{ Grand Canyon and Other Delights }

We headed up to the Grand Canyon National Park on Sunday. It was a very windy day. Very windy. We spent some time looking around the visitor center, attending a ranger talk about the geology of the Grand Canyon - it's like a layer cake - and trying to stay indoors as much as possible while still enjoying the canyon. Easier said than done. The rooms at the GC don't have wi-fi access, so I had to wait until tonight to update you on the trip! Here's a picture of the kids on the balcony of lookout studio near the Bright Angel Lodge.

On the second day at the Grand Canyon, we awoke to find a light dusting of snow everywhere. It was cold but clear and no more wind! We attended another ranger talk that morning. Ranger Marge took us on a fossil walk. It was so much fun to find the fossils right off the rim trail. We walked about 1/2 mile from Bright Angel Lodge, just a bit past the Hermit's Rest shuttle exchange stop. First we looked at the fault there, then we walked a bit further and found many rocks with fossils embedded in them. It was so much fun and the kids really enjoyed hunting for fossils.

Then we took the shuttle out to Hermit's Rest. My son was tired, so we didn't get to stop at many of the points along the way.

The view from Hermit's Rest.

The kids at Powell Point.

On our way home today, we stopped in Seligman since we were there around lunch time. For the first time, and we've stopped several times, the historic Snow Cap was actually open. So for under $20 we got free entertainment - Juan, the owner of this place is full of practical jokes - a six pack of tacos, two green chile burgers and two milk shakes. The food was really good!

Then we headed down the street to Juan's dad's gift shop. Angel was interviewed for the Disney Cars movie. He was the person responsible for putting route 66 and Seligman, AZ, back on the map. He was a barber for many years, but now only does an occasional haircut. We stopped in and took pictures in his shop.

Since we knew we wouldn't make it home in time for dinner, we decided to take an extra hour and drive down through Joshua Tree National Park. We had a picnic dinner at Split Rock picnic area. It's a very beautiful place with all of the funny shaped joshua trees and the stacked up boulders. My son took a spill and scraped up his chest and arm. It was shallow, but kind of big. He got ouch cream and four bandaids.

We arrived home around 9:00 pm. All tired but happy to be home. Here are all of the Junior Ranger badges and patches the kids earned on this trip. They got badges and patches from nine different National or State Parks. Pretty cool.

Dad is working tomorrow, talk about cutting it close. We loved our Grand Circle of National Parks vacation.

The End.

{ Mesa Verde and Four Corners }

We spent the day today at Mesa Verde National Park. Here, the Anasazi made these beautiful homes from AD 500 through AD 1300. The only cliff dwelling open to tour was the Spruce Tree House. This one will close for tours next week and the others will open. Here it is as we hiked down to it.


The kids were so excited to look around and peek in the windows. They decided they would like to live in a house like this, only my daughter was worried about boulders falling on her head. I said I'd be more worried about babies walking over the cliff. I guess we all have our own anxieties.

Here is a kiva at a mesa top dwelling. The surrounding village had all above ground structures except for their kivas. Before this, the people built pithouses which were dug down into the ground with partial walls and roof low to the ground. This mesa top village was built before the cliff dwellings which were the last ones to be built before the Anasazi people moved on, probably south in search of water.

My daughter loved this above ground village. It had many connected rooms, and the kiva in this one was above ground as well.

We learned so much more about the Anasazi and their buildings. It was so interesting. The kids want to be indians now. When we were finished touring Mesa Verde, we headed on down to Gallup, but we couldn't resist a stop at four corners. Here are the kids in four states at once, not really unusual for them on most days!

We ate dinner at Genaro's in Gallup. Dad and I shared a stuffed sopapilla with green chile, yum, and we all shared one of their giant sopapillas on the way out of town. Tonight, we're staying in Holbrook and tomorrow we move on to the Grand Canyon!!! It's such a special place for us, I'm so glad we're able to take the kids there again.

{ Capitol Reef and Moving on }

This morning we looked around Capitol Reef some more. We saw petroglyphs on the canyon wall, the kids earned their junior ranger badges and we went for a hike in cohab canyon. The ranger clued us in to a small slot canyon on the hike. The kids loved it! They really liked squeezing into the small space between two canyon walls, sometimes only about a foot wide. The adults had to do some extra footwork where it was so narrow, we couldn't put one foot past the other one. Mom almost had a panic attack from the claustrophobia, but didn't, yay!

To get to this small slot canyon, hike to Cohab Canyon in Capitol Reef National Park. After you go up the switchbacks and round the corner to the left into the canyon, it's a short distance down the canyon and on the right. Across from the slot is a sign saying to stay off the the vegetation there due to revegetation. Don't worry, the ranger said it's ok to go into the slot. There weren't any plants in there.

