Category: National Park

Santa Fe Area Hiking

Santa Fe Area Hiking

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Hey y’all! We stayed in the Santa Fe area for two weeks and managed to squeeze an amazing amount of adventure into our time there. I’m going to break this area up into two different posts. This first post will be about the hiking we did.

We spent an entire day at Bandelier National Monument! Bandelier is located in the Frijoles (free-HOH-lace) Canyon and the first evidence of habitation goes back 10,000 years.

We got to see Bandelier covered in snow and it was beautiful! Bandelier, NM is part of the Pajarito Plateau, which was formed by two separate eruptions of the Jemez (HAY-mess) Volcano more than one million years ago. Each of the two eruptions was six hundred times more powerful than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Think about that for a minute. Can you imagine how destructive those eruptions were?

The boys had a great time playing in the snow while we explored Bandelier. It was perfect for snowballs!

 You’re looking at the village of Tyuonyi (QU-weh-nee). This is just one of several large pueblos located in Bandelier National Monument. This one would have been two stories tall, contained about 400 rooms and housed around 100 people. Access to this village was by a singular ground-level opening.

If you’ve been following us along on our journey, you know we’ve gone to quite a few different pueblos. Usually, we don’t get to climb into them. The boys were super excited that at Bandelier, not only do you get to climb the ladders, you get to go inside the pueblo rooms! I managed to get all three kiddos to stop climbing around long enough to snap a picture. The calm didn’t last long before they were off exploring again. Ha!

When we got to the park that day we were told the trail to the Alcove House was closed due to icy conditions. We hung out in the Visitor Center while the boys did their Junior Ranger booklets and I asked a couple different Ranger’s about the trail. Before we headed out, we were told we could go ahead and do the Alcove Trail, but to be aware of the ice. The Alcove Trail led us through the woods and across several bridges. It was a wonderful hike through the quiet snowy forest. We loved it!

We made it to the Alcove House without trouble and checked out the ladders. They had some ice, but they were in good shape so we climbed up the few very long ladders to ascend 140 ft to the top. At the top is this Kiva (KEE-vah), which was excavated in 1908. They found almost perfectly preserved specimens of red corn and matting. It was all closed up when we got there so we didn’t get to see inside, but it looks like there are times when you can view the inside of it.

There’s a separate section of Bandelier National Monument you have to drive to. On our way there we stopped at the Whiterock Canyon scenic overlook. The view was stellar! I managed to get a photo of all five of us in front  of it! It’s rare to get a photo with all of us in it!

The Tsankawi (sank-ah-WEE) unit of the Bandelier National Monument is just as good as the main unit. It’s a loop trail that takes you up a couple of ladders to a lower and upper cliff. Tsankawi is located on the Pajarito (pa-ha-REE-toe) Plateau and was home to the Ancestral Tewa Pueblo people during the 1400s. When the Jemez Volcano erupted over a million years ago, this land was covered in thick layers of volcanic ash. Over the years, the ash was compacted and formed rock known as tuff. Tuff is a soft stone so it was perfect for the ancient peoples to carve out their homes in. The softness of the rock is also what caused the paths to be worn down. In the left photo above, you can see the path we followed while in Tsankawi. These paths weren’t’ carved out, they were worn down by the 1000s of times people walked the same path.

The view from the upper cliff was fantastic. We took a minute to appreciate it then headed on since we were losing the light.

You can see where people have placed their feet over the years to get back down the ladder.

 The village of Tsankawi contains about 275 rooms. Some of the structures here were two story. The cave rooms, like the one in the right photo above, is called a cavate (CAVE-eight). These rooms were usually plastered in some kind of mud mixture and painted while the ceilings were blackened by smoke. Smoking the ceilings hardened the volcanic tuff and made the tuff less crumbly. We were climbing down the last ladder as the sun started to disappear. It was a long full day. We highly recommend Bandelier National Monument to anyone who will be in the Santa Fe area!

We also had a fantastic day exploring the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. While it’s designated a National Monument, the National Park Service doesn’t take care of this park. It’s managed by the Bureau of Land Management. When we started our trip back in May of this year (2015), I would have probably hated this hike. I preferred the nice neat paths. Oh, how times have changed. I’ve come to realize that if you want the big scenic payoff, you have to be willing to work for it. Now, our favorite trails are the ones that are more…primitive…with some scrambling.

We scrambled over, through, around, and under while we made our way along the trail…it was awesome!

This trail takes you a mile and a half through a slot canyon made out of volcanic tuff and carved from flash floods over the years.

At the end of the slot canyon, the trail climbs a steep 630 feet up to the mesa top. In the photo above, you can see part of the steep climb up…notice it’s covered in snow and ice. It made for a very interesting, very slippery trek.

The Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument was designated in 2001 to protect the unique geological landscape known for its light colored, cone shaped tent rock formations that are the result of the big volcanic eruptions we talked about earlier in this post. The tuff, ash, and pumice from the eruptions were over 1,000 feet thick. Here’s the view from the top.

Kasha-Katuwe means “white cliffs” in the traditional Keresan language. You can see in the picture above how they look white.

We had a wonderful time doing a few of the many hikes in the area. We were bummed we didn’t have time to fit more in, but that just gives us a reason to come back to the Santa Fe area again! I think I can safely say that we’ll be back!

See y’all down the road!

Albuquerque, NM

Albuquerque, NM

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We had the best time in Albuquerque!! I’ll try not to make this post super long, but I’ll warn you now, it’s gonna be picture heavy.

One of the most important things you’ll need to know before visiting New Mexico is that they love their chilies. Every restaurant we went into (and we went into quite a few here) offered chili on everything. If you know us, you know that we consider ourselves to be pepper-bellies…lovers of all things spicy. New Mexicans are not playing around with the spice.

This is what New Mexican food looks like. Kind of like a big plate of goo. The first place we ate at is probably our favorite restaurant in Albuquerque. Sadie’s was amazing and the spice was on point. We all walked out with numb lips and warm bellies.

If you’re familiar with the show Breaking Bad, you might recognize the Twisters logo as that of Los Pollos Hermanos. We ended up eating at Twisters twice. Yep, it’s fast food and yep, it’s that good. I got the Indian Taco both times and was in carb bliss both times.

