Weekend Shenanigans

Neither of us had ever been to the Grand Canyon, and a trip to Arizona that ended on a Friday was the perfect opportunity to visit this upside down mountain range.

After lunch on Friday, we headed north through Sedona to make it to Tusayan, the little village near the park entrance.  Sedona is gorgeous!  We arrive right at sunset, so the light rays were having an excellent time playing with the colors of the buttes.  Wow!  Much of our drive was then through national forest on a road full of hairpin switch backs.  What a treat!  

 

Saturday we woke up early to get right on to Grand Canyon.  We had barely paid our entrance fee when we found a herd of female elk grazing on the side of the road.  These ladies are just huge!  Southeast Texas deer just have nothing on these gals.  

Once we arrived at the visitor center, we watched a short film about how geologists believe the canyon was made.  I have to say I disagree.  So much other science (go check out Answers in Genesis) confirms the canyon was made during Noah’s flood, but arguing with a bunch of people who are convinced their rocks tell a story just isn’t worth it.  

After the film, we bundled up, jumped on a bus, and headed out west to Hermit’s Rest trail.  We wanted to hike some of the rim during the day because we knew we didn’t have the time to take any trails into the canyon this trip.  We probably made it about ¾ of the length of Hermit’s Rest trail before taking the bus the rest of the way.  The scenery was gorgeous, the hike was easy, but the wind was atrocious and utterly cruel.  We were prepared with cold weather gear, but winds like that just stop being fun after a while.  Regardless of the ferocious wind, we were constantly in awe of the landscape at each bend and turn.  Isaac exclaimed several times that he could see God’s fingerprints smudged all across the canyon.  He’s right.

After we returned to the visitor’s center, we loaded back into the car and went east as far as the road leads before heading north.  We hit up every over look available on the way out to Desert View Overlook.  There’s a castle tower there that’s 5 stories tall.  It was breathtaking to climb to the top and see the sun set casting bright shadows and richly deep colors across the canyon walls.  Just wow! On the way out of the park, the moon rise was stunning.

Nat Geo has a center in Tusayan, so we stopped there after dark to see the IMAX covering human history in the Grand Canyon.  It was actually very good and very educational, but started with naked ancient Indians, so there went purchasing a copy to take home to share with my 6^th graders when we study North America.  Oh, Nat Geo-sometimes realism is a bit too much for public schools!

Sunday morning we had to leave before dawn to reach Phoenix for our flight home.  The drive was gorgeous as the moon set and the sun rose between the bluffs and mountain peaks between national forests.  Eventually, the elevation decreased as we headed south.  We left the mountains and forests for cacti covered hills and cliffs.  Arizona is by no means the largest state in the Union, but it sure is diverse from north to south!  I gotta say though, after flying over the southern parts of Arizona and New Mexico and west Texas, I don’t know why anyone would want to live there.  It’s just truly waste land.  Yuck!  Isaac says nothing is wasted, but I don’t know.  Man, oh man.

 

We are so grateful that we were able to save up and tag a little mini fall vacation on to the ACE board meeting weekend!