Spring break... in AZ

Nearly a year and a half after they moved there, I finally managed to get down to Flagstaff, AZ to visit Stephen and Jessica (wonderful friends from UW). Spring break was not only a convenient time to get away (I'm teaching a rock climbing course through Cornell) but also a good time of year to visit AZ.

I took off on Friday morning and arrived without incident at Flagstaff that evening. Even though Flagstaff is a bit larger than Ithaca, the airport was pleasantly smaller than Ithaca's (I definitely like small airports and their lack of chaos). Anyhow, I got a short walking tour of their neighborhood before another couple of friends (Joe and Trisha) arrived from Seattle via Phoenix with yet another couple friends (Alex and Dawn) who reside in Phoenix. We all knew each other from UW days (except Dawn), and it was awesome to see everyone again. After grilling burgers and dogs (even though it was close to freezing outside after dark), we played games and hung out... although not too late since we had a big day on Saturday.

Sunrise at the neighborhood park (gotta love jetlag)

Saturday, we all headed down to Sedona to do some hiking after a solid breakfast of homemade Belgian waffles. Flagstaff is actually pretty high (~7000') and Sedona is enough lower in elevation that it is consistently warmer there. After spending the last 3 winter months in Ithaca, it was amazing to have weather in the high 60s and see stuff blooming. We hiked about 4 mi out to Vultee arch through classic southwest red sandstone.

Me out on Vultee Arch (Photo coutesy Stephen)

The view from Vultee Arch - more or less at the same time as the last picture. You can just barely make Stephen out on the second band up. Obviously, he was shooting telephoto, while I was shooting ultra-wide.

Sandstone is a blast to photograph. All these from the hike.

After church the next day, we got the tour of Flagstaff. It is by no means a large city, but not exactly a small town, either. Lots of outdoorsy types. Downtown is relatively historical (several buildings around the turn of the century). We grabbed pizza a local joint, and then attempted to see some of the local cliff dwellings, but were thwarted by the time - apparently the ranger on duty wanted to leave early. Perhaps next time...

Camera fun downtown Flagstaff on the Weatherford Hotel balcony (c. 1900).

Alex and Dawn had to head back down to Phoenix that evening to work on Monday, but the 5 of us remaining went out to dinner at an amazing local restautant. Monday, Stephen & Jessica both had to work, but I tagged along with Joe & Trisha up to the Grand Canyon (only hour and a half away). We managed to get backcountry permits to camp on the rim way, way out of the way of the tourist crowds. And by "on the rim", I mean right on the rim! Look out the window of the tent and you're staring at the canyon!

The view from our chosen campsite on the Grand Canyon rim in the backcountry.

Zoomed in, a bit earlier

Sunrise from the same point the next morning.

Joe and I hiked down the Canyon the next morning on the South Bass Trail, which was close to where we camped. It was simply awesome to hike down (and up) through so vastly different layers of rock.

Hiking down the grand canyon. This is just a little offshoot canyon leading down to the main one. The tops of these walls are still about 1500' below the actual rim.

A boat, abandoned 1918 according to the trail guide, sits just above the Colorado river at the bottom of the Grand Canyon

The beach at the bottom was quite pleasant. Nice sand, imported courtesy of the Colorado River.

A pool in a crevice near the river. (note: color tweaking on this shot...) Joe is in there for scale.

The hike up was long and hot, but we made it up the 4500' and 7.5mi for a 15 mile day and were back at the car before 4. We headed back to Flagstaff that evening and crashed.

The next day (Wednesday, now) Joe & Trisha headed back down to Phoenix, but Stephen managed to swing a half day off work. In the morning (while he was working) I hopped on his bike and located a local bouldering (rock climbing, but staying low to the ground) place I'd heard about about 8 mi away. It was pretty awesome to get out on rock outdoors after being cooped up in Cornell's indoor climbing gym all winter. The pocketed limestone made for some really fun problems.

An easy-ish bouldering problem I cooked up and worked on. (Holds highlighted in red) Harder routes (which I couldn't do) lead all the way out completely under the roof

That afternoon, we scrambled up Mt. Elden, which rises a couple thousand feet right next to Flagstaff. The lower part was a lot of fun boulder hopping and scaling. The summit put us over 9000', which definitely is enough to remind me that I live near sea level. The day was a gorgeous 75 degrees and sunny. Exactly the weather I had been hoping to get in my excpae from NY.

After getting cleaned up, we ate out at another favorite local resaurant with some wickedly good pasta and southwest salad. After that, it was time to pack up to catch my flight early the next morning. Overall? An extremely fun trip, both that it worked out to get time with so many friends, and to soak up the beauty (and warmth) of the SW for a few days.

Full photo gallery with geolocated photos at my AZ Picasa Albulm.