Navajo Country and Lee's Ferry (5/14/07)

Navajo Country

The road north (89) from Flagstaff goes through some beautiful "Indian Country" - interesting rock formations, mesas, badlands of the Painted Desert ("melting" shale hills of the Chinle formation), and small settlements with their hogans. The Navajo people in this area seemed like they may have been fairly well off or at least comfortable. Hogans were next to "regular" houses, and were framed, stuccoed, cement, paneled, or had siding. I think I saw one or two of the more traditional logs and adobe mortar, too, but most were "modern" hogans. Hogans are round or have six sides and the front doors always face east. Navajo culture is very infused with the appreciation of natural beauty, and many of their healing ceremonies are about restoring ones spirit to the path of beauty. The hogan is their traditional dwelling, but I think nowadays may be used more for ceremony and gatherings than day-to-day living. Or maybe it's the "mother-in-law unit" of the Navajo - ha. I kept thinking of how the US "gave" all this "useless" land to the Navajo - and how it is so beautiful and how that beauty is so important to them. The best natural resource of all, I'd say. It made me think of this Navajo Prayer, which I would quote to my groups when I used to lead loop trips through Yosemite's High Sierra. I would read it to them on Sunday morning, as we prepared for a 10 mile day heading down to Merced Lake from Sunrise, after a tough day getting up the "switchbacks from hell" to Sunrise the day before. The prayer has healing powers, I'm sure!

Navajo Prayer

House made of Dawn
House made of Evening Light
House made of Dark Cloud
House made of Male Rain
House made of Dark Mist
House made of Female Rain
House made of Pollen
House made of Grasshoppers

Dark cloud is at the door.
The trail out of it is dark cloud.
The zig-zag lightning stands high upon it.
An offering I make.

Restore my feet for me.
Restore my legs for me.
Restore my body for me.
Restore my mind for me.
Restore my voice for me.
This very day, take out your spell for me.

Happily, I recover.
Happily, my interior becomes cool.
Happily, I go forth.
My interior feeling cool, may I walk.
No longer sore, may I walk.
Impervious to pain, may I walk.
With lively feelings, may I walk.
As it used to be long ago, may I walk.

Happily may I walk.
Happily, with abundant dark clouds, may I walk.
Happily, with abundant showers, may I walk.
Happily, with abundant plants, may I walk.
Happily, on a trail of pollen, may I walk.
Happily may I walk.
Being as it used to be long ago, may I walk.

May it be beautiful before me.
May it be beautiful behind me.
May it be beautiful below me.
May it be beautiful above me.
May it be beautiful all around me.
In beauty it is finished.
In beauty it is finished.

Lee's Ferry

After crossing the Navajo Bridge over the Colorado River, we turned off to check out Lee's Ferry. Lee's Ferry is where the only crossing of the Colorado was for miles and miles for the early settlers, and now it is the put-in for river trips down the Grand Canyon, and the take-out for river trips down what is left of Glen Canyon below the dam in Page. It is a beautiful setting, with the Vermillion Cliffs as a backdrop to the north and west, and other, equally red cliffs to the south and east, with a campground overlooking the Colorado River right above Pariah Riffle. Pariah Riffle is the first rapid that Grand Canyon trips go through, and is formed where the Pariah River enters the Colorado. We had a great campsite with a view of the river and could hear the rapids as we slept. The first night we both laid out in our lounge chairs and stargazed in the warm desert evening. The next night, Devin ended up going out alone and sitting under the stars for an hour or so after midnight. He says it was magical. Warm desert evening with billions of stars and the sound of the river rushing by. We camped there two nights, enjoying the white noise of the rapids, the changing light on the red rocks, and the starry night skies. We went down to the put-in area and watched as the huge pontoon rafts were set up from semi trucks the day before their departure - it was quite the scene! They left the next morning and we could hear the "whoo!" as they went over their first rapid and got a small taste of things to come. We would love to do a Grand Canyon river trip some day!! Of course, you need reservations way in advance, and lots of planning and preparation for those, so we settled on a float trip from Page back to Lee's Ferry the next day.

That night we had a gourmet barbecue feast! We had purchased a "Santa Maria Style" marinated vacuum sealed tri-tip roast from Trader Joe's before leaving, and this was to be its night to be barbecued! So we got out our Weber Baby Q and the grilling supplies, and our new meat thermometer (Christmas Gift from Darby and Jean, making its debut performance) and set to work. Devin enjoyed playing with the Meat Thermometer - it is a remote digital style one, and once he figured it out, it worked great! I got to work making appropriate side dishes - it was hot, so I didn't want to cook inside, so I made some things to share the grill:

Veggie Grill Pockets

This idea came from our friend Anita - she did this out at Coon Hollow last December:

• Take whatever veggies you'd like to grill and place them on foil squares - I put Carrots, Brussels Sprouts, and Onions on the bottom, since they can take longer to cook, and broccoli and mushrooms on top.
• Sprinkle on whatever seasoning you like with your veggies - I used lemon pepper
• Add some dabs of butter
• Wrap tightly and place on the grill
• Leave it on the grill till it's steaming hot - we just left it on as long as the meat, which was about 45 minutes on low heat to get all the way done - the broccoli was a bit overdone, but the rest was perfect!
  

Speedy Grilled Potatoes

I thought baked potatoes would be good with the tri-tip, but they take so long, so we did this, instead:

• To speed it up, if needed, par boil potatoes
• Slice into "Texas Fries" - slice large baking potato in half, then the halves into lengthwise strips. We made each strip about 1/8 of the large baking russet we had, but if you slice them thinner, they'll cook faster, but they may fall through the grill! Also, if you have a short potato, you can skip cutting it in half. Another way to speed up the cooking is to par boil them all cut up, which is what I did.
• Take potatoes out of water when you can stick a cooking fork in a little easier, and let them drain or pat dry on paper towels (the whole par-boiling can be skipped and then you go directly to the next step)
• Toss potatoes in a bit of olive oil and seasonings - I used Rosemary, Balsamic Vinegar, and some of Trader Joe's "21 Seasoning Salute."
• Place directly on grill!
• Turn over after they start to get grill marks on one side
  

The only problem with these is that it takes a while to turn them all over individually - if you have a larger grill, you could put them in a grilling basket and turn them all at once. Keeping the lid of the 'cue open longer made the meat take longer to cook - but that was okay, because it gave more time for the side dishes! These were DELICIOUS!!!