Bison, Otters and Bears...........Oh My

After the Grand Canyon we thought we better checkout something a little more "usual." We had heard about a placed called Bearizona which is just outside the city limits of Williams. The person who told us about it said we would need a couple of hours to see it, well she was wrong 5 and a half hours later they kicked us out as they were closing. Bearizona is a wildlife park that has only been open for four years. All of the animals were rescued from some fate worst than death and brought there. The animals all looked healthy and the staff were excellent. Here are some of the critters we saw.



 They have two 10 acre corrals for the Bison and White Bison.

 
They have a "Birds of Prey" show. We liked the owls best. Kelly wouldn't get any closer....The Owl was giving him a sideways look.

The foxes always look so cute.....We watched a Rooster walk back and forth in front of the fox enclosure......Awful brave when the fence is up.


They had Wolves and Artic Wolves. Apparently the Arctic ones are white....Glad someone asked that on the tour.



The otters were very playful as they always are. The one on the right just looked guilty to me.



They had three types of "Sheep" Mountain Goats on the left. Dall Sheep on the Right and Big Horn below.
Insert your own joke about big racks here.....

 June beside "VampBear" and Kelly playing "Where's Kelly"





Oh Yeah Da Bears. There were 5 bear cubs all around 10 months old. Now they know how to have a good time. June could have watched them all day.....

I didn't know that Porcupines like to spend time up a tree. This guy didn't even come down for dinner. 



After Bearizona we walked around the town of  Williams. There is a lot of history here. Route 66 was the road you took from Chicago to California. There have been many tales about it and songs written in its honour. Williams Arizona was the last town on the old Route 66 that was bypassed by the new highway I-40.

 It is hard to read but the map on the side of this old Hotel shows Route 66

Pretty self explanatory.
Yup gas is 3.59 a gallon here and that was about $.45 a gallon more than Flagstaff which is 30 minutes away.











We lived in Dawson Creek for 8 years and it is known as "Mile 0 " of the Alaska Highway. Well this sign is over the old Route 66 as you enter Williams.

We quite liked it here. The Rv Park was clean and well priced, the people were friendly, and the tourist attractions were professional and affordable. BUT we still can't find a place in the states where the Rv park doesn't have a #$*&*@% train going right by our spot. I only want to wake up at 3:30 am for one thing and listening to a deafening train whistle is not it!  Hope all is well with you all and take care.

Junkel...

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday we went to "The Grand Canyon" and today I am still overwhelmed. We went into the park at the east gate and proceeded to Desert View Point. After parking we walked over to the point and looked out over the Canyon. From that point in time till the sun went down we were in a constant state of amazement. I am having problems explaining our state of mind. The shear size and scope of "The Grand Canyon" is beyond explanation, it is just one of those thing you must see to believe. June suffers from a certain lack of depth perception so at first it looked unreal, like a huge painted backdrop from a movie. I was adsorbed with thoughts of holy mackerel and how did they do this then? The next problem that I had was How do you capture The Grand Canyon on film so others can SEE It? The answer is you can't. I have taken countless photos of flower and fauna, planes, trains and automobiles, people, insects etc. etc. etc. and they were easy. So here are the best we could do. I hope that you get some sense of the size and great beauty of this place, but try to find time in your life to spend a day or two here to really appreciate it.

Junkel at the eastern rim

Eastern Rim...notice the tree in the split rock

 From the east gate you drive 23 miles, yup with the canyon on your right, to Grand Canyon Village. The Village is like a junior Whistler Village. There are 4 lookouts along the route and we stopped in the all.

From Moran Point looking north....notice the Colorado River.

Grandview Point

Yaki Point looking west

Yavapai Point looking west

When you get to the Village there are three different free bus routes that service the area. There are many places that you cannot drive to so you must use the shuttles. We only had time to take the red shuttle out to Hermits Rest. Hermits rest is the most western point that you can "drive" to. Along the way we saw 12 Elk including these ones.

Note the one antler forward and one back........where did the rest go?

I guess when your hungry you eat even if you are on the side of the road!

At Hermits rest looking north east 

It was a 1.1 mile walk from Hermits Rest to Pima Point, so we walked it. I know we are not in the best physical shape but walking just over a mile at over 7000 feet above sea level is noticeable. We arrived at Pima Point just as the sun was about to set. The shuttle buses run every 15 minutes until an hour after sunset then its every 30 minutes. We stayed at took photos as long as we could.

Looking north as the sun set

Like a big chair facing the setting sun.

Watching the sun go down.

There was very little cloud for that great sunset shot, but we stayed and held hands and just enjoyed the end of one of the most "moving" days of our journey to date.

Thank-you.................................Junkel

It's Thursday that must mean we're in New Mexico

Giddy up go. We have traveled through Texas and into New Mexico. When we drove through here 6 months ago we came from Roswell New Mexico so after we drove through Amarillo Tx everything is new to us. We stopped in Tucumcari Nm the first night and stayed at a "quaint" little road side Rv park that offered Passport America club people full hookups for 18.00 a night, so we stayed. The town of Tucumcari is trying to survive like all small places that Route 66 left behind. 