I know this burger doesn’t really look like much. Sometimes looks can be deceiving though. Blake’s Lottaburger has one of the best green chili cheeseburgers we’ve found so far in New Mexico. It’s not fancy by any means, the menu is limited, and it’s where all of the locals go…so you know it’s good.

Are you getting the idea that Albuquerque was a huge foodie town for us? We’d been looking forward to all of the culinary treats this area has to offer. We also ate at a place called Little Anita’s. It was on par with what we’d been getting…spicy, gooey, huge sopapillas, and super good. The other place we ate at is called Frontier. It was a bit of a letdown. I think it’s one of those places that if you grow up eating there it’s amazing. Kind of like Taco Town for Carthaginians. It’s not that the food at Frontier was bad, in fact it had some of the best tortillas and cinnamon rolls we’ve found in a long time…it’s just that it wasn’t up to the standard of the other places we’d been.

It might seem like all we did was eat…but, I promise we didn’t. There are a ton of fun things to do in the Albuquerque area. We spent an afternoon looking for petroglyphs at the Petroglyph National Monument.

We got in two short hikes where we had to hunt for the petroglyphs. Sometimes they were super clear while other times we weren’t really sure if the graffiti was old or new. The boys walked away with both the Junior and Senior Ranger badges and patches.

We spent a couple of hours at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. We loved this museum! They had the whole place sectioned off. Each section was numbered and you could follow the numbers and walk through the history of the Earth. They called it Timetracks: Walk Through Time.

The walk starts at Origins and talks about the Big Bang and the creation of the planets. This was one of the most hands on museums (that isn’t a kids museum) that we’ve found. There was this little visor thing you held in front of your face while looking at the image above. As you turn the visor the images changes to indicate the changes on earth. All five us had to play with this before we moved on.

One of the things that made this museum different for us was the way the rooms were put together to create a scene. It wasn’t just a bunch of bones in a boring room. The Timetracks walk takes you through origins to the day in the cretaceous period when the dinosaurs had a very bad day, all the way to present day.

The boys loved all of the interactive displays. We ran out of time here so we weren’t able to see everything. The museum was closing as we left. I think they were locking the doors as we left. Ha! Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to go back and finish exploring the rest of the museum.

We loved the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History! Yep, we’re nerdy like that. This museum was also really well laid out. You start by learning about the Periodic Table and make your way to the Manhattan Project. Nicholas is checking out a mockup of The Gadget. Take a look at all the National Park badges on that hat! In the sun it looks like a disco ball!

We learned about the Cold War and saw a replica of what a bomb shelter looked like and what some of the supplies you might have found in a shelter are. Multi-Purpose Food…sounds yummy, right? I have this image of grey gloppy gruel.

The displays take you through Nuclear Medicine, Radiation, Atomic Pop Culture, and then…we got to play! I mean, we got to conduct some very interesting, very educational, science experiments. Even the big kids found something interesting here.

It’s a good thing this exhibit was toward the end of the museum because I’m not sure how much of the museum we would have actually seen if this had been first. We all played with the magnetic blobs. I mean…we all conducted the experiment to see if size really does make a difference.

They had to kick us out of here. Seriously. They were trying to close and we just kept wanting to stay. My little nerds were in science heaven.

In an effort to learn more about the 19 tribes that call this area home, we visited the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. We learned more about Native American’s beliefs, customs, ways of life, and art.

We also learned that Native Americans don’t really like being called “Native Americans”. They prefer to be differentiated by their tribe. I can understand that. 

I think the biggest thing we learned at the IPCC is that there’s still a lot of animosity between our cultures. We met a guy who worked there who…made it his mission to prove the white family was ignorant about the “true history” of America. It was extremely awkward as Jerl and I watched our boys answer correctly every single question he threw at them. When he finally found out they were homeschooled, he was actually impressed and gave Charlie (who answered most of the questions) a music CD. When it was over, we felt pretty unwelcome. I’ll be honest, the whole interaction left a bad taste in my mouth and colored the way we look at ABQ as a whole.

All in all we had a wonderful experience in Albuquerque and plan on going back…someday.

See y’all down the road!

Gallup, NM

Gallup, NM

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Gallup is often called the “Indian Capital of the World” because of its location in the heart of Native American lands. Some of the tribes that call this area home are the Navajo, Zuni, and Hopi. We spent our first week in New Mexico learning about some of the local peoples and customs.

I have a plan for each area we go to. My list. But we always look for new things to do and check out what the locals say. When we stopped by the New Mexico Visitor Center near the border I grabbed a Gallup brochure even though I was pretty sure I’d found everything I wanted to do for our time there. I’m so glad I went ahead and got the brochure. We wouldn’t have known about the Red Rock Balloon Rally! Score! When we came back from Alaska and I was planning this Fall/Winter, we’d discussed trying to make it to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, but it would have been a big rush and we’d just come off of a week of 12 hour drive days. So, we put the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta on our Someday List. It was a wonderful surprise to realize we were going to be in town for the Red Rock Balloon Rally!!

We were told if you go early and help the balloon teams set up you might be rewarded with a ride. We’re not ones to pass up a chance to learn something new and a chance to ride in a hot air balloon sounded awesome!

We got up early (for us) and made it to Red Rock by 7AM. We got there right as most of the balloon teams were starting to set up. One of the teams called us over to see what the inside of a hot air balloon looks like. It was huge inside!

They start airing up the balloons with big fans. Once the balloons reach a certain size, they add the fire to heat up the air.

It’s at this point that they have a couple of people hold on to a tether attached to the top of the balloon. As the balloon fills and starts to stand up… well, it’s a lot like skiing, but on sand.

Seeing all of those balloons being filled and taking off into the early morning sky is definitely a memory that has gone onto my Favorites List. We didn’t get a ride. We had to leave so we could do some school/work stuff. The balloons like to dip in and out of the canyons at Red Rock. They’ll perch on the rock and take off again. We saw several people getting rides…for free.

We went back to the park that night for the Balloon Glow and Indian Dances.

