Arizona trip - Days 6 & 7

Well, the day after our trip to the Grand Canyon we knew we needed to take it really easy. So we all slept in, and pretty much just hung around the resort for the day.

Will went up to the Activities Center and played World of Warcraft (his current obsession), and then we played a round or two of pool. We hung around, read, watched TV, and generally did nothing!

There were only two things that had to get done on that day
- I needed to find a good trail ride for the family, and sign us up for it sometime before we left. This was the one activity that all the kids in the family wanted to do. Tom did a lot of riding as a child, and the children have all also had riding lessons (some more than others). I have the least experience in the family, but I was game! Anyway, I was able to get us on a 1 1/2 hour trail ride at 9am the following morning with High Mountain Stables, located about 40 minutes away in Mormon Lake.
- My husband ended up spending much of the day talking to our lawyer in Western Massachusetts, where we are working on selling a property (very long story!). After 2 years on the market, we had gotten a good offer about a month before. However, due to a very long set of complications, we still did not have a contract. Of course, their lawyer finally sends us a contract while we are on vacation! Tom had some questions about it that needed to be resolved, so there was quite a bit of back and forth about it.

We ended this very quiet day by seeing Get Smart at a local cinema. We are all big Steve Carrell fans! The kids all really enjoyed it; I thought is was only OK. I was a big fan of the TV series as a child, and I thought the movie wasn't nearly as funny. We all tried to go to bed quickly since we had to be up early to get to the trail ride by 9am.

We got up by about 7:30, and were out of the house by 8:25. We were running a bit late, since they wanted us to be a few minutes early to fill out the paperwork. The drive to Mormon Lake was another lovely Arizona landscape. This time we were driving by high mountain lakes and forests. We missed our turn and did arrive a few minutes late, but it was fine. We filled out the paperwork and were assigned our horses.

Here are some shots of us on our horses (I'm missing since I'm the photographer!):







They lined the horses up in a particular order (it seems some horse like/don't like each other), and we went off. There was one other family on the trail ride with us. We went up the mountain into the beautiful forest of Aspens and Ponderosa pines. It was very quiet and relaxing. The horses were obviously very used to this trail, and did not demand much input from their riders. At one point, Ally's horse shied and bolted a tiny bit - she handled it very well!

Here are a few photos from horseback:





And one that the "cowboy" in charge took of us:


The two "rules" of the trail were that we all needed to have a good time, and we couldn't let our horses eat while we were riding. If the horse we were riding snagged some grass, we either needed to sing a song, or we needed to kiss the horse at the end. Annika's horse was apparently always eating (they gave Annika a crop so her horse would behave!), and she sang more than once. Ally, however, preferred to kiss the horse instead:




We all had a great time, and I highly recommend the experience. We spent a few minutes visiting little petting zoo at the next-door Mormon Lake campground, and then got back in the car. I had originally thought we would go straight to Sedona from horseback riding, but the family preferred to head home first. This ended up being a pretty good idea, since we were all in long pants and hot shoes for the riding, and it was nice to clean ourselves up and change.

I can't remember what we did for lunch, so we probably just grabbed food at the condo. I do know that everything took longer than we expected, and we ended up heading down to Sedona much later than planned.

The drive from Flagstaff to Sedona down the Oak Creek Canyon is magnificent - and a little scary! The switchbacks are incredibly tight, and you are going down about 2000 feet in elevation in about 15 minutes of driving. You literally drive down into the famous red rocks of Sedona. As you get near the bottom of the canyon there are some amazing campgrounds, houses and resorts. We would love to stay there someday. We went by Slide Rock State Park, and would have gone in but the parking lot was full - so we kept on going into the town of Sedona.

Sedona is an an amazingly beautiful spot, but the town itself was a disappointment to me. It was so commercialized and gift-shoppy! It was a lot like a mall, but with more crystal shops. We got ice cream and did some shopping (the kids saw lots of things they liked), but unfortunately it was very hot, and just the sort of place that I hate, so I ended up getting very impatient and cranky.

Here are some photos of the beautiful rocks of Sedona:




We stayed as long as we could stand it, but we still wanted to get to Slide Rock State Park. This is a place where Oak Creek forms a natural swimming hole and water slide, and looked like a lot of fun. We got there at about 5pm, and it would be open until 7 so we had a few hours to enjoy it - there is a $15 fee per car to get in, so we wanted to make it worthwhile!

