Road Trip- Part 2

Next stop: Santa Fe.  We visited the "Roundhouse," the only round capitol building in the US.  As you would expect in Santa Fe, it was filled with art.

Then a stroll down Canyon Road.  I could have stayed here days, but we only had an afternoon.

I have been to Santa Fe before and I fell in love with the art and culture.  I was really looking forward to showing the girls.  They loved looking at the Native American jewelry around the square, just as I did as a teenager.  At the time, I was unaware of the history of Santa Fe, but it really blew me away as an adult.  Santa Fe is the oldest capital city in North America and the Palace of the Governors was built in 1610!  This building predates our country!  Amazing.

Back on the road and exhausted from all the art.

Steve picked out Bluewater State Park for our camping that night.  I wasn't a fan at first, but it turned out pretty cool.  We got to camp right next to the lake: a first.  And we went on a very pretty hike.  There were also WILD HORSES there...but we didn't see any.  Just horse poop.

The next day on the road we were surprised at the volcanic rock we were seeing from the highway.  We discovered all the mountains in northern Arizona were actually dormant volcanoes!  We stopped at Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument.  You can't hike up the volcano anymore, but we did get to see some lava up close.  We were more impressed than the girls.

Sunset volcano

Next stop: Grand Canyon.  Both Steve and I had visited the Grand Canyon on family vacations with our parents.  My family went to the North Rim, though, so there were new things for me like the Watchtower.

Camping in national parks book up months in advance and we are not early vacation planners.  When Steve and I went to New York for our anniversary, we were writing down attractions we wanted to visit on the plane ride there!  So needless to say, we did not have reservations.  We were planning on camping outside the park, but we asked just in case and we got lucky!  Someone cancelled and we got two nights at Mather Campground...just in two different locations.  Beggars can't be choosers.  It seemed like every campground on our trip had different wildlife.  Grand Canyon=elk.

The next morning we hiked 1.5 miles on the South Kaibab Trail.

We hiked down to Cedar Ridge, then went back up.

Getting Junior Ranger badges

I kept looking for a cactus flower in bloom and I finally found one!

Geology rim trail where each step was a million years.

Takeaways from the Grand Canyon:  The South Rim was WAY more crowded than the North Rim.  There were also way more things to see.  I wasn't too impressed with the museum we went to, and then I realized it was just one of several.  Each had it's own focus: geology, Native Americans, history as a national park, etc.

Next stop: Glen Canyon Dam

I am in love with sandstone.

Remember when Olive wouldn't take pictures on Pikes Peak because it was too cold?  Now she is upset because it is too hot.

 Our original plan was to head to Zion National Park, but after all the hiking around the Grand Canyon we weren't sure we were up to more of the same.  Plus we would have to backtrack, which I'm not fond of so we looked into cancelling our reservations.  The camping at Zion would be easy to cancel, but the hotel in Kanab was non-refundable.  So that made up our minds for us and we soldiered on.  We were very grateful we did.  Steve was in love with Kanab and wants to move there and we all loved Zion.  Definitely worth the backtracking.

hotel pool in Kanab

Checkerboard Mesa in Zion National Park

one of the lookouts in the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel 

Zion was almost as crowded as the Grand Canyon.  And you had to ride shuttles to get to any of the trails.

I remember when she was so little she could barely reach to hold his hand.

We were a little worn out on hiking, but then we hiked IN WATER.  Way more fun!  Hiking the Narrows was one of everyone's favorite activities of the trip.  It was about 95 degrees, so the cold water felt perfect!  It was also in the middle of a drought so the water level wasn't too high.  At the very most it was up to the bottom of my shorts.

The next day we did some shorter hikes in Zion to see more hanging gardens and waterfalls from the water seeping out of the sandstone.

Eating some ice cream at a ranger talk.

We spent the afternoon playing in the river.  The girls never get tired of playing in water.  I did get tired and took a nap in the sand.

nibbling fish

our campsite under The Watchman

I got too scared and didn't make it up the hill.

 On the road again in the Painted Desert

Horseshoe Bend in the Colorado River