March 7, 1946

February 1946. World War II is over and wartime production jobs were ending. During the war, Carl and Georgie worked a number of jobs in several places, finishing the war in Pocatello, Idaho. They elected to return to Iowa, where they both had family, but opted to make a grand tour of the west on the way. Georgie wrote a journal of the trip. The story starts here.

The next morning we went to see the Grand Canyon. Spent a lot of time looking at the exhibits and looking down into the canyon through field glasses. Drove along the rim and stopped at all the points of interest. Stopped at the Indian Watch Tower at Grand View for coffee and gas and saw the view there of the canyon and the Painted Desert through the huge picture windows. It was so beautiful it looked like a picture even though you knew you were seeing the real thing. When we left the rim we saw our first hogan and were quite curious.

Scrapbook page with guide to the Grand Canyon and some of Carl’s pictures.

We drove up to Cameron to get gas and stopped at a curio shop. There were several more hogans there. Then we decided to go see the Wapatki Indian Ruins. It was off the main road and the side road was so rough we had to turn back. Fran and I had to get out and kick the biggest boulders out of the road as we were afraid of upsetting our one-wheel trailer.

Google (ND) [Directions from Williams, AZ, to Flagstaff AZ] Retrieved February 13, 2021.

Drove to Flagstaff where we spent the night at a tourist camp – Fran stayed the night at a lodge in town.  Had water in the cabin but a wood stove – reminded us of our trips to Yellowstone Park. Had a cake for dinner that the Jacobsens had sent with Frances – made us homesick for them again.

Post card showing Yebechai Dancers and Monument Valley. Photo by Josef Muench, Published by Petley Studios. (They never made it to Monument Valley this trip.)

Walt’s Comments

Mom and Fran made another trip back to the Grand Canyon in the 1980’s. I’m not sure if they made it to Wupatki that time or not.

It’s actually Wupatki.

Wupatki Ruins

This is now a National Monument, run by the National Park Service. The area is quite inhospitable, being one of the lowest, hottest, and driest places on the Colorado Plateau. The area was only inhabited for a bit over a century, from the 1100’s to around 1250. It’s thought that the people who lived there had been displaced from their homes by the eruption of a volcano. They stayed a few generations, then moved on.

Digging Deeper

The National Park Service website has more information about the Wupatki Ruins.