On our way to Colorado, we stopped at Natural Bridges National Monument. We drove the loop to see the three bridges in the monument. This is the oldest bridge there, second only to the rainbow bridge at Lake Powell. They were a beautiful sight!

Tomorrow, we check out Mesa Verde National Park. Not a lot of time tonight for this post, so I might update today's post with more, too. Be on the lookout!

{ On the Road - Ut12 - to Capitol Reef }

We woke up in Bryce Canyon National Park this morning to white. We couldn't resist going to the rim and checking it out. Here we are at roughly the same spot we took pictures yesterday. Hmmm. Not much visibility with all that snow falling!

Then we were on our way. Driving was the objective today. We took scenic route 12 to Capitol Reef National Park. For the first half, my son was on the edge of his seat. Really, this is how he was sitting, looking out the window at the falling snow and the passing land.

We made a few stops on the way. Here we stopped to look at some indian ruins built into the side of a cliff. This was an Anasazi granary.

We stopped at Escalante Petrified Forest State Park. It was cold, but we hiked the one mile loop to see the petrified wood as well as beautiful views of the Grand Staircase.

Next we stopped in Boulder, Utah, at the Anasazi State Park. There were ruins which we were able to look at and then the reproduction of the village which the kids were able to run through and pretend to be Anasazis. My daughter said that she wants to be an Anasazi and live in a house like that.

We finally made it to Capitol Reef, and got a room , had dinner (note to self, do not eat at the hotel restaurant, try the pizza place across the street next time), went to the market to stock up on food supplies and then went into the park to look around before the sun went down. It was such a surprise to find a beautiful orchard in the canyon which originally was part of a mormon settlement there. The apricot trees were in full bloom and so beautiful, especially juxtaposed against the stark red walls of the canyon. Stunning.

Finally, we went to sunset point to check out the view at sunset. It really lived up to its name. Look at those pink clouds!

Tomorrow, more Capitol Reef and then on the road again. Can you guess where we'll be next?

{ Bryce National Park }

We loaded up and headed out of Zion this morning. On the way out, we saw checkerboard mesa, where lines eroded in the form of a checkerboard give it it's name. Really interesting.

Someone didn't get enough sleep last night.

Now we're in Bryce National Park where the high for the day was 41 degrees. The wind was kicking up when we got here. It was much more chilly that Zion! We had some lunch and found a hotel room. The wind eventually died down, so we looked around a bit and the kids worked on their junior ranger books. First, we drove to Natural Bridge to take a look. It was so beautiful! There were at least three hats down there, over the railing. The kids hung on to their hats. My son said, "look, there's trash!" but I told him we can't pick up that trash! The kids have to collect trash and throw it away as part of their junior ranger badge.

The very end of the road was Rainbow Point.

Our favorite overlook is Sunset Point. This is a bristlecone pine tree which is common around here. They grow all knarly and twisted. Then, as the edge of the plateau erodes away, the roots are more and more exposed until the tree falls down the cliff.

We hiked down into the canyon, which the ranger told us is really not a canyon, but the eroded edge of a plateau. My daughter took a little rest up against a hoodoo.

The tired and cold finally got us and we went back to the hotel to rest up, eat dinner and do some laundry. Dad had enough of those kids, so he threw them in jail. Just kidding.

The forecast for tomorrow is snow before noon. Our plan is to drive up highway 12 through Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument to Capitol Reef National Park. Back tomorrow!

{ Zion National Park, the Second Day }

Today was a beautiful day at Zion National Park. We stopped first thing in the morning to take another picture at the court of the patriarchs. Yes, I'm obsessive. It's really hard to get a good family photo with the canyon in the background. Not really happy with any of them but here it is.

We hiked along the Virgin river to the very end. The kids love playing in that river. My son got both feet wet. While we were there, a group of college aged kids came in wet suits and trudged through the river and up the trail. We are going to get dry suits and do this when the kids are older. If you go upstream, you eventually hit the Narrows which is amazing.

We all posed on this boulder near the river and watched a squirrel ransack our backpack until it pulled out the trash bag. I jumped down and retrieved our bag after chasing it off. The animals here are fearless. There is a $100 fine for feeding the animals. I'm sure their boldness is due to people feeding them over the years.

The last thing we did here was hike the archaeology trail which led us to a hilltop overlooking the visitor center. The indian ruin here was merely a line of stones half buried in the ground. Not much in the way of ruins.

On the way down, however, we spotted a doe mule deer with her two yearlings. All of the animals at Zion are extremely used to people. These deer weren't even frightened when we got this close.

The obligatory shot of the kids with the sign. Just to prove we really were here.

Here's where we had pizza for dinner tonight. Tomorrow we load up and head for Bryce Canyon National Park. I'm so excited!