The Indian Dances were spectacular. Really. We’d never seen anything like it and we felt very honored to be able to witness each dance. Two different tribes had dancers there. The first tribe had more of a traditional dance and explained the parts of their clothing. The second tribe was a little more primal. They were fierce. We left in awe.

Even if you’re not planning on buying anything, one of the must do things in Gallup is to go visit a Trading Post. Trading Posts are really Pawn Shops. I don’t remember the exact percentage of Native Americans who are unemployed, but it’s high. There are several reasons and I’m not going to get into it, but if you go to a Trading Post try to make sure it’s legit. We went to Richardson Trading Post because they’ve been in business for over a hundred years. Families from the different Tribes will bring in their crafts to sell at Richardson’s. You’re guaranteed a locally made product there. We were surprised to learn that many of the families from the different local Tribes will bring in their family heirlooms, saddles, and ceremonial pieces to store at Richardson’s because it’s safer there than in their homes. We got to have a backroom tour and we saw close to 2,000 saddles stored there along with ceremonial bear and sheep skins. It was really neat!

We went to El Morro National Monument where we saw Inscription Rock and the over 2,000 inscriptions that cover it. Native Americans, Spaniards, and Anglos have all left their marks on the sandstone rock. Some of them were impressively fancy. I can’t write my name that nicely with a pencil let alone carve it into a rock. Some travelers gave a description of why they were there or who they were. In the photo above you can see one of the oldest inscriptions at El Morro.

It says “Governor Don Juan de Oñate passed through here, from the discovery of the Sea of the South on the 16th of April, 1605.” Notice how dark the inscription looks in the photo above compared to the other two photos? The Rangers used to try and preserve the inscriptions by going over them with pencils.

At the end of the Inscription Trail you can head up 250 feet to the top of a mesa for a 2 mile trail to the Atsinna Puebloan dwelling. 250 feet doesn’t sound like much of an elevation gain, right? Well, we were already over 7,000 feet above sea level where the air is mighty thin! The view of the Zuni Mountains was breath taking! And not just because I was huffing and puffing from the hike up!

The trail was at the top of a box canyon and was etched into the top of the rock. The Rangers ask that you stay on the trail so you won’t fall off the side. That’s easier said than done when the wind is trying to blow you off. It was a great hike. I would go back just for the hike…and the views.

The pueblo was very cool! We were able to see some of the inner workings of the pueblo. There were doors and windows all connecting the different rooms.

Y’all know we’re foodies…we couldn’t wait to dig into some New Mexican food! Now, the official state question of New Mexico is Red or Green? They’re talking about chili. Chili is put on everything from burgers and fries, to pizzas, burritos, and pies. It’s such a staple that the McDonald’s and Wendy’s in Gallup have modified their menus to include chili. In the photo above you’ll see what’s referred to as “Christmas Style” which is half red and half green. We, of course, are doing our own experiment as to which chili we like best…red or green? I’ll let you know the answer once we’ve had an opportunity to thoroughly explore all of the styles and options.

We ate at a little Mom & Pop place called Jerry’s where we learned that most places in New Mexico serve huge sopapillas instead of tortillas or bread. We also learned that many of the restaurants in Gallup let the local crafts people come in and sell their wares from table to table. The sellers were very quiet and non-intrusive and I like the idea of buying right from the artist. I mean, dinner and shopping all in one place?! Bonus!

This poem was on the back of the menu at Jerry’s and I think it’s a great way to leave you today.

Today may I walk in beauty.

See y’all down the road!

Petrified Forest National Park

Petrified Forest National Park

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We spent a week in Holbrook, AZ so we could explore Petrified Forest National Park. Holbrook is a pretty small town right on Route 66. We had some below freezing temps while staying in Holbrook and saw some of the windiest days we’ve seen in Arizona. I would suggest coming to this area before November.

The park was a good twenty or so miles away from where we were staying, so we didn’t get to spend as much time there as we would have liked. We ended up spending three days there getting in as much as we could. We stopped at all the official view points and did all seven of the maintained trails and even snuck in two “Off the Beaten Path” trails!

This National Park is broken up into two parts. The Petrified Forest and The Painted Desert. It really needs to add one more section. The Badlands. Yup, there are badlands in Arizona! If you’re looking at a park map, you’d see that the Petrified Forest is at the southern end and the Painted Desert is at the northern end. The Badlands are right in the middle and to be totally honest, it might have been my favorite part of the whole National Park! This section is called Blue Mesa, but it looks way more pink and purple to me! So, what makes land bad? A badland area is an area of soft rock strata that is cut and eroded into gullies and weird shapes where vegetation just can’t take hold. Notice the lack of vegetation in the photo above.

We were all a little obsessed with the petrified wood. The colors…the textures… A short one mile loop would take us twice as long as usual because we would constantly stop to check out a piece of petrified wood that had a new color we hadn’t seen or it had crystals growing in it or a different texture. It seems so weird to think that this hot, dry landscape we see today was once a lush, green, humid prehistoric rainforest.  Around 216 million years ago, the petrified wood we see at the park died and fell into a river. Over time they were buried under layers of silt, mud, sand, and volcanic ash. These layers protected them from decay while the mineral rich ground water seeped through the layers to the tree. The brilliant colors you see in the petrified wood are formed over time from the minerals found in the layers they were buried under. Silica or quartz crystals slowly bonded with the cells of the tree and eventually, they replicated the tree. So the wood turned to stone.

This log is called Old Faithful. It measures 35 feet long and weighs about 44 tons…give or take a few pounds. Albert Einstein stood for a picture with this exact tree. We all felt a little smarter having walked in the footsteps of Albert Einstein.

We thought this seven room pueblo constructed of petrified wood was really neat! We walked all around it and looked up close at the walls. It’s called The Agate House and they think this was a single family home built sometime between 1050 and 1300. When they found it, they thought it was unique, but they’ve found several other pueblo structures built from petrified wood within the park.

These logs were so big! In the photo above, you can see how long one of these logs really is. Jerl, Alex and Charlie are standing at one end while Nicholas is at the other. The log stretches between them.

The Painted Desert Inn was originally built in the 1920s of petrified wood. During the 1930s it was given a makeover to the adobe facade you can see today. You can no longer stay at the Painted Desert Inn. It’s been turned into a museum and is now a National Historic Landmark. The stained glass ceiling was gorgeous!!

