in the mid-20th century. It was a long day of driving, mostly through the very remote Ute and Navajo reservations. We made a point to stop at Mesa Verde National Park on our way out of Colorado to see some of the best preserved pueblo cave dwellings in the country. We skipped out on the larger ruins in favor of something smaller and more well-preserved that we could tour without a ranger.

After Mesa Verde we drove on and watched the landscape change into a vast desert with sage brush, big sky and red rock formations everywhere. We stopped to visit the Mexican Hat formation near the San Juan River in Utah, which was exciting for me because that had been our pull-out point for an amazing canoe trip I did while in graduate school. Ah, memories.

We reached Flagstaff by night and gained another hour after realizing that Arizona does not participate in daylight savings time, something I knew but hadn't remembered. We walked around downtown, enjoyed a beer at my formerly favorite bar The Pay 'N Take and then drove up to an overlook of the city near Lowell Observatory for a nighttime view. The moon was full and actually so bright that it took away some of the view's splendor.

This morning we switched hotels to something more decent and then had Southwestern breakfast at Martanne's Burrito Palace - scrumptious and well-worth the half hour wait in line. We drove to Buffalo Park, a city park that houses some of the vast urban trail system and has great views of the San Francisco Peaks. We walked a two-mile loop enjoying the views and watching rain clouds slowly surround the peaks.

In the afternoon we visited the Museum of Northern Arizona, which had an amazing and well-preserved collection of artifacts from the Native Peoples of the Colorado Plateau. I learned quite a bit more about the history of the Sinagua, Navajo, Hopi, and Pai peoples. There were also a few lovely contemporary art exhibits to complement the archaeological and cultural exhibits.

In the evening I drove Ry around the NAU campus and other parts of town before settling in at Beaver Street Brewery for some grub. I tried to give him a taste of my life here in grad school by visiting a few favorite places, sharing stories and generally walking him down memory lane for a bit.

Tomorrow our big task is to ascend Mt. Humphrey's, the highest peak in Arizona. Should be more strenuous than our tough hike to Chasm Lake in RMNP but we're also more acclimated to the altitude. I'm very excited! It was something I always wanted to do when I lived here, but didn't think I could manage it. Now I've got a great hiking partner and I'm ready to go for it!