Between running from lightning, to having a view of the Grand Canyon all to myself, my micro-adventure from October 9th to October 14th was a much-needed spin around northern Arizona.
Reminder! All my sci-fi books are 10% off through October 31st. Signed copies through me, or find paperback and Kindle on Amazon
Look up! Notable night sky events this week…
- Orionid Meteor Shower peaks October 20-21, producing 10-20 meteors per hour; best viewing times are 11pm – 4am
- Comet Lemmon (C/2025 A6) is currently visible under the handle of the Big Dipper low in the northwest after sunset; binoculars and minimum 3-second phone exposures will help viewing
- 4 more days until the Moon returns to the night sky! Sign up for my stargazing tours in Sedona while 3,000+ stars are visible to the naked eye
Even vanlifers need a vacation
After a perfect eight days of cloudless skies in Arizona from late September to early October letting me host 14 private stargazing tours in a single week, Tropical Storm Priscilla moved onto the southwest and caused rain and six days of cloudy skies in Sedona. Knowing that would stall my sidewalk astronomy and make living in my smaller van not wonderful (but which I’ve endured in the past), I opted to run away from Sedona and head north.
My original plan was simply to go to Page, Arizona for a few days and then meander back down Monday into Tuesday. But as they so often do, my plans changed.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9TH
I started the day by getting the Constant Velocity Axles (CV Axles) on my van replaced, an issue I knew I needed to take care of since August. With a van that now felt smooth as melted butter, I took off north for the start of my micro-adventure. Outside of a short stop atop the Oak Creek Canyon viewpoint and a gas top-off at the Cameron Trading Post, I drove up to Page under incoming gray skies, with clouds that reflected the red hues of the rocks below.
Pulling into Page, I knew I just needed a quick place to sleep. Fortunately, the Walmart in Page is an RV and vanlifer haven, and I counted more than 30 RVs, vans, and camper trucks spending the night in the parking lot. It isn’t the most glorious of places to fall asleep, but it’s a reality you sometimes have to accept.
Daily Totals
Driving Miles: 162
Spending: $17.29
Food: $0.00
Gas: $22.65
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10TH
I woke up to the beautiful Walmart parking lot and gray clouds still rolling across Page. While it sprinkled a bit, it didn’t rain, so did some outdoor activities like hiking down to a view of the Glen Canyon Dam and northernmost section of the Grand Canyon.
Fun fact: Grand Canyon National Park extends all the way up to Page. The entirety of the Colorado River in that area is protected wilderness.
After a quick breakfast of cereal, fruit, and granola, I drove up to the Utah state line and went on an unmaintained hiking trail to an arch hidden amongst the cliffs. The hike was easy, but losing the trail at the start was easier. Deeper in, however, it became more defined.
After this hike, I drove north. Did I intend to drive north? No. It was not part of my plan.
But you know what? I committed. No U-turns for me.
An hour and a half later, I entered the town of Kanab, the main gateway town of Utah from Arizona. Some people describe it as the “Sedona of Utah.” Honestly? I…wouldn’t agree. Kanab is more rugged, far smaller, and far less touristy. It’s an OHV playground versus a hiker’s paradise, with plenty of canyons between red cliffs for hours of off-roading.
I stopped at a funky UFO and 70s-themed campground called Nomad Kanab, around which there is a short hike up a cliffside to some dinosaur tracks. Having just rained earlier in the day (the outer bands of Priscilla) much of the upper rock had puddles filling every depression, which made finding the tracks a bit difficult. I certainly managed to find two, but other blogs I’ve read described five or more.
My final “hike” of the day was at the Moqui Sand Caves, an artificial cave system created during a period of sand mining in the mid-1900s. I had passed these earlier in the summer on my way up to Idaho, so already knew I wanted to stop while I was in the area this time.
The hike to the caves is short, maybe ¼ mile from the parking lot. It’s flat and easy; however, the climb into the caves is very different.