Behind the Painted Desert Inn is one of the “Off the Beaten Path” hikes. Some of our favorite places in National Parks are the areas set aside for visitors to get off the path and explore. The trails are nice, but you’re never really going to truly experience all that a park has to offer if you stick to them.

Did you know that Petrified Forest National Park is the only National Park unit to protect a section of Route 66? They’ve got this 1932 Studebaker sitting where Route 66 originally cut right through the park.

The sun is your friend at a park like this. The shadows make it hard to see the brilliant colors. And there are some truly brilliant colors in this park!

One of the other “Off The Beaten Path” trails takes you to the Billings Gap. It’s about a three mile round trip hike with some amazing vistas. There’s more to do in this park than you might think!

In Holbrook, right on Route 66, is the Wigwam Motel. Y’all might recognize its likeness from the movie Cars. If you look closely at the photo above you might see Mater and some of the other vehicles from the movie at one of their favorite places. The boys (especially Alex) really got a kick out of seeing it!

Well, I think that’s all of the highlights from our week in Holbrook. I’ll leave you with this photo of just one of the vivid sunsets Arizona gave us. Arizona doesn’t mess around with sunsets!

See y’all down the road!

Old Stuff And A Big Hole

Old Stuff And A Big Hole

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That’s quite the title for a post, right? Old Stuff And A Big Hole. Usually, I’ll name a post based on the town we’re staying in, but that doesn’t really work for this area. We stayed 20 miles from Winslow and 30 miles from Flagstaff at the Meteor Crater RV Park. I couldn’t call this post Meteor Crater because that was such a small part of what we saw. So, I went with the title you see. It fits.

Moving on!

The northeast corner of Arizona is chock full of ancient pueblos and dwellings. We find them fascinating and can’t seem to get enough of them. So far, each dwelling or pueblo we’ve seen has been a little bit different than the others. Each providing a new hint or clue as to how people once lived.

Welcome to Walnut Creek Canyon. We spent an afternoon walking the Island Trail at Walnut Canyon National Monument where the Sinagua people lived more than 800 years ago. The Sinagua weren’t the first to live in Walnut Canyon. Artifacts found there show people were in the area more than 1,400 years ago.

The Island Trail takes you by big boulders perched precariously above the trail and down 240 stairs. It’s not the down that gets you…it’s the up and the fact that you’re almost 6,000 feet above sea level. There might have been some huffing and puffing happening on the way back up.

Down in the canyon there are these sandstone rock formations. The diagonal lines or cross-bedding shows a record of the changing winds. What’s kind of amazing is that those rock formations used to be sand dunes!

The cliff dwellings were built between 1125 and 1250. The builders took advantage of natural recesses in the limestone walls to build their homes. There are some amazingly preserved homes at Walnut Canyon. The doors would have been covered with whatever they had (like an animal skin) with a gap at the bottom. See the little cutout in the wall above the door in the top right photo? It’s a pretty ingenious design. The air enters the home through the gap in the door then circulates through the home and takes the smoke from the fire with it out through the hole at the top of the wall above the door.

We spent an entire day between the Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument and the Wupatki National Monument. There’s a 35 mile scenic drive that connects these two parks that took us by some really cool spots!

Sunset Volcano last erupted about 800 years ago. This eruption is the most recent in a six-million-year history of volcanic activity in this area. Both of the photos above were taken on the A’a Trail. The boys loved seeing icicles hanging from the old lava flow.

Here’s a picture of Nicholas standing in front of one of the flows so you can see how tall the flows can be. And yep, that’s snow you see!

At the top of the Lenox Crater Trail we were rewarded with a wonderful view of the San Franciso Peaks. Interesting fact…the San Franciso Peaks used to be one big volcano. You can see photo of Sunset Volcano in the right photo above. There’s not a trail to the top to actually see the crater which we thought was a big bummer. But apparently there was so much damage done by people trekking up there it’s now a big no no. Personally, I think if you name a National Park after something there should be a maintained trail to see it.

After an eruption lichens begin breaking down rock into soil. I didn’t find any flowers, but I did find a ton of these Apache Plume that had gone to seed. We thought they were very cool.

Next up was the Wupatki National Monument. There are several pueblos in this park and we tried to see as many as we could even as a snow storm was moving in.

This is the Wukoki Pueblo. Wukoki means “Big House” in modern Hopi. The Wukoki has a pretty nice view from its porch. So many postcard worthy vistas here!

Wukoki was once home to two or three families that they believe came from the Kayenta Anasazi culture. One of the things we found so interesting about this pueblo is how small the doors are. You can see Jerl crouching in the doorway and Nicholas standing beside it so you can get an idea of the size in the right photo.

This is the Wupatki Pueblo. The location and size (100 rooms) of the Wupatki Pueblo makes archaeologists believe that this wasn’t a typical village but a special meeting place for the surrounding areas.

One of the coolest things at the Wupatki Pueblo was the blowhole. I’m not going to pretend I completely understand how it works…something with light warm air and cold heavy air. We all had to take turns standing and leaning over it. Jerl wasn’t expecting the wind to be so strong and his hat blew right off his head!

The Wupatki Pueblo had a pretty fantastic view too. See the two wooden beams in the left photo above? They’ve been in place for over 800 years.

There was some amazing pottery found in the area. And some newer pottery for sale. I would have taken any of the ones in the left picture (the ones for sale). Love them!

This was the Nalakihu Pueblo. Farmers once lived here. See the snow clouds getting closer? We got snowed on back at Sunset and spent the rest of the day watching the storm roll in. The ruins really do dot the landscape. Can you see the two different ruins in the right photo above?

These two pueblos were built on the edges of a canyon. We saw these while we were walking the trail to get to the Lomaki Pueblo.

And this is the Lomaki Pueblo. Notice the leaning walls? I wonder how long they’ll stay standing. Interesting fact…when a family or village would decide to move to a new area they would take all of their valuables with them, including the roof support beams or sometimes they would plug all openings to the building and leave some of their valuables there, as if they had plans to come back. One of the things that has really stuck out to us about pueblos is the way the structures are melded into the landscape and are oriented to the sun and seasons.

