When I last posted, I left off at just after Golden Spike national memorial. The next day we finished our journey to the Grand Canyon. Let me begin this by saying that just the drive to the North Rim is beautiful. You pass through two national forests that are astounding. It makes it even better after seeing desert for a hundred or so miles before hand.
We arrived at the North Rim campround around two in the afternoon. This gave us enough time to go to the visitors center and get our initial view of the canyon and it was amazing. I believe on of the most endearing features of the North Rim is that it isn't as populous as the South Rim. Whether this is due to the fact that the nearest freeway is 200 miles away, a 50+ mile drive on 2 lane roads, or that it is just not as well advertised as the South rim is up in the air. Any way you look at it it makes it very easy to get around. That night the rangers informed us that there was a campfire event where a ranger would talk with us. We went and learned alot. The ranger talk was on the ancient pueblonians (I hope I got that right). We learned about their lore on where they came from and where they got their ability to make pottery and baskets. At the end the kids got to make figures out of clay. The kids loved it.
The next day we took a bike ride from the campgrounds to the visitors center. It was only about 1.5 miles, but it was over some decent sized hills. The two older boys rode there bikes and I got to pull the two younger kids in the trailer. We saw some majestic views and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The ride back was even harder as the campground is higher that the visitors center. In other words, mainly uphill. I actually had to make the kids get out of the trailer and walk with me a couple of times. Once again the kids loved it. We got back to the camprounds about noon. As we were eating a park ranger came up to us and informed us about another ranger talk that was going on at one. The talk was very informative. It was on the animals that live in and around the Grand Canyon and the relationships between them.
That night we relaxed and just enjoyed being a family. The next day we headed out to take a few hikes along the rim. Let me tell you that, unless you have some health defect that makes strenuous activity a death defying feat, you really have to do some hikes to fully appreciate the majesty of the Grand Canyon. They don't have to be long hikes. The longest we took was about a mile or so. I would attempt to describe the views here, but I just don't have the vocabulary. All I have to say is, after the Grand Canyon, everything else is just a hole in the ground. Yes, I borrowed that from my dad.
The next day I learned that, apparantly, Arizona has a pretty loose definition of what a city is. When we left the Grand Canyon we decided to make the drive to Mesa Verde in one day. This meant backroads through Arizona and southern Colorado. The maps showed towns every 9 miles or so. Apparantly, if it has a gas station (or did at one time) it gets a spot on the map as a town. Luckily, the route we were taking stuck to one road for quite a ways and thus my wifes confusion as to where we were was not detrimental. It really wasn't her fault. It wasn't until we had passed the fourth or fifth gas station that we realized that those were the towns listed on our maps. Overall, it was some beautiful country to drive through and well worth it. We arrived at Mesa Verde about 6 pm. We made camp and had our dinner. That night they had a talk about the animals in park. It was quite interesting. The next day we headed out right after breakfast. We ended up going all over the park. We probably hiked around 5 miles. We were able to go through a few of the cliff dwellings and were amazed at the sheer scope of the work that went into them. There was an eerie beauty to it all. The only downside was the heat. That night we did another load of laundry and played Uno as a family.
The next day we headed out for home. As we were driving we dicided that, since it was on the way, to drive through Arches National Park. It was decidedly worth it. The boys got to climb up around the double arch and our youngest wouldn't stop talking about it. Everywhere we went in the park, he wanted to go climbing. Overall, the boys fell in love with the park.
We ended up making it to Salt Lake City that night despite the 2 hours we spent at Arches. The next day we drove straight through to Boise. We arrived around 3 pm. Since we were a little early, we decided to go to Cabela's. There I found one of the .22 rifles that I had grown up with. My wife allowed me to buy it. This meant the boys got to roam Cabela's for about 2 hours while I made the purchase.
That night, we ate with my wife's brother at Golden Coral. It was a good meal and we all enjoyed ourselves. We ended up talking until almost midnight. It was a good time. The next day we shared breakfast and had a good timie. We ended up swimming for most of the afternoon and the adults ended up getting sunburned since we ran out of sunblock on the last of the boys. It was so worth it though. Onec again we talked until late at night before saying good bye.
The next morning we made the journey home. In all it was great vacation. I know it was because I still haven't recovered from it.
Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.
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