If you plan to visit, make sure you put on boots or trail runners, something that has grip to it. I watched multiple people in regular tennis shoes slip, slide, and in several cases, give up. Two people my age tried climbing the first 10 feet, kept sliding down, and reluctantly turned around.
The initial ascent is slippery due to the angle of the climb and the amount of fine sand grains layered on the surface. Find a line and get to the top, about 30 feet up at an angle. From there, it’s mostly flat, but you’ll want to stay along the back edge, because the sandstone slants downward. The walk to the caves is about 150 yards.
Once you’re inside, it’s like standing on a soft beach, with sand two or three inches thick under your feet. The cave system goes back maybe 100 yards, and there are plenty of gaps and openings that allow you to stand and look out the front over the trail and highway.
Unfortunately, hundreds of people have dug their initials into the soft sandstone, making it unsightly when up close. It’s a sad reality, so even though the caves themselves are not natural, please don’t add to it.
After leaving the sand caves, I drove to a spot of open BLM land and parked for the night. There I ate dinner, watched some Lord of the Rings, and went to bed.
Daily Totals
Driving Miles: 85
Spending: $2.76
Food: $0.00
Gas: $24.65
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11TH
Some clouds lingered in the morning (though a storm was still on the horizon…) and I made my way back to Kanab for breakfast at Jakey Leigh’s Café, where I had a southwestern-style Billy Bob breakfast burrito, a honey apple crisp muffin, and, of course, coffee.
The Billy Bob breakfast burrito, especially with salsa, was SO GOOD. Highly recommend it.
After breakfast, the Sun had begun shining in force, and I wanted to do a hike. I found the Bunting Trailhead, set out my solar panels to charge my battery, and took off down the trail. Keep in mind, an incoming storm was about three hours away at this point.
The Bunting Trail has a quick diverging trail that leads to two very well-defined dinosaur tracks, which were neat to see. You’ll pass a series of signs that lead the way, and at the end, a final sign points directly at them about 15 feet away on top of a large slab of rock reminiscent of the dinosaur tracks on the Subway Hike in Zion.
Back on the main trail, you climb steep and fast up to the top of the mesa—and then higher. You’re quickly over a ridge that has a superb view of the canyons spread through Kanab, which I personally thought was the most impressive view of the entire hike. Keep pushing all the way to the top of the trail, however, and you’ll get a view to the south that looks toward the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
I enjoyed the heck out of this trail. It was extremely fun. Some trails are okay, some feel tedious, some exhausting, some aren’t a challenge at all. The Bunting Trail was the perfect mix of effort and payoff. Upon reaching the viewpoints situated along the trail, I felt incredibly fulfilled. The views from those spots were absolutely worth the work of getting to them, and the trail itself was varied, stimulating, and exciting to navigate.
But let’s get back to that storm.
On the way up the trail, the storm wasn’t visible. It was only at the very top of the cliffs that I began to hear thunder. But on the way back down, the environment…changed. The clouds moved in. The wind grew colder. And stopping at the first lookout down the trail, there was the storm:
At this point, I knew I was racing against time. It had taken 1.5 hours to reach the top of the mesa, meaning I was still about 2.5 miles from my car at the bottom, and the signs that the storm was on top were…evident. Five minutes into heading down, the sky began flickering with lightning behind the mountains. Ten minutes into heading down, I met two people on their way up, and we all agreed getting off the cliffs was the smart thing to do.
A few minutes after that, a bolt of lightning struck near the parking lot.
You know, the one where our cars were.
Being 1,000 feet up the side of a cliff, nearly two miles from your car, and seeing a bolt of lightning in the direction you’re going? Not inspiring.
At this point, I was half-sprinting down the cliffside, phone in hand as I recorded here and there, as one does when in a predicament here in the year 2025. During one stint of recording, lightning flashed somewhere behind me, and three seconds later, some of the loudest thunder I’ve ever heard cracks directly above my head.
Now that is inspiring.