It spit snow on us a couple of time that day. Nothing bad. We enjoyed watching the snow clouds while we were adventuring. In the right picture you can see how many cinder cones dot this area.

So, the other thing we did on this stop is visit Meteor Crater. I snapped a picture of a picture so you could see the whole thing. The real photo is in the Meteor Crater Visitor Center.

There was a neat little museum in the visitor center. The boys loved this booth. The booth played a video of what scientist think happened about 50,000 years ago. They all had to take turns in it.

We took the guided tour along the Crater rim. It was interesting and the guide made it fun. I don’t have a wide enough lens to get the whole crater in one shot. The Crater is 4,000 feet across, and 550 feet deep. It used to be about 700 feet deep but because of erosion, it’s being slowly filled in. To help you visualize just how stinkin’ big this crater is…there could be 20 different football games going on along the bottom and around 2 million fans could line the sides to watch. Big, right?

I can’t leave the food out! We ate at a place called Mama Burger in Flagstaff. My burger had green chilies, jack cheese and hot sauce. I’ve been a little obsessed with the green chilies lately. I think it’s because they’re so good. You can see the burger that Charlie got in the bottom right photo. I don’t remember everything on it but it was huge and messy with bacon…and he ate it all! We ordered fries and tots to have along with our burgers. We didn’t realize they were going to come out in completely filled pie plates. And the price was really decent! If you’re ever in the area you should definitely go to Mama Burger!

See y’all down the road!

So Much Awesome Part Two

So Much Awesome Part Two

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The Sedona/Verde Valley area has so many things to see and do. From the hikes I told you about in the last post to National Monuments to Ghost Towns. You should plan on spending at least a few weeks in this area to see it all.

We started with the Red Rock District of the Coconino National Forest.

We went to the Visitor Center where the boys worked on a Junior Ranger program and we got some good advice about some of the surrounding hikes. The view from the Visitor Center was pretty stellar! We got our first good look at Castle Rock, Bell Rock, and Courthouse Butte (in that order from left to right in the right photo).

The Native American culture is strong here. We stayed right across the highway from the reservation.

We call it Montezuma Castle today, but the descendants of the people who once lived there know it by other names. The Hopi call it Sakaytaka which means “place where the step ladders are going up”.  We spent an hour strolling around the grounds. We were bummed when we learned you can’t go up into the Castle anymore. Montezuma Castle was used by many different clans. The Parrot, Bear, Water, Cloud, Bluebird, and Spider clans are just some of the clans to have called it home.

Here’s a model they put up of the inside of Montezuma Castle after they stopped letting people go inside.

Alex and Nicholas are standing in front of some Arizona Sycamore trees. We loved the way the bark looks camouflaged!

The boys ended up with a pretty cool badge. We actually had to buy the one in the picture, but since they completed the booklet and got the free badge, they decided they should have the cooler badge too. We don’t see these badges much. Some parks won’t put them out for sale because they don’t want just anyone to get one.

In the Montezuma Junior Ranger book there’s a few pages that require you to go to Montezuma Well. You can still get the Castle Badge, but if you complete the whole book you get a special button…so…of course, the boys had to have it. I honestly didn’t think the Well would be that interesting. I thought it was just…well…what you see in the bottom right photo above. To my surprise, there are some dwellings at the Well! The Well contains over 15 million gallons of water and is replenished with 1.5 million gallons of new water every day. For many cultures, Montezuma Well is a sacred place. The Hopi, Zuni, and Yavapai can all trace their ancestors to a time when they were living at the Well. You can’t drink the water now, since it has arsenic in it.

Tuzigoot National Monument is one of my favorites so far! The Visitor Center had some really amazing artifacts that were found there.

One of the coolest things about Tuzigoot is that you get to go inside a dwelling and then go up some stairs for a great view. You can see the view from the top in the left photo. When the archaeological team got to the Tuzigoot site it was just a big pile of rocks. They knew something was under it because the rocks were so uniformly piled.

Funny story about how Tuzigoot got it’s name…when the archaeologists were looking for a name for the site a Tonto Apache suggested Túzogoot (TWO-see-WHOODT) which means “crooked water”, but the archaeologists spelled and pronounced it as Tuzigoot (TWO-zee-goot) which is nonsensical in Apache. Unfortunately, the Tuzigoot name stuck so that’s what it’s called today. A nonsensical word.

While we were at Tuzigoot we got to see a weaving demonstration. This guy was so good! He was having conversations and pausing, but he never lost his place in the weave design. I’m pretty sure he’s done it a time or two.

The boys left the Sedona/Verde Valley area with two National Park badges plus two special pins, a State Park badge, and a National Forest pin. They work hard to earn the badges. They have to fill out a booklet that requires you to find items, problem solve, hike, and think outside the box. Then, the Ranger goes over it with them to make sure it’s done and they actually understand it all (I think it’s to see if the parents did the book or the kids).

What you’re looking at is the town of Jerome, AZ. Jerome is known as “America’s Most Vertical City”. We drove through it trying to find a place to park so we could grab a burger at the Haunted Hamburger, but we couldn’t find a single place to park. I didn’t get any pics of the town as we drove through and I wish I had. It was a really neat town! Jerome is an old copper mining town and was once known as the wickedest town in the west. It’s supposed to be very haunted. We really wanted to spend time there and if we ever make it back to Verde Valley, we will definitely stop back in.

We didn’t spend the whole time hiking and exploring National Monuments. Nope. We, of course, had to find some good food! We found Hog Wild BBQ in Cottonwood, AZ. It was so good, we ate there twice. What you see in the left photo above is the Mingus Mountain Burger and garlic fries! The Mingus Burger has cheese, bacon, and green chilies on it along with all the usual burger stuff!

So, there you have it! That was our two weeks in the Sedona/VerdeValley area. Usually when we stay someplace for two weeks by the second Wednesday, I’m ready to go. I’m itching to move on. But that wasn’t the case here. On that second Wednesday I started to panic about the lack of remaining time and the abundance of hikes to still do. We’ve had to start a list of places to revisit. Can you guess what the first place on the list is?

See y’all down the road!

