Arizona Day 7

We were excited to be in the Grand Canyon.

We were up early today despite the late night at the chuckwagon. We wanted to get up the road as soon as possible toward the Grand Canyon, which is an hour and a half drive. We were gassed up with fresh ice and rolling north by seven o’clock. That put us in the park before nine. Our first order of business was to try the Bright Angel Trail. This trail runs ten or more miles down into the canyon, and then ten much more difficult miles out again. We had no intention of going that far, though. We wanted to make it about a half mile down and then a half mile back up. This took us through a tunnel and along the lower rim of the hike. The kids had a great time, but the straight drop to the canyon floor (or at least the next switch back of the trail waaaay down there) was too much for Mom and Dad. Neither of us are afraid of heights, but we are afraid of our kids pushing and jostling and tripping to their untimely ends. The boys were also super tired, so no one was really enjoying the hike. We decided to turn around early and head back up.

The boys were amazed at how large the Grand Canyon is. 

Mom and Dad love the Grand Canyon.

We took this picture along the Bright Angel Trail. 

Lots of people offered to take our family picture on this trip. 

We made it to the first tunnel, but not the second tunnel like we had planned.

After we huffed and puffed our way back to the rim, we decided to ride the shuttle along the rim for a while. Hermit’s Road can only be accessed by shuttle bus, and there are many stops along the way. We stopped and checked out the views at most of them. It was really beautiful seeing the Colorado River a mile below. The boys spent the whole day looking for condors. We spotted some turkey vultures, which excited them for a while, but we didn’t see condors. After exiting and entering the shuttle several times, we decided to hike between viewpoints. It was a beautiful walk along the rim, and it seemed much safer than the Bright Angel Trail. We enjoyed the flat hike and were blown away by the size of the Grand Canyon.

We enjoyed our time on Hermit's Road.

Dad copying the drone sign, but he thought it looked like a pooping sign!

There were lots of great views. 

We learned all about John Wesley Powell this year in Knowledge Bowl. 

Every overview had a different angle of the canyon.

Mom liked how this picture of Mark turned out!

The boys are always such great travelers. 

Mom and Dad haven't been to the Grand Canyon since they were kids. 

The canyon is so deep it is almost impossible to see the bottom.

Don't worry. I'm not really sitting on the edge!

We came across this table on our hike. What a great spot for lunch!

The colors turned out weird in this pic, but I like the view.

Sometimes Dax and Seth like each other.

Our favorite overlooks were the ones where we could see the Colorado River. 

The fireplace inside Hermit's Rest was HUGE!

We had lunch out of the cooler back at the van before heading off to another hike. The Trail of Time hike went east along the rim following the age of the canyon. On the ground there were markers covering the two billion year history of Grand Canyon. Each step we took was a million years, and stones and interpretive signs were set along the way. We enjoyed looking at the different rock layers dating back to their creation billions of years ago. We still didn’t see any condors, though.

Seth took a few minutes to relax during lunch! 

Mom loves her new Adventure shirt!
Also, that is not a fake backdrop. It's the canyon all right.

We loved the info along the Trail of Time. And Seth in this picture is priceless. 

We had a great time at the Grand Canyon today!

We finished the walk at the Geology Center and then took a short ride to the Visitor Center. The boys participated in a Ranger Talk about spiders, scorpions, and bees, which completed their Junior Ranger program. It was their twelfth badge of the week!

The shuttle took us back to the van and we moved up the hill closer to our hotel, and miraculously found a parking spot while other cars circled like condors. Then we walked down to dinner. There is a decent restaurant in the hotel, and everyone ate really well after the long day. On the way out, the boys thought they spotted a condor. They sent Mark running back to the van to get Mom’s long camera lens, but they were disappointed to find out it was just a stump. Mark nearly killed himself running like that right after dinner, and the disappointment didn’t help. Finally, we got checked into the hotel and showered up, ready for a new adventure and another day!

We watched the sunset over the Grand Canyon. 

Mom fell asleep between the boys to prevent fighting.
Dad thought he could sneak a picture, but Mom knew what was going on!
She how she's got one eye open?

Arizona Day 6

We saw this huge train in front of the Pioneer Museum. We decided we needed to stop.

