Day 15: Desert View, AZ

Day 14

May 31, 2015

Miles: 29

Grand Canyon Village to Desert View

We are staying at Desert View, a lookout over the Grand Canyon from the east.  It has a restaurant, grocery store, and tent sites.  It doesn't have WiFi or good cell connections.  Nature can be so inconvenient sometimes.  I have attempted to save draft copies of this blog entry a number of times and each attempt failed.  This has certainly lessened my desire to write a halfway decent blog because I may not be able to publish it anyway, so what's the point.  Also, I am writing this from the tent again from a very uncomfortable position, so brevity will be the soul of wit this evening.

We got up before 6:30 and went to get an early breakfast.  I liked being out on the canyon rim without a zillion people getting in my way.  I can tell that sometimes when we order breakfast, the waitress is shocked by the amount of food we think we can eat.  This morning was such a time.  Of course, we then proceed to eat everything that is brought to us.

Di is proud of her food consumption

A shot from the south rim in the early morn.

We road along the south rim and had some great views of the canyon.  We stopped at one spot and were accosted by a couple who asked how far we were going.  We told her and she replied that her daughter, Erica, and Erica's friend Mel, road across country from Yorktown to Florence, OR.  It was the same trip that Jen and Ben did!  She gave us the name of their blog, LookOutAcrossAmerica (I think), so I'll look it up when I get better internet access.  They were fun and supportive to talk to.

Great view of the canyon

There were so many places giving amazing views I felt compelled to stop at all of them.  After a while Di said we had to forego some of these lookouts if we expected to arrive in Cameron before dark.  Cameron is 60 miles from the Grand Canyon Village, so we had a long day ahead of us.  We were riding and another lookout came upon us and Di looked at me expectantly.  "Let's keep going", I said, "its the same view we've seen already."  Di was relieved, but I started laughing.  I was laughing because I suddenly remembered something that happened a long time ago.  I was about 13 years old and my parents had taken Dine, San and me on a trip to New Hampshire.  We drove past Franconia Notch and after taking a quick peek, I went back to reading my book.  Soon we were driving past Pinkham Notch and my mom told me to get my head out of that book and look at Pinkham Notch.  

Being 13, of course I didn't budge.  My mom got a little upset and strongly urged me to look up at the notch.  Again I refused.  This time I was commanded by my mom to look up and see Pinkham Notch.  Without lifting my eyes from the book, I calmly said, "You've seen one notch, you've seen them all."  At this, Dine started laughing her head off.  My mom gave up on trying to get me to look at the notch, but Dine never forgot this episode.  For years afterward, and often apropos of nothing, she would look at me slyly and say, "You've seen one notch, you've seen them all!"  And that would always make us laugh.  I was laughing now as we rode by the lookout and I was remembering the notch episode, but Di didn't ask me why I was laughing.  She's seen that kind of thing before.

A short distance before Desert View, where we planned on having lunch, there was a museum that showcased ruins from people who lived in this area a thousand years ago.  We didn't go to the museum.  But it did make me think about those people who lived a thousand years ago.  Would they go to a museum to see the ruins of people who lived a thousand years before them.  Probably not.  I rode by the museum without any guilt.

An even shorter distance before Desert View, we came to a lookout that was really amazing and I just had to stop.  I sat on the wall over the canyon and Di sat beside me and I read aloud the lyrics to Bob Dylan's Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie.  This was recommended by Beth, who said it should be read at the canyon.  Beth is a cool cat, so I take her recommendations seriously.  There were a bunch of people at the lookout, which wasn't very big, so everybody got treated to a reading of Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie.  The poem makes, or practically forces, you to think about what you are doing and who you are, and after reading it I was happy that I felt at peace.  I don't know how all the other folks around me felt.

I started reading to myself, but Di wanted in, so I then read aloud.

We made it to Desert View around 2pm.  It affords a great view of the Grand Canyon from the east, but I guess the name Grand Canyon View was already taken so they had to settle for Desert View.

Great view of the desert (Grand Canyon) from the east

We bought lunch from the restaurant and, as we usually do at lunch, rechecked our map to make sure we knew the route to our next stop.  Our plan was to stop in Cameron tonight, go to Cedar Ridge tomorrow night, and then Cliff Dwellings the next night.  However, Di noted that Cedar Ridge has no lodging, no camping, no restaurant, and no grocery store.  It doesn't even have a gas station.  This means we have to skip Cedar Ridge and go to the next town, Marble Canyon.  It is 73 miles between Cameron and Marble Ridge.  Rats.  If we continue on today to Cameron, then we would have ridden 60 miles today and have 73 miles tomorrow.  That's not a very smart plan, so naturally, that's what we decided to do.  Di called the only hotel in Cameron to book our room for this evening, but they were sold out.  She then called the camp ground to reserve a tent site and the owner said the tent site, which is really the back yard of the Chevron station, is available. She also mentioned that the yard is small and the gas station is situated at an intersection.  Now that we were faced with this unpleasantness, we decided to stop being silly and abandoned the Cameron plan.  Instead, we reserved a tent site right here at Desert View.  We will ride to Cameron tomorrow, a ride of only 30 miles, and stay in the hotel room we have already reserved.  So, after riding 29 miles today and then only 30 tomorrow, we should be ready for the 73 mile ride to Marble Ridge.  If not, we will rest up for another day in Cameron (over 900 people!).  So this explains why we are tenting this evening.  

Di getting the campsite ready

Di asked the park ranger if we had to worry about bears.  He said there was nothing to worry about from bears, but the ravens were another matter altogether.  "They'll carry your whole sandwich away if you leave it on the table!"

One serious looking raven

We had dinner at the restaurant (veggie pizza for each of us) and then watched the sun go down over the canyon.  I was so happy to be here, watching beauty unfold before me.  Dylan and Woody would have laughed at me almost trading the canyon sunset for a patch of dirt behind the Chevron station, but I am certain they would be happy for my actual doing.