5er Times: Desert View drive...

We continued our day Grand Canyon trip with a 25 mile drive Desert View truck drive through ponderosa pines. Not far down the road there was a mountain lion crossing sign.

The mountain lion is Arizona's state animal.

Tusayan Museum and Ruins are of a Paleo-Indian village. These were nomadic hunter/gathers. Here we got a glimpse into Pueblo Indian life at the Grand Canyon some 800 years ago.

Hopi

Hopi squash

Cohonina, Havasupai, Hualapai, Paiute

and Navajo artifacts.

Here is snow topped Humphreys Peak, the highest point in Arizona at 12,633 feet. It is one of a series of mountains known as the San Francisco Peaks, which were once active volcanoes.

The Hopi people view this peak as sacred...one of the dwellings of their ancestral spirits.

At another overlook we were greeted by a couple black ravens looking for crumbs. Reminded me of writings by Edgar Allen Poe.

The view below looks like a big hand.

Last stop on our Desert View Drive was the Desert View Watchtower. Here is a desert community near the eastern edge of the Grand Canyon Nation Park. At Desert View, the Colorado River makes a turn to the north while the Painted Desert extends toward the Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations.
As we made our way to the tower we were greeted by an elk cow grazing alongside the walk.

The Desert View Watchtower is a 70-foot tower constructed in 1932. Mary Colter's design takes its influence from the architecture of the ancestral Puebloan people of the Colorado Plateau.

Below are more breathtaking view of the Grand Canyon.

Desert View Watchtower and steps to the top.

No we did not go to the top.

Saving our knees.

We were told goodbye by the same elk cow as we left for home via Flagstaff, Arizona.