Grand American Tour

Saturday 10/14 We do nothing but hang out at the resort’s lazy river and go for dinner at a nice Greek restaurant at Mill Street. Mill street is a very nice and lively street through Tempe with lots of restaurants and shops.

Friday 10/13 We take Hwy 89 to Prescott via Jerome. Once one of the largest cities in Arizona, Jerome is now the largest ghost town – with roughly 500 people how ever living there. Most of the homes are empty and lots of ghost business is going on. This is a very neat town, definitely worth visiting. Prescott is like many other Arizonian towns a rapid growing community with a lot of home development going on. Wide roads around Prescott keep the city clean – yet it is worth taking the “detour” to see the old town of Prescott. In the afternoon we continue on I-17 to Phoenix AZ. We’ve been here a few month ago and we decided to stay two nights in the Point South Resort in Tempe – a very relaxing place.

Thursday 10/12 We completely change plans. Rather than going to Grand Canyon which we have been before and later Bryce Canyon we decided to drive to Sedona, AZ. It is October and the lodges starting to close. The service teams are exhausted from the summer tourism and we feel we better do no more national parks on that trip. We take highway 89 to Flagstaff and Sedona. Flagstaff surprised us with its size and nice old town. This town has changed a lot in the last 20 years, definitely worth a visit. We continue on 89a to Sedona. What a cute town. Very busy and lots of construction right now. We stay at the Amara, a very exquisite resort in down town Sedona. And since we are up for a nice dinner we went to the “Gallery on Oak Creek” – this was an excellent dinner with a great selection of wines. So far we did close to 10,000 miles and shot over 2,700 pictures. There is so much to say, yet so much more to explore. The entries in this blog get more and more factual quick reviews and do not ...

Wednesday 10/11 With blue skies and a great morning we decided to take a boat tour on the lake. Even so there is so much less water than several years ago and we have to go along a channel to get to Padre Bay, it is just an awesome ride. What a great day today. We realize that the season is over and the coffee shop closes early and so does the bar. The personnel at the Wahweap lodge is more busy with shutting down the lodge than with servicing guests and so we decide to check out the next day.

Tuesday 10/10 The weather is so so and we relax today at Lake Powel. We check the house boats and wonder if this would be fun with all our kids, but we are not sure. The prices range from $4,000 to $10,000 per boat per week - wow. We hike near the Colorado River, after Glen Canyon Dam. Here the Colorado has a beautiful green color and winds his way through the deep Canyon, carved in dark red sand stone. It’s a great afternoon.

Monday 10/9 We leave Durango (without riding the train to Silverton) and head towards Lake Powell. We take Rout 160 and short before “Four Corners” take 41/162 towards Monument Valley. This is a wonderful road. We follow San Juan River and have another picnic at the river. While there was almost no water a few days ago, today water is flowing very fast and took the river over its normal size. After “Bluff” we get close to Monument Valley and have one of the most awesome views of the monumental rocks while the sun shines between dark clouds. Heavy rain hit the park so we didn’t go for today but will come back. In the evening we arrive at Lake Powell and stay at the Lake Powell Lodge.

Sunday 10/8 Again no way to take the train to Silverton, so we go again to Mesa Verde. It is a great day, weather is better and the ruins are very interesting.