It’s time to make our way to Alaska. Still a lot to see in Arizona, so we’ll take a couple of months and enjoy the journey. We spend Easter week at Theodor Roosevelt Lake in Az. We make camp early, enjoy local trails and geology, and the Tonto National Monument, a place set aside to preserve the culture of Indian tribes who settled the area. We hike up to the lower cliff houses built around 900 to 1150, it’s amazing how they lived, and prospered here! Soon our quiet spot on the lake is invaded by holiday partiers from Phoenix, Mesa, Scottsdale, Chandler, Goodyear, Tempe and all the rest of central Arizona for the Easter weekend. They surround us! The weather is good and it’s families and friends spring break Arizona style. Jet boat, jet ski, pontoon boat, canoe, fishing boat, kayak, and row boat fill the lake and campers line the shore. We’re ready to move on the next week and find some quiet again.
.We worked our way toward the Colorado state line with a overnight stop In Winslow, Arizona and had to “stand on the corner in Winslow, Az.” for a picture. Then to the Hopi and Navajo reservation area of Canyon de Chelly (d’shey). There is evidence of people living in these canyons for nearly 5000 years, the last 1250 years, Pueblo, Hopi, then Navajo who stay summers here still. 2-3 days were spent exploring the area from the rim above, then it required a Navajo guide to enter the canyon floor and share their culture and history on a 4 hour 4WD drive tour. We finished Arizona this year with a stop at Four Corners monument where Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico all meet in one point.
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The weather is changing while in Canyon de Chelly and it turned windy, cool, with rain and snow flurries. It’s easy to tell we’re moving North into Colorado, the mornings are cooler, 30’s and the days in the low 70’s. Wolf Creek Pass at 10,850 feet still has 4+ ft. of snow in the middle of April. On into Wyoming with stops at Hattie’s Lake near Laramie, Casper, Shoshone, and Cody, with a visit to Buffalo Bill Museum. Linda and I went in 1988, it was a world class museum then and even more spectacular now. We drove 1500+ miles in April and moved through 4 states into Montana, stopping often and enjoying this fantastic country and still averaged only 50 miles a day.
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