Colorado Trip 2013 - Part VII (The End)

Just a quick post to finish off this adventure. This is the final segment of a amazing trip my dad and I took to Colorado back in May of 2013.  Having spent the night in Kanab, Utah we broke camp early and started heading south on highway 89A where we quickly crossed back into Arizona.


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This is at the Le Fevre Overlook in the Kaibab National Forest.  We met a couple, visiting from England, who agreed to take our picture. 

 From here you have an amazing view of the The Grand Staircase to the north.  On a sad note, two months after my dad and I stopped here a couple was hit by lightning at this same location.  The lightning struck just to the left of where my dad is standing in the above picture.

 After crossing through Kaibab we came to a overlook where we could see the Vermillion Cliffs off in the distance.

 We had some cloud cover in the morning which gave us a break from the heat, but also added a nice surreal effect to the ride.

 Looking down you could see highway 89A stretching off into the distance.

 And here are the Vermillion Cliffs up close.  We pulled over at Lee's Ferry to walk out over the old Navajo Bridge.  This is the last bridge crossing over the Colorado for quite some distance.  There's a little hole in the ground called the Grand Canyon which prevents north/south travel.  Heading west, your next bridge crossing is at the Hoover Dam.

 

 There are two bridges here.  The old one was completed in 1928 and  used all the way up to 1995, when a new bridge was built.  The new bridge is what you're looking at here.

 The Colorado river looked like bluish green glass at the bottom of the canyon.

 This is looking across the older bridge.  They allow people to walk out on it.

 Looking east we could see a couple of rafting tours coming down the river.

 I zoomed in to see what they were up to.

 Back in ~2002 Kiri and I were lucky enough to take one of these rafting trips down the Grand Canyon.  Trip of a lifetime!  There's a long waiting list to get on these trips though, so sign up soon!  I believe this is the company that Kiri and I used: HERE.

 The older bridge is much narrower then the new bridge.  Can you imagine two semi trucks crossing in this space??

 

 From Lee's Ferry we headed south, through Flagstaff, and then southwest into Oak Creek Canyon.  We met a fellow rider there who chatted us up and was nice enough to take our picture.

 The road drops down into this canyon is about 5 or 6 hairpin turns.  Amazing ride if you're ever in the area.

 After Oak Creek the temperature really started to soar.  We passed through the towns of Sedona and Cottonwood before making it to my Uncle Sid's house in Prescott.

 The required glass of margarita once you reach his place.  He makes a mean margarita!  We spent the night before making the final push towards home.

 The next morning we left early and still couldn't beat the heat.  You forget what hot is after spending time at higher altitudes.

 Last shot of the trip.  This is at a gas station outside of Tucson.  It was so hot we had to pull over and cool ourselves down by pouring cold water all over our shirts.  It was a great trip and we were already talking about our next adventure.  Thanks for following along!  Until next time!