Badger Creek Dispersed Camping

050625  Badger Creek Dispersed Camping - Marble Canyon, Grand Canyon National Park. 36°46'35.2"N 111°39'33.0"W

I left the Flagstaff mountains, heading north towards Page AZ. My first stop was Valentine's Bridge at Tanner's Crossing, now called Cameron.  Over a gorge of the Little Colorado on the edge of Navajo and Hopi country a sway-back, one-track suspension bridge was erected in 1911. 

Continuing north on hwy 89 I headed to Horseshoe Bend. I have passed this so many times and never stopped. The parking lot was nearly full, cars, RV's and tour buses! $10 entrance fee just before the 2.4 kilometer round trip walk down to the viewing area. Even though I was turned off by the crowd, I enjoyed the walk and the views. Here is the Earth Cache Questions and my answers 1. Why did the Colorado River make this 270 degree horseshoe shape? The materials being eroded were softer than the point in middle, maybe more granite verses more porous sandstone. 
2. What do you think horseshoe bend will look like 5 million years from now?All things equal, the river will go dry. But 5million years any number of geological events could take place. 3. How many millions of years did it take sand dunes to become petrified by the calcite, retaining their beautiful sloping dune shapes?  20 million or so <-- I googled this

4. The different colors, except for white, are caused by the presence of varying mixtures and amounts of what filling the pore space within the quartz sand comprising the Navajo Sandstone. Minerals that are impacted by the environment such as iron particles 

5. Describe in your own words what you are seeing and experiencing as you visit Horseshoe Bend. Wow there was a lot of people but glad to see high interest. What I am thinking is this is a standard piece of science on a really large scale.

Next I headed back south to the Historic Navajo Bridge, which was the first bridge over the Colorado River for 600 miles. When the historic Navajo Bridge opened on January 12, 1929, Flagstaff's newspaper, the Coconino Sun, called it "the biggest news in southwest history." (https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC8209_historic-navajo-bridge) 

I took a nice stroll across the bridge enjoying the views. I really like visiting historic bridges and taking photos of the engineering. 

Arch 616', Total length 834' Height 467' 

Now that I have entered the Marble Canyon area, it's time to find a place to set up camp.  I used a app call Campendium to find Badger Creek Dispersed Camping BLM (Bureau of Land Management) public land. This particular spot started with a rough entrance off hwy 89A, but the van handled it very well, but a few things fell off the shelf. I went in about a mile, well away from the fifth wheel I passed and pull off into a camp site - right into some loose sand. 

With tires spinning I got popped back on the rocky road. So I got out and found some hard packed dirt, parked and got the Jagrundi out and peddled farther in to see how the road is. Although it the road had some ruts and exposed boulders, it looked passable. In fact the next occupied campsite was a low clearance minivan. But I kept riding all the way to

the canyon edge, 2 miles from the main road. The last campsite had room for a large group and it lies right on the canyon edge. That's when it started raining. By the time I got back to the van I was all wet. Reloaded the bike and waiting for the rain the stop. Pretty soon I made my way to a nice campsite a little farther in. It kept raining off and on. I could see the rain clouds coming in over the cliffs.  I counted 4 other campers during my bike ride, but as sunset neared four more came up the road, 2 vans, a pickup and a 4runner. 

There was plenty of room between campers.

The clouds stayed all night, so there was no star gazing. 

I had a good meal and read my book. 

The wind picked up so I took my awning down. 

No rain in the morning and it was an easy 65°  

   

I really wanted to stay another day, but I had a Van upgrade appointment the next day so I had to make my way home.

Before I left the area, I went on a long bike ride hunting a couple geocaches on another jeep trail that ended with a 450' drop to the Colorado river. After that I stopped at the Cliff Dwellers stone house for a Virtual Cache.  After posting my log, I took off back the way I came and visited Lees Ferry, Glen Canyon, $30 entrance fee, this is where they start a lot of the river rafting. Beautiful cliff views and I visited the old dwellings of the Mormon settlers. I took my time, parked by the river and had some lunch. Eventually, I made my way back through the Navajo settlements, Flagstaff, Sedona and into the Phoenix valley, getting home about 1900.  Arizona has such a diverse land scape reachable within hours. Desert, mountains, cliffs and cactus forests. Here is the link to my iCloud album for this trip: Badger Creek Dispersed camping