SPONTANEITY

SUNDAY

Carol and I decided to play first today and work later.  We began our day, after a very long breakfast, at the Flagstaff Farmers' Market.  What I loved most were the natural hand-dyed, hand-spun, Navajo Charro wool yarns. I wish I had had my camera with me to capture the spectrum of yarn colors.  Gorgeous!!

After buying a few veggies, we walked in the woods at Schultz Pass -- one of Carol's favorite places for solitude and meditation.  Listening to the morning wind in the Ponderosa pines was a lovely reminder of early camping trips with my family in the mountains and forests of the Pacific Northwest.  I remember sleeping and waking to the brush of wind through the upper pines.

Asters in the woods

Ponderosa pine cones

A little later we began our drive to Snow Bowl in the San Francisco Peaks area.  Our purpose was to get a higher view of the Flagstaff area.  The road was winding as we climbed the mountain, but it was sufficiently wide and had guardrails most of the way.  Snow Bowl is the largest ski area and the highest elevation in Arizona.  The leaves of the white-trunked aspen trees along the road were just beginning to turn fall yellow.

Aspen trunks

We decided to drive until the road stopped or it got too rutted or rocky for safe driving. At the end of the road we came upon a parking lot filled with cars, a ski lodge, a cafe, and a chair lift.  We chatted with a few people in the parking lot.  They said the chair lift was wonderful, that it was very cold on top but definitely worth the view.  "How cold was it?" I asked.  "Forty-five degrees," the woman said.  We gathered what jackets we had and headed for the ticket area.  Carol and I scanned the mountain, assessing the lift that went several thousand feet to the top.  "Do you want to ride?" I asked Carol.  "I'll go if you'll go," she said.  With no discussion our decision was made. I've only been on one chairlift in my life -- the one at Natural Tunnel in Virginia and it was small compared to this one.  Carol has never been on  a chairlift. We bought our tickets and a cup of hot chocolate for me.  I went back to the car for my waterproof, windproof jacket with hood and cuffs that can be tightened around my wrists.

The view from the bottom

We told the lift operator we had never  ridden a chair lift before so we needed his help.  He told us where to stand, slowed the chair down for us, told us when to sit, how to put the bar down, and we were off. As we lowered the bar, we were grateful for a place to rest our feet.  The ride was slow and easy and quiet up the mountain and it never seemed like we were very far off the ground.  We only felt the slight vibration of the cable that moved us. We started out among the trees and finally rose above the tree tops.

Aspen trees on the way up

Aspen trees on the way up

The ride took about thirty minutes; we could feel the temperature drop as we neared the top. We started at an elevation of 9500 feet and reached an elevation of 11,500. -- the highest I have been on the entire trip.  The sign on the bathroom at the top says it's the highest restroom in Arizona!  The view was fabulous, even though the sky was overcast.  On a clear day you can see the south rim of the Grand Canyon from here, almost 80 miles away.

The view from the top

We stayed  until we got too cold, then we began the descent -- a totally different experience than riding to the top.  We felt higher off the ground and the descent was face first downward, which felt less secure than the ride up.

The view going down

The chair lift was our spontaneous act of the day.  We had no idea it was there or even if either of us was game for such a ride.  We decided in a quick moment and went -- it was an absolutely wonderful ride, much gentler and slower and more secure than we expected -- and we loved it.

We ended our day with a wonderful dinner at a local Thai restaurant.

Tomorrow I am on the road to Albuquerque.