A Trip to Remember: Day Four

I awoke at 5am to a beautiful Arizona sunrise. The campground was so still and quiet and it had cooled off quite nicely overnight. 

One thing I haven't mentioned yet is "The Sign."  My aunt and uncle, The Lambs, moved to Colorado last fall, and that's where we were headed.  They had requested that Jason make them a custom Colorado sign to hang above their outdoor fireplace.  Well, that thing was heavy.  It would have cost a fortune to ship, so we decided to deliver it in person.  The only hitch was, every night, The Sign had to be carefully unpacked, and every morning, The Sign had to be re-packed, laying flat in the camper has we closed it up.  It became a part of our routine to set The Sign out.

One by one the kids rolled out of bed and by 8am we had all showered, broken down the camp and were headed west. 

Our first stop on Monday was Winslow, Arizona, and of course I had to stop for a little photo shoot! I wonder if the locals get sick of hearing “Take It Easy” as it was on repeat in the square. 

We headed toward Flagstaff, and even from 50 miles away smoke was visible in the sky from a forest fire in the mountains there. As we approached the city, the sky was filled with gray smoke billowing from behind the tall peaks. We spoke to a woman in town who said over 1000 acres have burned in the last 24 hours and 150 firemen cannot contain it. It was started by campers in the forest. 

 Late for the Train Coffee Shop on the outskirts of Flagstaff had amazing coffee, and I had a gluten free salted peanut butter brownie that was to die for!  We loved this city, and were kind of sad we didn't have time to stay and explore all it had to offer, but we had somewhere to be!

The road to the Grand Canyon wound through national forests and the kids were full of excitement that we were finally seeing trees again! We weren’t expecting the big back up at the entrance to the Grand Canyon, but it wasn’t too long before we were making our way toward the South Rim. The kids were amazed to see just how big it is! It was a pretty surreal experience to be standing at the edge of THE Grand Canyon! 

Every step gave a slightly different view of the canyon and it was simply amazing. 

It was also pretty cool to see people from all walks of life and from around the world! We were surrounded by so many different languages and cultures. We are pretty privileged here in the USA to be able to call this wondrous landmark ours!

Temperatures at the top of the Grand Canyon were 105 degrees, and travel down into the canyon was not advised, as the temps down there were in excess of 120 degrees!  Even without humidity, the full sun made the day sweltering hot.

As we made our way to northern Arizona, the road followed the edge of the canyon and we had several more chances to see its beauty. We also saw a bull elk and two smaller elk, one of which almost jumped in front of our car!

We grabbed some quick lunch in a small town, where it was 103° degrees and it felt SMOKIN’.  Jason and I opted to split a Navajo Taco. We just had to try one of these things. A taco for $13? We didn’t know what to expect. Well, two pounds of food loaded onto fry bread was what we got. The two of us couldn’t even finish the whole thing. I’m glad we didn’t order two of them!

We opted for the less traveled route leading to Glen Canyon National Park, and in addition to seeing some pretty awesome landscape, we also got to see a man with a sign saying “Riding across the country!” Man, at 105° he had to be feeling the miles at that point. The landscape was beautiful, though, and we loved seeing all the horses, seemingly miles from civilization.

Glen Canyon National Park wasn't exactly on our way to Colorado, but we had found this place online, and it sounded like a place we definitely wanted to experience.  

We finally arrived to our campsite and set up quickly. Again, camping in the dessert was quite the experience, with no shade or grass to speak of.  At 103°, we were dying to go swimming in Lake Powell. By the time we walked the near mile and a half to the beach, we pretty much dropped our stuff and hit the water.

What an awesome thing to be able to swim in bright blue waters surrounded by mountains and desert mesas! 

We swam for a long time, not wanting to go back to the heat of the dry camping area. It was nice to have some extra time here to sit in the sand and relax, and we stayed as long as possible down there on the beach, just taking it all in.

Tonight’s dinner was brats, burgers and potatoes and we had some little pies for dessert, and we had fun just hanging out.

Shortly after 10pm, we were all so tired that we couldn’t keep our eyes open. Although the campground was very full, it was nearly silent along with us. 

The night was HOT. With a predicted low of 80°, and temps still in the 90’s at midnight, we pretty much slept mostly naked in pools of our own sweat. Remarkably, no one complained about the heat and all of the kids said this was their favorite campsite so far.