The Grand Canyon

“Do nothing to mar it’s grandeur… keep it for your children, your children’s children, and        all who come after you, as the one great sight every american should see.”

Theodore Roosevelt

As our great Southwest sendoff we saved the trip to the Grand Canyon National Park, one of the seven natural wonders of the world. We only live about 3 hours away from the Park and when we first moved we thought we would fit in several trips, but alas, this area of the country had far more to see then we ever expected. 

This is the first National Park we were able to get a camping spot at and it made all the difference. First off, we only had to pay $18 a night! If you have a camper you know this is a steal of a deal. Second, it allowed us to go back to camp eat dinner and then experience the sunset every evening without having to wrangle hungry kids. Last, we met really fun people from all over the world at the campground. It was awesome and I totally understand why spots fill up so fast in National Parks. 

We saw Elk everywhere!

We arrived at the Park in the early afternoon on a Sunday. We set up camp and immediately headed to the visitors center. We watched two different videos about the park, picked up our junior ranger packets, and went to a ranger talk about javelinas, which was extra interesting to us because we had a family of them living in our yard in Show Low. Surprisingly, we decided to not take the short walk to the canyon rim from here. instead, we headed back to the campground and ate some dinner. Finally, after dinner we went and had our first sight of the Grand Canyon, just in time for sunset. We went down to Mather’s Point and walked around until we found an empty rock to sit on and enjoy the show. It was a magical experience and I am pretty sure I would have been a weeping mess if the girls weren’t there to bring me back to reality by acting like wild children! It was the perfect first day and made us REALLY excited about the rest of the trip.

I love the rain in the distance in this shot.

Mat said she needed a better view 

Brent working his magic with the camera

Day two was our ‘big’ day hiking wise. We decided to do the Kaibab Trail down to Cedarcrest Point. Kaibab is a trail that you can get a permit to hike to the bottom of the canyon, camp and then hike over and up the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We did a 3 mile section of the trail with the fist half straight down and the second half straight back up. We knew going in that it is the steepest trail in the park so we prepared the girls accordingly. It was a very scenic hike and it was fun to get below the rim a little bit. We had a picturesque lunch when we arrived at Cedercrest and spent some time just enjoying the views. We took our time on the hike back up, stopping pretty much every time we found shade. Even with all the stops it was still a hard hike for the girls. After we finished that hike we caught one of the free shuttle buses and headed to the Yavapai Geological Museum. We spent a bit of time inside looking at the exhibits then we started the Trail of Time walk, which is a section of the Rim Trail that has geology exhibits and informative stops about the formation of the Grand Canyon. It was a really cool trail and we learned a lot. The girls loved being able to touch rock from each different time period; I feel like it was one of the best science lessons they have ever received. We only finished half the walk before we decided to head back. Brent really wanted to photograph the sunset and we still needed to eat dinner. We headed back to the campsite, ate dinner and even had enough time to fry some donuts over the campfire for dessert! We headed up to Grandview Point on Desert View Drive to catch the end of the day show, and we were not the only people with this idea. This look out was packed and we arrived too late to get a good spot which was a bummer. The view was stunning though; it is so popular for good reason.

beginning of the kaibab trail

picnic views

rain on the North rim of the canyon

Sunset views away from the crowd 

Day three led us back to Desert View road this time headed to the Watchtower. What a spectacle the watchtower is, not because it is gaudy but because it fits so nicely on the outside yet the inside is such a work of art. We loved this stop and would consider this a must see location at the Canyon. We made some lookout stops on the way back to the campground, ate some lunch and rested a bit. We headed back out mid afternoon for a short mile and a half hike down to the second tunnel on Bright Angel Trail. I have definitely added that full trail to my bucket list. The decent of the trail ends at Indian Gardens, this beautiful lush green area of the canyon. But the hike back up is no joke. We watched someone puking on the trail back up… yuck! After we got to the top we immediately started to walk the Rim Trail on Hermit’s Road. The beginning is paved and so scenic. We enjoyed a leisurely stroll to a few lookout spots and then we hopped on the bus out to Pima Point to catch a closer look at the Colorado River and watch the sunset. As we road down Hermit’s Road we regretfully realized we should have spent more time in this section of the Canyon. The views were far more diverse than any other part we had explored. It was beautiful country. Brent and I both agreed that, besides our first glimpse of the canyon, Maricopa Point was our favorite view. Honestly, it brought me to tears all over again. 

the watchtower

The second tunnel on Bright Angel trail.

maricopa point

down the trail some from Pima point (the Colorado River)

Pima Point

We swung by the visitor center to turn in the girls junior ranger books on the last day then headed out of the park. Since this was our last trip in this area we made all the stops we had been putting off on the way home. We stopped in at meteor crater and paid a small fortune to go look at the world’s oldest and best preserved meteor crater. It was an interesting learning stop. It definitely would not be worth a trip all on its own but it was cool to place to hang out at for a couple of hours and the girls LOVED the movie there. Finally we swung into Winslow Arizona to take our picture at the Standin’ on the Corner Park, a tribute to Jackson Brown’s song “Take It Easy.” 

Meteor Crater

At first glance this window fooled all of us, we thought it was a wall mural!

We headed home with a pocket full of memories and a heart full of excitement for the next stop on our adventure… Medford, Oregon here we come!