The Apache Trail Drive

The Apache Trail Drive

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The Apache Trail drive is only 46 miles, but plan on spending the entire day exploring this scenic road.

The first thing you should know about this road is that 25 miles of it is dirt. What is it with us and dirt roads? We always seem to find ourselves driving down one. And it’s usually worth it. This drive was no exception. It was worth every dusty, washboard, bumpy mile.

Our first oooo-ahhh view was the Canyon Lake. The sky was overcast so it was hard to see, but the water is a deep blue.

This drive shadows an ancient Apache Indian footpath and has quite a few narrow switchbacks. The dirt road should really have been a one way, but it wasn’t. We would have to find a wide-ish spot and pull over to let a car pass and if heights bother you, this might not be the road for you. There are also several one lane bridges.

But, the views…were…stunning! In the photo above you can see the Painted Cliffs of the Mazatzal Mountains next to the Apache Lake. Guys, I really wish y’all could see this in person. Pictures don’t do it justice. Someone needs to come out with a way to easily and cheaply add 3D photos to blog posts.

Seriously, that should be a thing.

We also got to see the Theodore Roosevelt Dam which was the world’s largest masonry dam back when it was built in 1911. 280 feet high and 723 feet long, the Theodore Roosevelt Dam is impressive. On the other side of the dam is the 23 mile long Theodore Roosevelt Lake where the original town of Roosevelt is now laying underwater.

This is actually where the Apache Trail Drive ends and where the paved road picks back up, but we went on to the Tonto National Monument which was only five more miles down the road.

Tonto National Monument gives you a peek into the lives of the Salado people.

You can walk up the 350 feet to the Lower Cliff Dwelling where a Ranger is posted to not only answer any questions but to protect the artifacts. We got to walk around and through a few of the rooms while the Ranger told us what life was like for the Salado people. There are still a few artifacts left up in the dwelling. In the photo above, you can see a grindstone.

The view of Roosevelt Lake is spectacular from the Lower Cliff Dwelling.

The boys took the opportunity to get another Junior Ranger Badge.

In the visitor center, you can see some of the more impressive artifacts they found in the dwellings. Apparently, until the 1930s people would steal, smash and deface the dwellings, which is why there’s now a Ranger posted there. I’ll never understand some people’s need to destroy. In the right photo you can see a model of the Lower Cliff Dwelling. There used to be 19 rooms and they think there were probably somewhere around 60 people living there. There’s also an Upper Cliff Dwelling that has 40 rooms, but it’s only open from November to April. I imagine we’ll come back someday to do the three mile Ranger hike to see it.

Down the road from Tonto NM there’s a scenic pull-off that gives you a faraway look at the Upper Dwellings. It looks really cool! We’d all like to do the hike there sometime.

While we were exploring, we came across this gem of a place. You’re looking at the best burrito I’ve ever had. It’s called a Green Mix Burro, Enchilada Style. We liked this place so stinkin’ much we ate here twice in the seven days we were in the area. Charlie got the Burger Olé which is a double burger covered in the yummiest green chili. He had to eat it with a fork and knife, but he ate it all.

One of our favorite things to do is take the road less traveled. You never know what amazing vista or interesting foodie place you’ll find.

See y’all down the road!

Tucson, AZ

Tucson, AZ

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Welcome to Tucson, where there’s 350 days of sun a year!

Wait, what?

Yup, we picked the week it rained three out of the seven days we were there to visit Tucson, AZ. Who goes to a desert to get rained on?

We do.

Kind of like when we were hiking through a rain forest in Alaska and it didn’t rain single a drop. Oh well, what are ya going to do? We still had four glorious days of sun to explore the area. And we utilized every moment we got!

Saguaro National Park was at the top of our list of places to see. Saguaro (suh-WAHR-oh) NP is made up of two districts with Tucson in the middle of them.

I wasn’t expecting so much green and life and…mountains. We cautiously did a few hikes here. Between the six different kinds of rattle snakes, the Africanized “killer” honey bees, and the fact that all of the plants are trying to kill you…we didn’t really stray off the beaten path. Seriously, we stuck to the path like our lives depended on it.

Saguaro National Park is a desert with tons of different cacti…and they really do reach out and grab you. Literaly. There’s a type of cactus called cholla that has barbed spines that detach from the plant easily and embed in your skin. Sounds fun, right? No?

There was also an unexpected beauty in Saguaro NP.

The bright colors really stood out next to all of the green and brown. In the desert, even the pretties have teeth.

We never saw any snakes, but we did see some petroglyphs!

We found some shelters built by the CCC! Can you spot them in the photo above? They really blend into the landscape!

The only wildlife we saw was this mule deer. Actually, there were two of them, but we only saw a flash of the other one.

The saguaro cactus is an icon of the American southwest. In a single rainfall, a saguaro may soak up as much as 200 gallons of water, they can live more than 150 years, grow over 60 feet tall, and weigh up to 8 tons. They were impressive in their almost human-like shapes, towering above the rest of the desert.

Mission San Xavier del Bac is called the “White Dove of the Desert”. This is the oldest intact European structure in Arizona. The church is open to the public unless there’s mass taking place. We roamed around the open rooms and the grounds. If you’re ever in the Tucson area, make sure you stop by.

I’ll be honest with y’all…I wasn’t really looking forward to the Titan Missile Museum. I like the outdoor stuff….the hikes and the scenery. Museums aren’t really on the top of any of my lists, but this is one of those times I’m glad we went. The docent did a great job of keeping it interesting and informative. They had some memorabilia out on display. See the canned drinking water in the bottom right photo? They had those for sale. The cans reminded us of when the tornado hit our house and someone came by handing out canned drinking water. The guided tour took us into the control room and explained what life was like for those working at this facility and we got to see the Titan Missile. The boys did the Junior Missileer book while we were there and earned a patch for their effort. We got a surprise when the woman in the gift shop signed their certificate, identifying herself as one of the soldiers that used to work there at the facility!

We found this place as we drove by it. It’s hard to miss with all of the huge planes sitting out front. We got there in the late afternoon and had to rush through it before they closed at 5pm, but we got to see pretty much everything.

The boys learned a little about airplane controls.