This morning we let the kids sleep in (or maybe they let us sleep in) after the late night at the observatory. We didn't leave the hotel until nine o'clock, and then we headed north. There is a lava cave that we wanted to see, but it is about a half hour north of Flagstaff. On our way we passed a museum that looked kind of fun, but we didn't have time for it. When we finally reached the turnoff on a forest road for the lava cave it was closed due to snow. So we turned around and did the Flagstaff Pioneer Museum instead. They had a pretty cool train out front, and there were plenty of things to do in the old building. They had set up the display rooms representing each decade. They started in 1880 and moved all the way through the 1960s. There was a cool Model-T and an old fire engine, as well as a playroom where Seth dressed up like a cowboy and Mark and Dax fought over checkers. We found out they had a Junior Curator program, which the kids were excited about, too.

This old Model T was super cool! 

Mark wanted to bring this tortilla making machine home. 

Mark and Dax are serious about their checkers!

Seth loves dressing up, so this was perfect for him! 

We enjoyed all of the old farm equipment.

Seth liked the old firetruck!

After the museum, we planned to head south. There are three national monuments south of Flagstaff that needed a visit. Montezuma's Castle was a really impressive ruin. It is all original and built into the side of the cliff. It isn't as massive as some of the ruins in Mesa Verde, but it is in almost perfect condition. You can even see the mud plastered on the outer wall. The kids earned their Junior Ranger badges and then we headed up the road to Montezuma's Well. This is a branch of the park that has a few more ruins and a deep pool of water that is constantly flowing. The natives also built an amazing irrigation canal, which was well worth seeing. The boys did the second half of the Junior Ranger badge, but the small kiosk was out of them. We had to drive back to Montezuma's Castle, which was about twenty minutes out of the way.

Montezuma Castle was high on the cliff. 

It was set in a beautiful location. I would love to live there! 

Montezuma Well was even more beautiful. 

There were ruins overlooking the large well.

We were highly impressed with the canal that the ancient people built. 

That left us a few hours to visit Tuzigoot, the last Sinagua ruin in the area. We made it in plenty of time and took the short walk to the ruin. This one was much more like Wupatki, which we visited the day before. The ruin was placed like a castle on top of the ridge with a commanding view all around. We saw so many amazing ruins on this trip, and they are all unique and interesting.

There were so many pots in the museum. These were Seth's favorites. 

Dax really loved Tuzigoot!

The boys have been great vacationers!

Mom and Dad are the exhausted ones. 

Mom loves taking pictures with the boys.

For dinner we splurged on a show at the Blazing M Chuckwagon. It was just a few minutes from Tuzigoot, so it seemed like a good plan. It was really expensive, but we did get a break on the cost. The manager asked Dad if he was a member of Triple-A (no). Was he an Arizona resident (no)? Active or retired military (no)? "I'm trying to get you some kind of discount here, Buddy..." After Dad told the manager he was a member of the KISS Army in the 1980s, he laughed pretty hard. Believe it or not, the receipt was credited with a 15% military discount!

The Chuckwagon show was great! The boys loved exploring the property before the show. There were several shops. One had dioramas that were all carved out of wood with cunningly crafted moving pieces. There were a few that you put a quarter into and they rolled around and did different things. They were really unique pieces of art. We also played horseshoes and tried to rope a fake cow. There was even a wagon ride. The boys probably had the most fun feeding the animals: a pig, cow, horses, donkey, goat, and chicken.

We saw this bird on the way to the Blazin' M Ranch. We have decided it's a Zone Tailed Hawk, but there was quite a disagreement about it. A new bird for everyone!

They are so silly! 

Dax was an excellent roper.

Mark made friends with the pig. 

Dax is petrified of feeding animals, but he got braver as the night went on.

 The big jersey cow reminded Dad of his milking days. 

Seth loves to feed all the animals!

He even got to ride a (fake) horse! 

We took a wagon ride around the property. 

Seth enjoyed his candy stick a little too much!

Finally the dinner bell rang. There was plenty of food and the boys ate pretty well. We had ribs and chicken with baked potatoes and prickly pear coleslaw. They brought ice cream and apple crisp at the end, too. Then the show started, and we found out the two members of the Blazing M band were sick. They had called on their friends from the Bar D Chuckwagon in Durango to fill in for them. Our boys were excited because they'd loved that show when they saw it a few years ago on our trip to Carlsbad Cavern. We laughed as they sang about the squirrel that came to church and the farm with dysfunctional animals. We had such a great time, and the boys were all abuzz on the ride home. We didn't get back until after ten o'clock, but it was a really great day.

We enjoyed taking silly pictures before dinner. 

Mark has just the right face in this cut out!

Such serious cowboys. 

We had a great time at Blazin' M Ranch.