En Route to Grand Canyon

From Joshua Tree National Park we continued west to Arizona. We had a late start and took the better part of the day to get to Flagstaff. 

 From Flagstaff we continued on down the interstate for another forty minutes to the little town of Winslow Arizona. If you're familiar with the popular Eagles song "Take it Easy"than you'll know that the band pays tribute to this town in the second verse of the song:

Well, I'm a standing on a corner 
in Winslow, Arizona 
and such a fine sight to see 
It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed 
Ford slowin' down to take a look at me 
Come on, baby, don't say maybe 
I gotta know if your sweet love is 
gonna save me 

The town has built a park in tribute to the song with a statue and a mural of the girl in the flat bed ford in the back ground. The site is also along the famous Route 66 making it a popular tourist stop. We saw three other groups stopping to take photos in the short time we were there.

We resupplied at a grocery store in Flagstaff getting more propane for our camp stove and some dry meal ingredients for our upcoming journey into Utah's plethora of National Parks. It was getting late, so we camped in a National Forest just north of Flagstaff, driving the remaining four hours to the Grand Canyon North Rim in the morning. 

We chose the North Rim because it's typically less busy in the high season. The drive from Flagstaff is beautiful. The surrounding ecosystems change so quickly and so dramatically. Shortly after Vermilion Cliffs, we passed a spot called Cliff Dwellers. True to the name, there were a collection of make shifts stone houses alongside the road. 

Stopping in a t Cliff Dwellers, Arizona 

A little drafty but the view is great

Our car looks so small compared to to these odd shaped rocks

The area was dotted with small make shift homes, some more elaborate than others. Some were built by passing travelers as recently as the twentieth century, but the area has been home to cliff dwelling people for hundreds of years. 

After our impromptu photo session, we carried onto the North Rim.