Hmmm…I think I’ll take a different flight if these two are at the controls.

The Pima Air & Space Museum is one of the world’s largest non-government funded aerospace museums. There are over 300 aircrafts spread over 80 acres of land. We would have liked to have been able to slow down and get a better look at some of the different kinds of aircraft. It’s definitely worth a visit.

Of course we had to try some of the Mexican food in town. How could we not? We ended up eating at four different places. Two were fantastic (Taqueria el Pueblito, and St. Mary’s) and one was, well…it was food…I think. At St. Mary’s I found out there are rolled enchiladas and flat enchiladas…so, of course, I had to try them both. The rolled enchilada is what most of you are familiar with and the flat enchilada is kind of like a fried disk of the masa that’s on the outside of tamales and then it’s covered with the toppings you want. They were both very good!

The other place we ate is called El Guero Canelo. We ate there because we heard that it’s the place to go to try a Sonoran Style Hotdog. What is a Sonoran Hotdog? It’s a bacon wrapped hotdog with beans, grilled onion, fresh onion, tomato, mayo, mustard, and jalapeno sauce. It’s a big mess. The bun is made in house and is the sweetest hotdog bun I’ve ever had. It was good, but I can’t see myself ever really wanting one again. Jerl didn’t even finish his…it’s not his type of thing. Maybe we got one at the wrong place?

Tucson is an interesting town. There’s enough to do in the area to keep a family busy for two to three weeks. We’ll probably be back in the Spring sometime so we can see the saguaro cactus’ bloom…and for more food.

See y’all down the road!

Wildlife Watch Grand Canyon

Wildlife Watch Grand Canyon

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One of my favorite things about being outside is seeing all of the animals. Here are some of the wild animals we saw while visiting the Grand Canyon National Park.

I’ll start with the squirrels because we saw so many of them. We saw 3 different species of squirrels.

Abert’s squirrel (we didn’t get a picture of one of these, but this is what they look like),

Golden mantled squirrel (we saw these everywhere!),

and the common tree squirrel. There were signs all over warning about how dangerous the squirrels are. They have fleas that carry the plague and squirrels are known to bite. A squirrel bite can get infected fast. One of the Rangers told us that out of all of the animals at GCNP, squirrels are the most dangerous because they beg for food or water and will sometimes bite.

The squirrels at GCNP are NOT afraid of humans. You can see how close the squirrel in the picture above gets to a group of humans.

Outside of the Grand Canyon Market Place we saw a herd of elk munching on the grass and leaves scattered through the trees. When it is hunting season, the elk go to Grand Canyon NP for shelter because hunting is not allowed at the National Park. Pretty smart of the elk!

We saw about 7 females and 1 male at the market place. One of the female elk was on the sidewalk close to us, on our side of the fence. She was just walking and eating grass and leaves and didn’t seem to mind the humans gathering to watch.

This male elk (buck) had one side of his antlers messed up. One side pointed downward and wasn’t as big as the other side.  We saw a lot of elk at GCNP, but didn’t get to take pictures of the others.

When we walked the rim trail, we saw a tarantula with its front two legs disconnected from its body. The unattached legs were twitching on the ground. It was kind of cool to watch!

At Hermits Rest we saw a snake which we believe was a baby California king snake in a hole on the side of a statue.

There were a ton of different kinds of birds at GCNP. We didn’t get pictures of very many of them. It’s hard to get a good picture of something that doesn’t hold still for long. My brother took the picture of the bird above.

Those are the animals we saw at Grand Canyon National Park, maybe we will find more down the road.

Grand Canyon National Park

Grand Canyon National Park

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The Grand Canyon measures 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide and more than one mile deep. That’s big! We spent a week exploring what Theodore Roosevelt declared as “the one great sight which every American should see.”

The Grand Canyon is split in to the North Rim and the South Rim. We only visited the South Rim on this visit.

Before we get into what we did, let me explain how the GCNP is laid out. The GCNP South Rim is basically split up into two parts. On the east side, you have the Desert View Drive that you can use your own vehicle to get around (except for Yaki Point and the South Kaibab Trailhead). The west side is where you’ll find the Village, Market Plaza, the Visitor Center and some campgrounds and is mainly navigable by shuttle bus. There are a few places you can drive in the Village and Market Plaza, but Hermit Road is shuttle bus only. You can get the gist of it in the map above.

Our first day at the GCNP we decided to check out the east side of the park and the Desert View Drive where we headed out to the Desert View Watchtower. It was built in 1932 and looks old, but it was designed to look that way so it would add to the ambiance of the Grand Canyon experience. The view off of the balcony of the Watchtower gives you a great view of the Colorado River snaking it’s way through the canyon.

There’s really not a bad view anywhere at the GCNP. The thing is…all of the view point stops kind of run together after a while. The view changes so subtly that it kind of blends together. I do really love the colors here!

We’re going to let y’all in on a secret place that not many people know about. Ok, it’s not really a secret…but not many people know about it. This is the Grandview Watchtower. It’s not in the GCNP but it’s right on the edge in the Kiabab National Forest. We went here right at sunset and had the whole place to ourselves. The view was spectacular! We could see some of the canyon, but the coolest part was the way the forest seemed to stretch out forever.

On the west side of the park it’s best if you arrive early and secure a parking spot then utilize the free shuttle buses for the rest of the day. We spent one full day and hit everything we wanted to see on the west side. It’s harder to catch a glimpse of the Colorado River on the east side. There are helicopters all over the place. You might even find one in the picture above, if you look close enough. It kind of gives you some perspective on how big the Grand Canyon is.

We rode the shuttle all the way to Hermits Rest and the end of the road. Inside the Hermits Rest building you’ll find a curio shop along with a snack shop. This is also where you’ll find the Hermit Trailhead. It’s one of the steepest, most strenuous trails and they warn everyone that it will take around nine hours to make the seven mile hike…if you’re in decent shape. We walked around the area and took in the views, but had no interest in attempting the hike.

