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June 29, 2006
We flew into Phoenix late last evening and stayed near the hotel for the night so that we could get an early start this morning. We loaded up early this morning and headed north toward the Grand Canyon, stopping first to check out the Diamondbacks baseball stadium. There was a huge marble maze out in front of the stadium that the kids loved watching.
It was about a 3.5 hour trip to the canyon from Phoenix and we stopped several times to admire the new scenery, but we finally arrived at about 1:30 pm - just in time for it to start storming! We checked into our hotel, The Grand, which was near the entrance to the park first. We decided to go ahead into the Grand Canyon National Park hoping the weather would clear, and it did. We were ALL impressed with the canyon! Mark and I had both been a couple of times before but it is still a breathtaking experience to see it. We enjoyed hiking the path on the southern rim and the kids worked on and completed their Junior Ranger program.
Tonight we grabbed a quick bite to eat in the hotel restaurant and enjoyed some native dancing that was performed right in the dining room by authentic Navajo Indians. The Navajo kids were especially cute in their costumes. I took the kids to the pool after the dancing and they swam for a while and wore themselves out. It has been a long but exciting day.
June 30, 2006
This morning I had a wake up call set for 4:15 am. We wanted to be at the canyon for the scheduled 5:15 am sunrise. The kids weren't too hip on the idea at first, but we finally convinced them of how cool it would be to see the sun peak over the rim of the canyon. Mark and I did the sunrise a few years ago at the canyon and made the mistake of going to Mathers Point to see it. Unfortunately, a few thousand other tourists had the same idea, and it ruined the tranquility of the experience. This time we parked farther down at Yavapai Observation Station and hiked down the path about a half mile to a quiet spot where just the four of us could enjoy the sunrise together. It was perfect and the sun made its appearance right on schedule. Even the kids we glad they got up to witness another example of God's beauty.
We returned to the hotel to pack up and then headed back into the park to continue on our journey. Instead of going back the way we came through Flagstaff, we took 64 west out of the park and over to Hwy 89 in the Navajo Indian reservation. We had never driven this way before and we stopped at Lipan Point and Desert View to get another glimpse at the canyon. Both of those sites were better than closer down by the lodge and at Mathers Point. At Desert View there is an old castle looking tower built there that overlooks the canyon. We liked both of these stops because you can really see the Colorado River clearly and it is less touristy.
We said goodbye to the Grand Canyon and headed east throught the Navajo Indian Reservation toward Four Courners. We stopped in Tuba City to look in a hokie souvenir shop and grab a greasy burger at McDonalds. We continued our journey to Four Corners, Mesa Verde, and Durango.
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