Outdoor Adventure USA

Great trip report Dave. I really wish I would have made this. What an amazing place to visit.

Epic!
Sounds like you guys had a great time.

Many thanks to Dave for setting this up, and to the Navajo for their hospitality. I have to agree with Dave, were we to go back I would absolutely ask for the same folks to guide us. My GPS logged it at 1,294.3 miles for the trek spread over 239 hours, 43 minutes and 4 seconds (Cracker Barrel in Kingman to the In-n-Out in Kingman ). It seems like we encountered every sort of weather possible, but it was always just the right kind of weather for the moment (or the picture). About the only thing I could have asked for is that NPS remove the restrictions on campfires when there is snow on the ground.

The highlights, IMO, were a tie between the Poncho House ruins on day 6 and the snow/rain (beautiful) in Monument Valley on day 8. The sandstorm was also very cool, and I'm glad we didn't turn back. I would have to cast my "best food" vote for Dave's chicken adobo and Tom's peach cobbler (which was also great the next day on the hiking trail). The 20 mile hike reminded me just how out of shape I am, I'm going to have that fixed by the next trip. Still, I felt this trip had a good balance between wheel time and getting boots on the ground.

Best campsite I would say had to be the ledge overlooking Spider Rock. The view was great, and I've never camped on slickrock before (surprisingly convenient).





A few of our pics:



...and the little troublemakers we picked up outside Tes Nez Iah...



The rest (477) can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chazzlayne ... 782333331/

I have already taken care of the first item on my post-trip wishlist... we now have a catalytic heater for our aluminum-sided tent-on-wheels.

Awesome pics there chazz, what a beautiful place

Fantastic pictures, Chazz...

Chazz:

Those were some great shots. It sure paid to be tail on some of those trails.

There were a few items I left off of our list of outstanding gear/equipment that deserve to be mentioned here.

1. Our freezer/fridge units made it possible for us to keep all of our food items fresh and safe for the entire length of the 11 day trip. During some of the colder nights, the refrigerators actually kept the food warmer than the surrounding air.

2. During one of the hikes, Tom remained in camp and set up his Elk beam antenna. In this case, camp was about a mile from the rim of the canyon, We descended over 750 feet into the canyon to reach the ruins and with our HTs, we were never out of touch with Tom even in the bottom of the canyon.

3. I ran NG Topo! for the entire trip. Not a single glitch. I also created level 4 maps for APRS use that worked out quite well. Tom was also running NG Topo! and even though our guide knew the area very well, when he was riding with Tom, he was absolutely fascinated with the mapping program and couldn't take his eyes off the screen. I think after a while he (our guide) starting using NG Topo! as much as his memory to guide us. There was a time, when we were at the height of the dust storms, when he almost had to rely entirely on the Topo maps to navigate as visibility was almost nil.

The following photos are of the various ruins, artifacts and petroglyphs. One of the most amazing finds were the granaries which still contained corn cobs, even after hundreds of years.

Lovin' the photos. Next to the South Pacific, you guys were in one of my favorite corners of the world. Digging the detail on the trip report and I'm learning a lot from it.

Wow! Talk about an archeologist's dream come true!

A few more to enjoy