For the next mile, downhill, I ran. It had begun sprinkling, too, so I wanted to outpace the heavier rain.
I did eventually make it back to my car, and the thunderstorm did briefly move in, dumping water on my van for about five minutes before moving away. I like to think the mad sprint was justified because getting caught in that would not have been wonderful. Still, the actual hike was fantastic and I highly recommend the Bunting Trail.
To end the day, I went to Honey’s Marketplace (not open Sundays, mind you), restocked some food, filled seven gallons of water at a water dispensary for under three dollars, and made my way to a new dispersed camping area with a view of the mesas. The Milky Way shone bright that night.
Daily Totals
Driving Miles: 10
Spending: $72.37
Food: $22.51
Gas: $0.00
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12TH
Sunday, I decided to make my Grand Canyon day. I’ve never been to the north rim, and despite the fires closing the main areas to the front, the Point Imperial and Cape Royal regions were still open.
I once again stopped at Jakey Leigh’s Café for another delicious breakfast, then took off, bound for the North Rim. Coming up the Kaibab Plateau, you gain about 4,000 feet of elevation, going from about 5,000 feet in Kanab to nearly 9,000 feet in the Grand Canyon.
It’s impressive.
Climbing the plateau, you can see the destruction from the Dragon Bravo Fire that scorched 150,000 acres of the park. Black husks of trees litter many of the expansive views, and a charred, smokey smell permeated the air everywhere I visited in the park.
But life still blossomed. The entire 45 mile drive from Jacob Lake to the Rim, groves of yellow aspens lined the road, their colors popping out of the darker sections of forest. The sight of them told a story of resilience, that despite the fire, despite the heartbreak, beauty remains.
Point Imperial offered my first look out across the North Rim. To the northeast, the Vermillion Cliffs loomed on the horizon, and the red Echo Mountains, my favorite stretch of 89-A driving north to Page, lined the eastern horizon. Leading up to the eastern rim of the canyon was a visually-flat expanse that was an incredible sight to behold.
But it was the experience I had later in the afternoon and early evening that stole my breath away.
After the trail to Cape Royal, I drove back to the trailhead for Cape Final. By then it was 2:45pm and many people were leaving the trail. I passed a family, and nearer the end, a man told me I would be the only person at Point Final.
And the only person I was, and would be, for the remainder of the day.
I sat on that cliff for nearly two hours, taking in the sight and the silence, struck by awe of the view. Not just the view of the rim and the canyon below, but of the world beyond, too. Of the cliffs, of the Echo Mountains 30 miles away, the Black Mountain 50 miles away, Antelope Pass 40 miles away, the San Francisco Mountains 100 miles away, and more.
Sitting there, experiencing that totally alone…it connects you to the world in a way so few other experiences can(yon). You don’t just see, but feel the enormity of the world. You watch the world simply exist, with no signs of human imprint upon the surface to the naked eye. In the world and society of today, chancing upon a solitary moment of that scale is the rarest of rare experiences. To be alone, to have no other humans, car noise, or sounds of bustle.
It is the purest form of existence.
I didn’t want to leave. I knew the moment I was in, and I truly wanted it to last forever. I attempted to turn my back several times, and couldn’t bring myself to. Recognizing a moment you may never have again is a strange kind of pain, knowing you have to leave it behind.
Eventually, I did.
Daily Totals
Driving Miles: 130
Spending: $8.12
Food: $18.60
Gas: $0.00
MONDAY, OCTOBER 13TH
I woke up next to an aspen, the clouds sliding overhead, the third-quarter Moon appearing in their gaps. The temperature had stayed just above freezing overnight, but the cold when I opened my van doors was welcome and refreshing. Having lived in Florida for seven years as a cold weather person who loves autumn and winter, I was in my element.
I lingered in Kaibab National Forest at the dispersed campground I’d pulled into about 10 miles outside GCNP. I ate breakfast and took in the air’s chill, listening to the rustle of the aspens in the wind, and even finding a grove surrounding a lake just outside my camp area. The white and yellow aspens against the green and brown pines, with the clouds golden in the rising Sun above, makes for a perfect autumnal backsplash.
