Where there is Smoke

We returned last evening from a working vacation in Arizona. We spent Thursday through Sunday morning in Sedona where Cheryl was a guest lecturer for the "Pastor Theologians" program of the Center for Theological Inquiry at Princeton Theological Seminary (what a mouth-full). It was at a Hiton conference center (very nice! Presbyterians know how to retreat; Like Jesus they went to the wilderness mountains.)
While we were there, there was a major forest-fire north of town in the Oak Creek Canyon where all the great sites are. We could see the fires at night.

On Sunday we drove to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon (six hour drive). We wanted to avoid the crowds at the South Rim. We stayed in a cabin at Jacobs' Lake (see below; the spacious cabin was a duplex). We drove to the rim to see sunset. Unfortunately, there was a very major fire on the north rim. The air was full of smoke. We believe we were the last people out of the park that night. It was closed off and hundreds of people were standed inside for a couple of days.

On Monday we drove to Zion National Park in Utah (two hours one way). It was wonderful. We will return some day. But there was a fire there as well. When we returned to Jacob's Lake for the night the smoke was so thick we could hardly sleep with the windows closed.

On Wednesday were returned to Pheonix via the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.


We had the front half.


A full view of our room.