After spending the evening Zion National Park, we departed early in the morning for Williams, Arizona.
Our first stop was at the Pipe Spring National Monument, on the Kaibab Paiute Tribal Grounds. My highlight of the day was a BMW passing us at about 95-100 MPH on the reservation highway (speed limit 55 MPH). He was out of sight quickly, but as soon as he disappeared, we saw blue lights and he was ‘plaining himself to a reservation Police Officer as we entered the monument. We blew our horn and gave the officer a “thumb’s up!!”
This is one big cow . . a cross between a Texas Longhorn and a Hereford:
The resident chicken population at the monument had been decimated by blue herons recently and there were only two left. They were in the safety of their chicken houses so we did not see them. This is one of the original outbuildings at the site of the springs:
This is the actual springs. It is known as the “Castle” and had gone dry about 20 years ago due to “earth movement” as explained by a resident Paiute National Park Service official, but there was still water flowing from the building into two beautiful ponds. It was cold, raining and windy so we virtually had the grounds to ourselves.
Williams is the terminus of the Grand Canyon Railroad and is considered the gateway to the south rim. It was snowing as we passed the entrance to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon at Jacob Lake (as expected, the road was closed) so we continued on to the South Rim. As we climbed from the Colorado River gorge at Lee’s Crossing, the sky began to darken. Almost as if my magic, as we entered the national park, it began to snow and we drove up into the clouds. Fog and snow, a perfect setting for Grand Canyon viewing. Our view at 45 mph:
This is Barbara and Cathy at the viewpoint near Grand Canyon Village. That is the Grand Canyon behind and below them. . . .
We spent a few minutes in the visiter center, gift shops and bookstores then on the way back to the motor home, it began to break up for a little. We rushed back to the edge and managed to capture these views:
Barbara’s dog Annie decided to make the best of the situation and had fun sliding on her nose in the snow:
We decided to head to Williams while we still had some daylight left as the roads would probably freeze come nightfall
Travelling with the Schinglers 