Blaze A Trail: Grand Falls, Arizona (aka "Chocolate Falls")

My daughter and I spent 3 Incredible Days Exploring Canyons and Iconic Views of the Southwest - This is the sixth and final post of our adventure

As a photographer, I’ve read about these falls on the internet and always wanted to explore them. We had to burn rubber from Canyon de Chelly to make it to Grand Falls just before the sunset. The last 9 miles off the back highway were on forest road. The last mile was a rough one but it was well worth the exploration.

The Little Colorado River leaves its headwaters in the white mountains near Mt. Baldy (Sunrise ski resort) and meanders through the back ways to join the mighty Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. Along the way, not too far outside Flagstaff, are the Grand Falls. The river bottom is extremely wide and one can picture in his/her mind how these falls would look after a heavy winter with the snow melt. The entire width would be one massive, Niagra-style waterfall and the churned up water would look like chocolate milk. With the light winter we had, the river was low but this created it’s own beauty as several cascades were falling along the width of the cliff. The sunset brought out some extraordinary colors.

Using her iPod, my daughter shot the panoramic picture above of the entire canyon and sunset. Despite the low light, this picture really shows the enormity of this rugged and remote landscape. After this photo and while waiting for her Dad, she found some really interesting heart-shaped porous lava rocks. The entire drive off road and this location is a lava field from ancient volcanos.