Arches and Canyonlands National Parks

 We have been living in Show Low Arizona and it has not been our favorite locations. Luckily, our house here is beautiful and we have been able to travel a lot. I am just going to start with our last trip and I’ll try to catch up with the really awesome trips I missed later. We are reaching the home strip in Arizona. Brent’s contract ends with this hospital in mid May and we will be moving on. So we have been trying to fit in all the places we wanted to visit since we are hoping to move to a different region next. 

our little cabin in the woods in Arizona

We traveled to Southern Utah recently to visit Monument Valley, Arches National Park, and Canyonlands National Park. This was our second trip to Utah and I am just in love. While camping I heard on public radio a local Utah man say that he thinks the entire state of Utah could be made into a National Park and I whole heartedly agree. It is a stunning State! 

Monument Valley

Monument Valley was the first stop we made and it was nearly a flop. We knew that the the 17 mile self guided tour was a dirt road but we did not know that RVs were not allowed on it. Our RV is lifted and can go off road so we were planning on taking it on the tour. But, alas, Navajo rules said no. We ended up unhooking right in the parking lot and driving the road. It was beautiful, so many amazing views and a great introduction to the scenery of the area. It was well worth the $20 entrance fee. As a bonus, traveling this way allowed us to pass through the cute town of Mexican Hat and to snap a couple picture of the town’s namesake monument.

Mexican Hat!

We finished out the drive to Moab pulling into ACT campground way later that we usually like to arrive. When we woke up the next morning we were pleasantly surprised by how nice the campground was, we really enjoyed our stay there. Since I was barely on the mend from a stomach bug we took our time in the morning before we headed to Arches National Park. We spent the day doing some shorter hikes and just getting to know the Park. We hiked the one mile primitive trail around Windows Arches. Even though I was really weak and I had to stop an embarrassing amount of times, this hike was beautifully scenic and not crowded. Next be headed across the parking lot and did the short half mile hike up to Double Arch. Brent and the girls climbed up to sit inside the Arch and they said the view was really great. I found a shady spot to lay back and enjoy it from a different angle. Sand Dune Arch was our last stop for the day and it was a perfect ending. It was a short walk back to the Arch and the girl’s had a blast climbing around on the rocks and playing in the sand.
 

                                     

windows arch

sand dune arch

Day two brought us to Arches again and since I was finally feeling a little more normal we decided to do a couple of longer hikes. We started the day in Devil’s Garden at the trailhead to Landscape Arch. Landscape is the longest Arch in North America and it is nearing the end of it’s life. It had a big section fall off about 15 years ago so the trail doesn’t allow you to stand directly under it anymore. After we did the mile walk to Landscape we decided to go a little further to another overlook/ Arch about a quarter of a mile (uphill) away. We climbed through this arch and had a picnic with a seriously stunning view. After lunch we headed back down the trail and had a nice talk with a park ranger as we walked. We headed to Delicate Arch next. Mat fell asleep in the car on the way and we all thought that was a great idea so we copied her and took a rest. I am so glad we did because the rangers were not lying when they marked this trail as difficult. It was only a three mile hike but the fist part was a straight up. Luckily the view was well worth the hike. I feel like Delicate Arch is the most “marketed” arch in the park because it is the arch they put on most of their souvenir items. Once we visited I understood why, it was really magical. We ended our trip to Arches with Delicate and I felt like it was a great sendoff from a gorgeous Park.

Brent and Zadie

our picnic view

landscape arch

delicate arch

Day three we woke up to colder temps and lots of wind. We decided to take our time leaving and to spend the afternoon and evening in Canyonlands National Park. We made the 40 mile drive to the Park from our campground and our first stop the was the visitor's center. Even though we mostly knew what we wanted to do at the park we stopped and asked a Ranger if he had any more recommendations for us. He pointed out a really cool 4x4 trail that we could do on our way out. We were super excited until we realized we needed to fill up with gas to be able to manage the trail. So we took a 50 mile detour to go get gas and come back… seriously. Once we got back to the park we quickly headed to Mesa Arch since it looked like a storm was about to hit. We did the short half mile hike and caught our first real glimpse of stunning Canyonlands. I was not expecting that view and it was a truly amazing surprise. From there we headed to the Grand View Overlook trail. We hiked the mile to the end of the mesa and it was indeed a grand overlook. It was also knock you off the side of a cliff windy, but we found a blocked spot and enjoyed another lunch with a lovely view. We headed back to the truck to start on our 32 mile off road adventure. Sheaffers Trail is a 4x4 recommended trail, which pretty much means it is going to be a ton of fun but your not going to kill your vehicle doing it. I wouldn’t recommend doing the 4x4 trails at either of these parks unless you have a real off road, lifted, 4x4 vehicle. This trail led us via several switchbacks, down the side of the mesa into the canyon. Then we got to drive through part of the canyon, beside the Colorado River, and into a State park. At the end of the 32 miles you are sufficiently bounced around and ready to catch HWY 279 for a quick drive back into Moab. Overall it took us about 3 hours with plenty of picture stops. Once we were on the HWY we made one last quick stop to look at some dinosaur footprints. That was a great surprise and a really nice way to end our trip to Moab.

view at mesa arch

a stop on grand overlook trail

off-road trail through the canyon

the Colorado River

Dino tracks!

We totally understand why Moab’s town motto is “again and again” because we barely scratched the surface of this awesome town. I think I could spend weeks hiking, biking, and playing on the river. What a great little city!