A Unique Discovery

It's been a few days since the last post. We've been busy with company, touring, painting, snoozing, eating, etc.

However, today, we "discovered" something really unusual and impressive. Our friends, the Sullivans, told us about the spot where the Little Colorado River flows over some falls on its way to join the Colorado and go on to the Grand Canyon. We had to find our way from Winona, east of Flagstaff, off of I-40, to the Navajo Reservation. Bill and Sarah had given us directions to follow like "turn left where there is no marker, go 8.5 miles and turn left again between two piles of basalt." The landscape was absolutely barren. I had figured if someone needed to use "facilities", they could go behind a tree, as usual. But there was not a tree nor blade of grass in sight. I was wondering when we would come to the falls as the land was totally flat and we could see no indication of any water. Finally we found the path between the two piles and I drove down the path in 4WD as it was quite bumpy. We saw what looked like a litte viewing area in the distance and headed for that.

When we got there and got out of the Jeep, we were presented with this awesome sight of tons of muddy Little Colorado water pouring over the rocks and making a hard right heading to join the Colorado. We had no idea what to expect and it was truly an amazing sight. The wind was fierce, but we manged to get out of the Jeep without having the doors blown off and took a bunch of pictures.
This is something that only lasts for several weeks before this section dries up. So, we feel fortunate that we were able to catch it in this small window.

Did I mention the wind? I thought the finish on the Jeep was going to get blown off and we didn't dare get too close to the edge of the canyon as the wind was blowing us off balance. We kept our distance. Here are a couple more photos of the area. One of the falls and maybe you can make out the sand storm in the other.