Grand Canyon Day 2: Caballo Lake to Lee's Ferry

We awoke at 5:30am, and found we had no propane left so there were no hot drinks for breakfast.  Breakfast consisted of granola bars, tangelos, and dried fruit - which really wasn't enough or appetizing.

 Good morning Caballo Lake!

I tossed and turned a lot overnight, but awoke feeling refreshed - but with a terrible sore throat that had gotten progressively worse over night.

We left Caballo Lake State Park shortly after dawn at 7am.  I drove the rental Tahoe from Caballo Lake State Park, through Albuquerque and to Flagstaff (484 miles). We arrived in Flagstaff for lunch at 1:30pm.  Flagstaff seemed much smaller and alpine than I expected - but we only saw the outskirts so it is difficult to really give an opinion on the city.  The other cars swapped drivers 180 miles before Flagstaff (in Gallup), but I kept driving until Flagstaff since it was impossible for all three cars to get refreshed drivers at the same time.

On the last 200 mile stretch I began feeling terrible - sick to my stomach with a terrible headache and chills. We had lunch at Tacos los Altos de Jalisco, where I had a bacon breakfast taco, fries, and horchata.  After lunch, Tommy took over driving the Tahoe.  I went with Emily to CVS to get some cold meds to hopefully help me feel better (since this would be my last chance to get meds anywhere besides a gas station or gift store).

Then I rode with Emily, Celia, and Anna from Flagstaff to Lee's Ferry, in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. This drive took about 2 hours.

The scenery during our drives today was awesome. When we hit the road at 7am, there was a really pretty stretch on the interstate where all I could see was our two Suburbans, the interstate dipping into a canyon, and a beautiful rock landscape.  As we were nearing Flagstaff, seeing snow-topped Humphreys Peak grow was awesome.  And seeing the ever changing desert landscape with mesas and rock structures was cool.

Once at camp, we met Josh and Steve, our NPS service project partners.  We're sharing two of the large group camp sites with them. We set up tents and our kitchen, and then we drove down to the Navajo bridge. The original bridge was built in 1928 to be the only connection between Utah and Arizona across the Colorado - this bridge is currently just for pedestrians.  Another stronger bridge was built in 1996 to handle modern-day traffic.  This bridge was built using the same methods. The Colorado River was pretty far below the bridge and the canyon was pretty cool.

 Our campsite at Lee's Ferry.

Our group walking on the original Navajo bridge.

Our group on the Navajo bridge (photo by Joao)

We stopped at the balanced rock on the way back to camp. Everyone enjoyed running around and climbing rocks.

Then we made dinner - a Sebastian meal of onions, lentils, and rice - as well as toasted apples and almonds for dessert.