Lagniappe: The Vermillion Cliffs

The adventure part of a trip like this is discovery and the unexpected. Finding a great little place to eat, like a Cajun-style fish place--in Oklahoma city!   Or Kodachrome Basin State Park in Utah?  We just went there because we had time and it was close--it was wonderful.

This was the case with The Vermillion Cliffs.  We needed a place to stay 2 nights while we visited the  Grand Canyon.  The fancy lodge on the North Rim itself has to be reserved many months, even years, in advance. Our guide book suggested two lesser places, both built many years ago and much less grand, one at the crossroads that is the entrance to the GC and this other little lodge called the “Lee’s Ferry Lodge”, out on the desert much further away from the park entrance.    So we called and it worked out we had to spend our first night at Lee’s Ferry then move to the other, closer place the second night.

So we get to the crossroads, see our motel for the following night, and then turn east away from the road to the GC, in fact taking the road we would take 2 days later to head for Flagstaff.  And driving down off the plateau toward the vast desolate desert that we have so generously bequeathed to the Navajo nation, we had one of those Great Western Entrance experiences: rounding a curve and cutting through a gap, bam! Spread out for miles across the desert before us in a grand panorama in the late-afternoon sun: the Vermillion Cliffs: we had no idea.

There was a corner butte that I just loved:  massive, lonely, a Tolkienesque "fastness":

Note  the town of Vermillion Cliffs (all of it) at the base.

These rocks have a wondrous color any time of day. And hoodoos.

Our Motel was right at the foot of the escarpment, and had this look like an old worn-out movie set, a really old-timey western bar, pool table, grill and rooms.  It was SUCH a refuge from the brilliant blast of desert light outside, low ceilings, shutters closed,  worn dark wood, about 200 brands of beer, and a really informal atmosphere.  Food was, uh, hearty.  At one point I was trying to hurry Mary to pick something from the menu and the waitress told me to shut up and give her time. The sisters rule.  Rooms had cowhides on the floor and a horseshoe over the door.  God, it was perfect.

Lee's Ferry Lodge

A few miles east the highway crosses the Colorado River at Marble Canyon; the bridge built there is the only crossing for many, many, miles, its construction was a huge deal, opening up this entire area to the world.

Top: looking south from the original brdge, now a pedestrian crossing.  Bottom: looking north up Marble Canyon. Its a loong way to the next river crossing.

Now, actually, we saw all these delights again, on our way home after staying at the other lodge; but the fact that we stayed at the Cliffs and had time to walk around gave us time to really be there and experience them, as opposed to “windshielding” them on our way to Flagstaff.  There’s a lesson there.