Time off + hotel room credit + cheaper gas + nice weather = an unplanned road trip to and around Arizona. We were our way to St. George via Moab to stay with my parents for a couple weeks when we decided, “What the heck, let’s go to Arizona!”
We spent a lot of time in the car, and the kids really did a good job. I had to take a video of Payson after one of our adventurous days. He was hungry and tired, and it was a battle between his stomach and his drowsy eyes!
Our adventures actually started at Natural Bridges in Utah. It was our coldest destination, but we had the whole place to ourselves!
Natural Bridges has arches. We could see them from view points, but they blend into the background a bit, so it was kind of an adventure to see who could spot the natural bridge/arch first. I think Josh won every time!!
We did one hike with our kiddoes, and although it was a bit cold and muddy and a little snowy- it was a lot of fun. We hiked to see another natural bridge, and an Indian ruin. This was the first of many Indian ruins we saw throughout our trip.
Arizona was perfect weather the whole time. We only ran into rain once and it was during our hike to Horseshoe Bend in Page by Lake Powell. The hike was worth getting sprinkled on because the view was beautiful.
Our favorite stop was THE GRAND CANYON, and let me tell you- it is GRAND!! I have been there once before with a friend of mine, but this was Josh’s first time on the south rim. He said it was more than he expected it would be. He read that in some places the Grand Canyon gets 10 miles wide and 1 mile deep. I took tons of pictures because the view was just immaculate!
We even saw a bobcat run across our walkway at one of the viewing areas. We also saw a coyote and some elk while we were in the Grand Canyon.
Flagstaff, AZ is a cool place. It has everything from volcanoes, Indian ruins, and fun hikes. We enjoyed hiking down Walnut Canyon to see the Indian ruins in the rocks. There were TONS. Once we saw the first one across the canyon, we just kept spotting more and more and more across the canyon. We also saw a bunch on the side we were on, and we were able to walk around the ruins. Payson loved walking in most of them. A few of them still have the wall up, and they were blocked off from going inside because they are now homes to rodents. I looked in one of the ruins that had the wall still up, and saw what I thought was a rabbit scurry away.
The lava flow from past volcanoes like Sunset Crater was cool to see, but a lot of it was covered in snow. It reminded me of City of Rocks in Idaho. Payson loved finding the informational numbers and saying what number it was. He did this at a couple of places we visited. He was also super cute walking in the snow. Avenly was also cute, but she had a huge blowout at the lava flow, so that made for an interesting diaper change- especially since the bathrooms were closed for the season.
The COOLEST Indian ruins we saw were at Wupatki National Monument. Pay called them big sand castles, and he thought it was so cool we could walk around and in the giant sand castle.
Around Sedona we saw the third big sandcastle called, Montezuma’s Castle. It was higher on the mountain, so we couldn’t walk right up to it, but it was neat to view from below.
Sedona was pretty, but we were the only young folk around. Everyone there was retirees who most likely had a second home in Sedona or around.
Saguaro National Park is located near Tucson. Pretty much it is a national park desert, but it was neat to see the different cactuses, especially the giant saguaro. One little hike we went on had some rocks where the desert hogs lived around. We didn’t see any hogs, but we did get to climb the rocks (in a way that parents climb with little kids). Josh and Payson laid on one of the big rocks to “cool off” even though it was only in the 70s!
Our last stop was a condo in Peoria, AZ. We stayed there for 4 nights because we got a special deal. (You know one of those deals where they try and sell you a time share). It was great. We just relaxed, went swimming, walked to church, played tennis and basketball, and let Payson play at the near by park. We walked around the new Phoenix Temple, and we saw hot air balloons get blown up and launched. That was neat!
Our hotel near the Grand Canyon had a bowling alley, so we let Payson bowl for the first time. He thought it was cool for about 6 frames- then he wanted to play on the video game cars.
On our way to St. George from Arizona we took a break from the car to see Hoover Dam. It was a fun un-expected road trip, and I am glad we did it!!
One last video from our trip is of Avi girl eating banana. She hasn’t eaten too many solids, yet, but she goes crazy when I eat bananas, so I thought I would share her excitement!