Just outside of the Yavapai Point Geology Museum, you can actually see one of only two bridges that cross the Colorado River in GCNP for the hikers who brave the trails. You can also see Phantom Ranch. In the picture above, on the right side you can see the bridge and then on the left side in that green spot, is the Phantom Ranch. Phantom Ranch is a place for hikers to stay overnight on the canyon floor in a lodge. You can get hot, fresh food and a shower before sleeping in an actual bed. You can, of course, bring your own tent and food. Reservations are a must and fill up quickly for each year.

One of the neatest places you’ll find on the east side is The Lookout. It was built right on the side of the canyon and offers a great view.

You can also stay in the nearby town of Williams, AZ and ride the train into the park. For almost a quarter of a century, the railroad provided the most comfortable way to get to the Grand Canyon. Built in 1901, the Grand Canyon Railroad Depot is still in use today and is right in the middle of the Village where passengers can find lodging and shuttle buses.

Did you know there’s a cemetery at the GCNP? I didn’t. We heard about it from one of the shuttle bus drivers and went to check it out. I thought there would only be really old graves like the one in the picture above. Rustic and old. But there were some newer graves too. We walked through to look at some of the more unique tombstones.

There are five hiking trails at the South Rim. Only five. Now, of these five, four are considered to be strenuous and two of those four are so long they warn you about trying to do the trail all in one day.  The South Kaibab and the Bright Angel trails are the two trails that will take you all the way into the canyon to the river. For us, hiking some of the trails in a park is kind of a must so, we hiked part of three of the trails. Fun Fact…more than 250 people are rescued from the canyon each year because they over estimate how in shape they are and under estimate how long it will take them to hike back out of the canyon. If you decide to hike there, know your limits and plan accordingly.


The first trail we hiked was the South Kiabab Trail. We did this one in the afternoon when it was the hottest part of the day, but that’s when we had time to do it and we didn’t want to miss out. Pretty early on the trail we found this sign. We already knew mules used the trail from the…smell. Some parts of the trail were worse than others. The boys thought they were going to pass out from the stench of all of the poo left behind by the mules. It was pretty ripe.

South Kiabab Trail is the most direct route to the canyon floor. Do you know what that means? It’s steep and strenuous. For me this trail was harder than Bright Angel because of the way the trail was laid out with all of these steep “steps”. You can see a few of the more gradual steps in the pictures above.

To be fair…the trail wasn’t all like that. Some of it was nice and smooth with a more gradual incline.

We only went to Ooh-Aah Point which is about a two mile round trip hike. At the point, you can walk out onto some rocks to get to the view. It was a great view! It only took us about a half an hour to get there and it was worth the effort.

It took us an hour to get back out of the canyon. Can you spot the trail in the pictures above? That cliff is the way out. You can see the tiny people walking up the side of the cliff better in the left photo.

The other big hike we did was Bright Angel Trail. We did this one early in the morning when it was still mostly in the shade and the temps were still low.

There are two tunnels on Bright Angel. The lower tunnel is as far as we went on Bright Angel. It made for about a two mile round trip hike.

Here’s the view from the lower tunnel. You could see quite a bit of the trail from the lower tunnel. It was mostly in the shade and was more of a smooth, gradual decent.

We kept marveling at the way the trees grew out of the side of the canyon wall. Nicholas took this shot on the way back up the Bright Angel Trail.

We were racing the sun to get out of the canyon. We made better time on this trail. I think it only took us a little over an hour to do it. I can see why it’s the Grand Canyon’s most popular trail. We would have liked to have been able to hike more of Bright Angel, but we had an extremely full day planned and we were running out of time to get everything done that we wanted to.

The third trail we hiked was some of the Rim Trail. This trail will take you from the Grand Canyon Village all the way to Hermit’s Rest and is the South Rim’s only above-rim hiking trail. We hiked this trail between Hopi point and Mohave Point (just shy of a mile) instead of waiting for the shuttle bus. It was a nice flat-ish hike that stayed right by the canyon edge. We enjoyed it and if we’d had another full day to spend at the GCNP we would’ve hiked some more of the rim trail.

We also did an Astronomy Ranger Walk. It was one of my favorite things we did while at the GCNP. We met Ranger Mike in front of the Visitor Center at 8PM and he took us on an hour long walk along the rim of the canyon where we saw the brightest, best Milky Way we’ve ever seen. We learned about stars and planets and we got to hear some very cool stories about the park from a Ranger who’s worked there for over twenty years. Ranger Mike had the best laser pointer I’ve ever seen. All of the boys (all four of them) immediately wanted a laser pointer like Ranger Mike’s. I didn’t get any photos of our Astronomy Walk worth sharing but I believe we’ll all remember this experience for the rest of our lives!

The Colorado River looked very different on the east side than on the west side. In the above left photot you can see the pretty blue water of the east side. And…in the above right photo is the murky, muddy water of the west side. Big difference, right?

This was the busiest park we’ve been to so far. There were tons of people everywhere. And 90% of them weren’t speaking English. Maybe that’s just an off season thing? So many of the people we saw were climbing out as far as they could to the edge of the canyon for a selfie. I’m really surprised we didn’t see anyone fall.

 Y’all know how I am about flowers…

I realize they’re weeds, but I couldn’t pass up the bright purple. In the top left and the bottom right are Mexican Cliffroses. The Mexican Cliffrose does something very different when it goes to seed. Check out those feathery seeds in the bottom right photo! So cool! I realize the pretty in the top right photo is a thistle and is considered a weed, but I really liked the bright pink of the bud with the brown and all of those thorns.

We saw tons of wildlife at GCNP. Alex is going to start doing Wildlife Watch posts every so often so I’ll let him tell you about the wildlife we saw.

The boys ended up with the GCNP badge, a Paleontology badge, and an Astronomy patch. Their National Park collection is growing!

I like to keep it real for y’all so I’m going to be very honest here. The Grand Canyon National Park will probably never be on my top ten list of National Parks. It was big…it had nice views…but it was a lot of the same view for me. We felt like we couldn’t really immerse ourselves in the park. Maybe it was all the hype…maybe we were expecting more? It’s on pretty much everyone’s bucket list for a reason and you should go see it at least once. We do hope to visit the North Rim eventually. We enjoyed the view, but if we ever go back it will be to hike into the canyon and stay overnight at Phantom Ranch before hiking out.

See y’all down the road!