It really was a lot of fun! However, the rocks are really, really slippery - at one point I almost landed on my head. Also, when you go down the "water slide" it is very tough on your butt! We all wore pants over our swimsuits to minimize the damage.

There was a nice swimming hole and Will & Hannah both jumped in:




This is Tom & Annika going down the slide:



I keep saying this a lot, but it was also an extraordinarily gorgeous spot:



I had forgotten to bring towels (whoops!), and we were all somewhat tired from our long day, so near the end of our time there a bout of crankiness set in. There were actual tears and sulking! So we dragged our tired & bruised selves back to the car and headed home. Annika claimed that she was so sore she couldn't sit on her rear end, and when we got back she took a nice long jacuzzi bath.

After a nutritious dinner of KFC & Taco Bell, we went to bed. Only one more day before we have to go.

Day 5 - The Grand Canyon

What is there to say about the Grand Canyon?! Not much, really, so this post will mostly be pictures - it is truly an amazing, awesome and unbelievable sight! I am still thinking about it almost one week later.

The drive from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon is a little more than 1 1/2 hours, so I was hoping that we would get off by about 8am. That turned out to be a bit optimistic. We actually left the condo at about 10:00. Rather than take the usual route from Flagstaff to Grand Canyon Village, we drove up the 84 so our first view of the Canyon was from Desert View, which is about 20 miles East. The route takes you through the Navajo Nation and the Little Colorado gorge - another amazing landscape in Northern Arizona. I highly recommend this. The views were amazing, and it was much less crowded there than it was when we got to the village. There is a beautiful watchtower there designed by Mary Colter, who designed much of the beautiful architecture on the South Rim.

Some pictures from Desert View:



The Watchtower:



The inside of it is beautiful as well. There are murals illustrating Hopi rituals and life, and many windows to look through (as well as the inevitable gift shop).

The kids were complaining about being hungry so we grabbed a little food at the snack bar, and then went on to two other viewpoints, Lipan Point and Grandview:





See - Tom & I really were there!

The hunger issue (and the whining) was becoming a real problem, so we headed over to the Grand Canyon Village for lunch. When we drove by Mather Point, where most people go first, I was really glad we had not had our first view of the Canyon there. It was mobbed! We kept going to the Bright Angel Lodge, and went to the Arizona Room for lunch. The food was only OK, but where else can you eat while looking out over the Grand Canyon!

This area was also absolutely full of people, mostly from tour buses it seems. Anyway, we knew that we wanted to hike down into the canyon a little bit, so we decided to go down the Bright Angel trail which has its trailhead near the lodge. For me, this was the highlight of the trip! Not only do the crowds disappear almost immediately, but the Canyon is even more amazing from inside of it. We only hiked down about .75 miles before turning around (it was late, hot, and Ally is only 7!), but it was so worth it.

Some photos from the hike:





We actually saw a mountain goat! Hannah spotted it, and Will took this awesome photo:


This is a cool spot near the head of the trail:

After our hike, which took about an hour, we cooled off in the bookstore at the trailhead. We bought some posters and some books (including one book called Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon, which lists all the known fatalities in the Canyon and tells many of the stories in full - I'm almost done reading it which I'm sure says something interesting about me! I find it fascinating!). While looking out the window there I spotted a bird which I was almost sure was a California Condor.

Well, sure enough I was right! We wandered over to the lookout point, and there was a naturalist there who was studying the Condor population in the Grand Canyon. There were 7 of them she was able to spot. Here is an attempt to take a picture of one (this is Will's shot also - I'm sure he did better than I would have!):

You'll have to take my word for it, but seeing those birds was amazing! They have 9 foot wingspans, and don't look the same as eagles or hawks at all.

Some final views before we leave the Canyon:



Isn't it incredible!

After hanging out in the El Tovar Hotel for a few minutes (and deciding that we would like to come back and stay there someday), we drove down to the town of Williams, about one hour south, for dinner. Williams was cute. It is on Route 66, and tourism in the town has been saved by really playing that up. I resisted the urge to buy some Route 66 shot glasses!

We had a wonderful meal at the Cruisers Cafe 66. It was good diner food, with some great beer and a bearded man singing 60's & 70's songs while we ate. I loved it!



Completely exhausted, we headed home for bed.

Arizona trip - Days 3 & 4

Another beautiful morning in Flagstaff Arizona!