I left around 8:30am and stopped for gas and coffee in Jacob Lake at 9am, then continued on to the Vermillion Cliffs, Marble Canyon, Cliff Dwellers, Navajo Bridge, and Lee’s Ferry. I got a campsite at Lee’s Ferry overlooking Lee’s Backbone and the Colorado River, then headed out to the Cathedral Wash Trail.
And I have to say, this was another excellent hike—if you have the ability to navigate it.
The first mile was nothing short of outstanding. It’s an all-around easy mile, and the visual grandeur is otherworldly. Seriously. It was incredible.
The one-mile mark is where many people will likely turn around. Whereas the first half of the hike is easy for anyone, this marks a dividing line for people who are physically able to scale ledges and maneuver their way down the remaining mile of trail. I passed two families with children who successfully navigated this section, but another group of three (two men in their 30s and a father in his 60s) turned around because the father was unable to navigate the new terrain.
From this point forward, I had the trail to myself except for a brief section on the way back, where I passed one of the families I mentioned, who had just climbed down the hardest part of the trail.
The deeper into the wash you go, the higher and higher the cliffs rise around you, until suddenly you pass a massive rockslide with boulders as big as houses…and there’s the river. A beach greets you, and the Colorado River gurgles ahead in some rapids. The walls of the upper Grand Canyon are only 500 feet tall here, but when you know what lies 20 miles downriver, you gain a new appreciation for the scale of the river’s power and influence throughout Colorado, Utah, and Arizona.
I stayed here for 45 minutes or so, meeting a Great Blue Heron standing on a boulder in the rapids before I left. The Sun was beginning to set on my way back up, which colored the redder rocks in a deeper shade of orange and crimson, adding yet another gorgeous layer of visual appeal to the hike.
Once I finished, I drove back to Lee’s Ferry Campground. Night settled, I had dinner, and then watched the remaining half of Return of the King before heading to bed.
Daily Totals
Driving Miles: 156
Spending: $4.00
Food: $0.00
Gas: $32.53
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14TH
I would return to Sedona that afternoon.
Waking up in Lee’s Ferry, I ate breakfast, then hiked the short historic River Trail to learn more about Lee’s Ferry and the mining operations. Then I visited Lonely Dell Ranch (unfortunately no fruit in the orchard) and walked all the way back to the Paria River, where a 38-mile trail in the canyon system begins, which you can get a permit for a do a multi-night hike. Knowing what I do about the hikes and canyons in the area now, I would love to complete that.
Then I began the long drive back to Sedona, grabbing coffee and a parfait in Marble Canyon, taking 89-A back through Bitter Springs, making a quick stop-off at Cameron Trading Post, and driving all the way back down past Flagstaff. With Tropical Storm Priscilla now moving out of Arizona, the wind gusts were heavy and kicked up dust all down the road. You could see clouds of dust out in the desert for miles, and had to keep the steering wheel turned slightly to maintain a straight line.
I reentered Oak Creek Canyon at about 1pm, twisting and turning down the famous cliffside road, then down through uptown Sedona to the 179 circle and out toward 17. I cleaned up, ate lunch, and headed to Cottonwood to do laundry and eat dinner.
Being exhausted, I didn’t do any sidewalk astronomy that evening, and the wind gusts would have ruined the experience even if I had. So I relaxed and slept early that night.
Now for the long stretch of 18 days of sidewalk astronomy through at least November 3rd until I move on from Sedona and embark on the next leg of my journey around the country.
Daily Totals
Driving Miles: 180
Spending: $65.11
Food: $0.00
Gas: $0.00
Micro-Adventure Totals
Driving Miles: 723
Spending: $169.65
Food: $41.11
Gas: $79.83
Total Cost of this 6-Day Micro-Adventure:
$290.59
This world is beautiful.
Alex
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