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Travels
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In the autumn of 2006,
we drove from our Florida home to northern Mexico, and back through Arizona and
Utah. The objective in Mexico was to see more of the Copper Canyon. In Arizona
we visited the north rim of the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon
- all places we had visited before.
If you click on "Photos"
on the right, you can see some of our pictures of each section of the trip.
| | From Florida
we drove across Alabama and Mississippi to New Orleans. We then visited San Antonio
in Texas, then drove on west to Big Bend National Park, where we braved the bears
and mountain lions to spend a couple of nights in our new Walmart tent.
| | We crossed
into Mexico from Texas, drove across the desert to Chihuahua (yes, we did see
one small dog) and into the mountains at Creel, where the Copper Canyon starts.
We stayed at a posh hotel right on the rim of the canyon, and did some hiking
there.
| | From Creel we drove down into
the canyon to a place called Batopilas. There is only one way to get there, 40
miles (that's 4 hours) down a single track dirt road, which descends 5,000 feet
into the canyon by a hair-raising series of hairpin bends.
Batopilas is
a small town of 1500 people, which started off as a mining town. We hiked another
5 miles down the road to an 18th century church known as the Lost Cathedral, an
amazing building to find in such a remote place. Walking back to Batopilas, we
were robbed at gunpoint by a couple of bandits. Just silly kids really, but it
was scary enough at the time. They were not from Batopilas, and they were silly
because all 1500 local inhabitants would be out to get them (robbing tourists
is generally bad for business), and the only way they could get out of the place
was back up the 40 mile dirt road. The police soon caught one of them, and got
most of our money back. The police also posted men at points along the road out.
But the gun they showed us was real.
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Back at Creel, we took the train. The Copper Canyon Railway is
one of the world's most spectacular. It descends to the Pacific coast in 8 hours
by a series of switchbacks and tunnels - at one point you could see two sections
of track below you. It was so good that we did it again next day (well, actually,
we had to get back to our car).
This railway is the only passenger train
left in Mexico. I said to a Mexican that I supposed the trains could not compete
with the buses, but he said that the real reason was security. Apparently the
trains kept getting held up by bandits, because the railways tend to go through
wild, uninhabited country. Ah, so that explained the guy with a machine gun in
every carriage of the Copper Canyon train.
Mexico does seem to have a
bit of a gun problem, much more than any other Latin American country we have
visited, except possibly Colombia. Probably something to do with the neighbours
in Texas.
| | From Creel we headed west
to Basaseachi, once thought to be the highest waterfall in Mexico until they found
a higher one out in the sticks a few miles away (that was only in 1991). Then
we crossed the Sierra Madre mountains through deepest Mexico to the Pacific coast.
Actually, the sea of Cortes, but good enough for our "coast-to-coast"
photo.
| | We headed north to Arizona,
and spent a week meandering through the state. The saguaros near Tucson were spectacular,
although we narrowly missed stepping on a rattlesnake. We visited the Hopi reservation,
where we were able to see the harvest dances. The Hopis have a very different
perspective from most Americans - one of them told us "the Anglos are doing
to the Iraqis what they did to us". (Actually many Americans you meet are
anti-Bush, but they don't put it quite like that.)
From Hopiland we went
to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Everywhere was full, even the campground,
so we did some wild camping at a spot on the rim of the canyon - all legal because
we were just outside the National Park. When we were last at the North Rim, we
were setting off to hike across the canyon to the South Rim. This time, we looked
at the trail from the top and wondered how we ever had the guts to do it.
120 miles west of the North Rim complex is a place called Toroweap, the only place
in the Grand Canyon where you can see straight down to the bottom - a 3,000 foot
cliff at that point. So we had to go there. There is nothing at Toroweap except
a small unattended campground, and it's 60 miles from the nearest asphalt road
and 80 miles from the nearest hotel or restaurant. So out came the Walmart tent,
this time with our freeze-dried lasagna.
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From Toroweap we crossed the remote Arizona Strip to Utah. The
plan was to revisit the national parks which we went to on our very first trip
to the US, back in 1977 - but this time not to rush. Also, we wanted to take off
on the back roads, in our own car without worrying what Hertz would say if we
broke down on some dirt road where we weren't supposed to be.
We first
visited Zion National Park. The big attraction there is the hike through the Narrows
- the canyon of the Virgin River. There isn't a trail - you just hike beside the
river where you can and wade through the river where you can't. Only one of us
was actually up for that, and I gave up 3 hours up the canyon where the water
was up to my waist. (They said it was up to the neck further on, and that was
on a good day. On a bad day you have to swim.) S supplied the flask of coffee
and the dry clothes at the bottom, which was very welcome.
Utah is full
of scenery. We went to Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef and Canyonlands National Park,
and some of the lesser known sights like Cedar Breaks, Kodachrome Basin State
Park, Grosvenor Arch, Natural Bridges National Park and Hovenweap National Monument.
| | From Utah we went to Mesa
Verde to visit the amazing 700 year old cliff dwellings. To see the best ruins,
you climb down ladders, although we skipped the scariest climbs.
We drove
east over the Colorado Rockies, through snow. We climbed up Capulin Volcano for
a last look at the Rockies 80 miles away, then headed on east through Texas, Oklahoma
and Arkansas to Memphis, Tennessee. (Susan has now visited all 50 states - Arkansas
was the last.) After touring Elvis's place at Graceland (tacky, but quite well
done) we headed south across Georgia back to Florida.
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