Well, I have discovered that it is hard to be on vacation and document that vacation at the same time (particularly with a really crappy internet signal!), so I have gotten a little bit behind here. I will try to post about yesterday’s trip to the Grand Canyon later today, but for now will cover our activities on Sunday & Monday.

We settled into the condo on Saturday night, and made a pasta dinner. It is pretty comfortable here. We have 2 bedrooms, one with a king-sized bed, and the other with 2 twin beds. Tom & I took the king (of course!), and we set up the other bedrooms as a girl’s dorm with Ally on the Aero bed we brought from home. Will ended up on the fold-out couch in the living room as usual. I guess that’s what happens when you’re the only boy! We have a full kitchen, a gas fireplace and two balconies with views of Mt. Elgin.

A couple of pictures:



As I said in my last posting, our plans on Sunday were to check out the Flagstaff Renaissance Fair and maybe go for a hike in Walnut Canyon. Well, none of that happened! We took it easy in the morning and let the kids sleep or watch TV. That is, most of the family took it easy - I went on a four mile run! At about 11:30 we went in search of the Renaissance Fair and we never found it. We wandered around this park area in the car for about 25 minutes before giving up. I think it was actually cancelled but was still listed in the local guide books. Maybe it should have been a tip-off when the domain registration for their website was expired!

Anyway, we decided to head into Flagstaff for lunch and shopping. We had a great time, and ate a wonderful lunch at San Felipe’s Cantina (they had terrific fish tacos). Everyone bought something, and I also got some games for the kids to play at the condo.

When we got back we went up to the pool/activity center for a while. They have Starbucks coffee there, as well as a pretty nice pool and some billiards tables and other stuff. It’s a nice setup. We swam, and then rented a movie for the evening. We ordered pizza (it was only OK), watched Nancy Drew and went to bed.

There is so much to do up here that I know we will only see a part of it. I really wanted to make sure that we drove the Loop Road north of Flagstaff that goes by the Sunset Crater volcano and the ancient pueblos of the Wutpatki National Monument. So that was the plan for Monday.

After another slow start (but no running for me) we picked up food for a picnic at the local Safeway and drove up to the Loop Road. It is a National Park, so we paid our entrance fee and drove up to the visitor center where we had our picnic. Then we proceeded to the crater area. You could glimpse the crater from the road:

You can no longer climb Sunset Crater because hikers were damaging the soft cinder slopes. We debated climbing up an adjacent hill, but decided just to do the one-mile hike below the crater that gives you a taste of the lava field, as well as good views of the crater. Sunset Crater was formed about 1000 years ago in a volcanic blast, and last erupted approximately 800 years ago. What is amazing is how the cinders and the lava flow still dominate the landscape for miles around the crater. When you walk below the crater, the ground is soft with cinders.




Here are the kids in front of the crater:



Finally, here are the San Francisco peaks from this area. You can see the snow on the top of Humphrey’s peak! This was once one giant volcano, until a blast blew out the center and several separate peaks were formed. You can almost picture that here:



After drinking a bucketful of water at the water fountain, we moved onto the next site. At on overlook we got another beautiful view of Sunset Crater:



You could also see the Painted Desert (which is beautiful in person, but doesn’t come out well in photos on my camera), and some of the other craters of the San Francisco volcanic field:




Our final stop on this loop was the Wupatki National Monument. At about 1100AD ancestors of the Hopi people built this beautiful pueblo complex. It includes a multistory pueblo, , a ball court and a really cool “blow hole.” They have been excavated and stabilized by the park service. We toured the complex, but the younger girls were getting a little tired and hot, so we didn’t stay as long as I would have liked.





The blow hole is connected to an underground series of passages. It blows air out when the outer air pressure is low, and sucks air in when the outer air pressure is high. It was blowing air out when we visited, and the air was delightfully cool. It actually felt like air conditioning!

We spent some time in the visitors center, which was very interesting and worth seeing. They had some very interesting information about what it takes to live in this harsh environment. It also included some stories about the Native Americans who were booted off this land when it was made a National Park, which is very unusual in my experience. Usually the National Park service is not particularly self-critical! Anyway, at this point, we were all tired, and so we headed back to the condo.

After resting for a bit, we went out to dinner in Flagstaff at the Beaver Street Brewery, and had some awesome burgers! Also, I had some of their excellent beer – I was tempted to get some of their “beer-to-go” but thought better of it!

Next: our visit to the Grand Canyon!