A section of the old hotel at the Rv park in Tucumcari

After a couple of weeks of "normal" or should I say "usual" landscape, driving through northern Texas and into New Mexico is a big change.

About 30 km west of Tucumcari

We are still on I-40 heading west at an elevation of about 4500 feet. I-40 replaced most of the old Route 66 and you can still see quite a few places trying to capitalize on it. 

The red earth reminded us of  PEI

Some of them are right up beside the Highway

We stayed in a casino Rv spot in Sky City, Acoma NM, and it wasn't half bad. Very reasonable price and the Buffet was great. June proved again that it would be easier if she just gave her money to the door man when she goes into the casino, it would last longer.

Back on the road we carried on to Arizona.

At the Arizona New Mexico border

I think they wait for the vehicle to be the same colour as the rocks.

The colours get me every time

Just liked the shapes of the clouds and all

We are now in Williams Arizona. We have some touring to do here including the south rim of The Grand Canyon and we want to checkout a place called Bearizona. It only took about 2.5 hours to do this blog as the internet sucks so hopefully we can do a Grand Canyon blog in the next couple of days. Take care and thank-you for checking in on us, we are behaving ourselves most of the time.

Junkel

Its just a little wind

The night before we were scheduled to leave Little Rock the park attendant came around with a sheet of paper with the location of the storm shelter in case of a tornado. Well this did little to help us sleep and in the morning the wind was a howling and it was raining about 2 inches an hour. Around 11 am the rain dropped off but the tornado warning was still in effect so we checked the weather maps and decided to get out of dodge while we still could. What can we say, when you live in a trailer and there are tornadoes around you leave. Tornadoes have a tendency to find and destroy trailers. 

  

Pentecostal Church outside North little rock

The drive from Little Rock Arkansas to Checotah Oklahoma took us just over 4 hours. We were down to 40 miles per hour several times as the rain was relentless and then after 2 hours poof it stopped. The thunder clouds and the odd bit of lightning carried on for another half an hour but nothing outrageous. During this lull in the action we stopped for lunch at one to the rest areas and took these pictures.

June looking at a Mulberry tree

A Sassafras tree

We had heard of Mulberry and Sassafras trees but had never seen them until today. It was a tiny bit strange as the Mulberry tree had three graves at the base of it from 1899. The tree was planted beside the grave of three family members who were buried there, not something you see at every rest stop. 

A half hour after crossing into Oklahoma the rain returned but not as bad as before and by 6:30pm it stopped all together. We had a restful night without visions of Tornadoes in our heads. The next day was laundry and grocery day, what fun. Our late day walk took us to a nearby lake and we caught these two photos there.

Tiny Frog not much bigger than a quarter

A Huron at Sunset

We quite liked Checotah and will come back here again. It is the home town of Carrie Underwood but we didn't see her here, not that Kelly would know who she is he doesn't do Country or Western. We are out of Wifi range for the next couple of days so we will try and update again soon. Take care and we thank you for reading our blog.

Junkel

Heading West ...Half way ....And Billy's Town

Hi one and all, long time no talk. Since our last post the weather has taken a bit of a wet twist. We drove south through New York,Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia before turning right (west) in Tennessee. The traffic has been heavier than 5 months ago and the rain has slowed us down but we have enjoyed the trip just the same.

Thunder Cloud outside Knoxville

The Nashville Skyline

We stopped in Nashville on the way out so was didn't stop this time. We continued on through Memphis and into Arkansas.

Pyramid Building in Memphis

The Muddy Mississippi 

Burning field in Arkansas

We made it to Little Rock Arkansas and decided to Shut down for a couple of days. We stayed at the same Rv park as last time, in downtown North Little Rock. The park is right beside the Arkansas river and a short walk to downtown Little Rock.

An interesting home made unit

We spent a day exploring both Little Rocks using the local trolley system. Not bad $2.00 for a day pass and we used it well.

Inside the trolley

The Trolley on the bridge

Little Rock Public Market

We got off the trolley downtown and wondered the streets for awhile. We had "Chicago Style Pizza",walked the public market, and a couple of parks. We came across a wildlife museum and went inside. They have a different idea of wildlife instruction than we do. There were multiple displays of how to hunt and fish with furs on the walls of raccoon's,foxes,squirrels and skunks.

Game wardens teaching children to shoot

One of the courses you can sign-up for.  I like the part about it being a workshop for Families and Kids.

It was overcast and cool a great day to hike around. Little Rock is a great place to spend a couple days to sight see. Unfortunately we found out to late that it was Fall Fair weekend, I guess we will have to wait a little longer to try deep-fried butter balls(my arteries harden just a bit when I hear that).

We are half way to Desert Hot Springs and have had a great trip so far. We are looking forward to warm DRY weather of southern California but we have several days of driving ahead of us. We hope that you all are doing well and had a Happy Thanksgiving

Junkel