Grand Family

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Still at Arches

South Window Arch.

At Park Avenue Viewpoint and Trailhead.

Arches National Park

North Window Arch is behind them.

Behind me is the South Arch.

Trail to South Window Arch.

Ethan looking through the North Window Arch.

Again it was raining off and on while we were here. Besides the North and South Window arches we took a short hike to see the Delicate Arch. It is the thinnest arch and at some point will break. I will look for the pictures of that one. We told the kids when they bring their kids it might not be an arch. They can tell their kids about how when they came it was an arch...

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Moab, Utah

Arch near Moab, Utah.

We stopped for the night in Moab, Utah. It was supposed to rain really hard that night so we stayed in a small cabin. We washed clothes and went swimming that night. The next morning it started to rain as we were packing up the van. From here we headed to Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park.

More - Cliff Palace

Painting on the upper floor at the Cliff Palace. You stick your head in the lower floor door and look up.

In the upper area they stored their crops.

Mesa Verde was one of my favorite places I went to as a kid and it is one of Rachael's favorites. It is adventurous to get to these dwellings and the stories of the people who lived there are interesting.

Balcony House, Mesa Verde National Park

Kiva, a ceremonial pit. The hole represents where they came from, below the earth's surface. Ancestors still come to perform rituals. There was a feather on the bottom of this Kiva from one such ceremony recently performed.

There was a BIG ladder to get to this one.

There was a tiny tunnel to leave this one too! With my backpack on I did not make it through. This is Ethan going through. I had to toss the pack through to get out. In the middle of the tunnel you can stand up. This is a tunnel the natives used.

Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde

Ladder up to Cliff Palace.

Cliff Palace family picture.

Steps leaving the Cliff Palace.

We went to both the Cliff Palace and Balcony House. Both had fun hikes to and from them. Both had similarities yet differences that made them unique. The Balcony House hike was a bit more challenging, but both kids did great. If there were not fences on some of these areas we would not of done them with the kids. The Ranger said that they found crutches indicating the natives at times might of needed railings too...

Mexican Hat and Mesa Verde National Park

Mexican Hat.

Mesa Verde, Cliff Palace. This is from a viewpoint above. This is one of the largest dwellings in the area and thought to be more of a Community Center. This is where most of the grain was stored from the area.

The wood is original and probably hung out farther to make balconies. There are no "windows" here. They are all doors. The people who lived there were Rachael's height. The stone work at the beginning was rough but as they became skilled they took the time to shape the rocks to blocks.

More Monument Valley

Coolest spot we slept...

This is the wood ceiling.

The inside.

The outside.

We slept in a Hogan, a Navajo traditional house. Monument Valley has a male, female and sweat house hogan. The shape classifies it as male or female, I do not need to explain any further. They are a wood structure with mud/clay on the outside. We put a tarp down on the dirt floor to lay our sleeping bags down. The guy told us to be watchful of black widows, which Ethan did find one and decided to sleep on the other side of the Hogan. Allen did take care of the spider and did not tell Rachael until the morning that there was a spider on her side. She said she knew, but was too tired to care.

Monument Valley

Monument Valley has a dirt road that takes you around all of these amazing rock formations. It is hard to pick which ones to post. I will go back during slower months and post some more.

This is from the top, looking into the valley. You can see the dirt road below us. It is a steep drop behind us.

Some of the formations we drove by in Monument Valley. One thing we did not realize was most of Monument Valley is in Arizona but you drive up to Utah to enter it. Ethan kept asking when we were going to be in Utah. Once we reached Utah we were there for a few short minutes before heading south again into Arizona.

From Painted Forest to Monument Valley

The funny thing about this photo is that we are camping, yet still watching a cowboy movie on the laptop while eating dinner. We brought many DVD's and only watched three of them. Me forgetting them in our Vegas motel room is a story for later...

This is on the road that was washed out.

We hit more rain as we drove from the Painted Desert to Monument Valley. We noticed a roadwork sign and the traffic was stopped. We waited, waited and waited. After thirty minutes we saw someone on an ATV coming from the other direction. We asked him how long the hold up would be. He said it would be awhile as the road is washed out. There was a sign a little up the road warning of flash floods... When we turned around to take another route we could see a large portion of the road ahead was a flowing river. Good thing we had maps in the car and was able to find another route.

Petrified Forest and Painted Desert

Behind the Visitor's Center is a short hike through some of the petrified wood. This area was once a swampy forest with very tall trees and dinosaurs. Hard to believe on this hot day...

Picture taken along the scenic route through the Petrified Forest. We have twenty or thirty pictures of this area. I will post more at another time. They all kind of look alike...

This is from a scenic viewpoint looking at the Painted Desert. Truly beautiful. I forgot to mention early that the Meteor Crater had flying ants. Some of the Painted Desert viewpoints had the flying ants too. As long as we calmly took our pictures and did not bother the mounds we were okay. The huge crows were funny too. They would stand on the side of the hill and watch us.

Meteor Crater Arizona

Posing with the largest fragment from the meteorite.

This is the worlds best preserved site of a meteorite impact! The crater itself is about a mile wide.

Here is the Apollo Test Capsule!

I do not have pictures of it, but the rain followed us here too! After we got some cool pictures of the crater we went inside the museum to look around. After we saw the video we came out and it was pouring rain! We decided to spend the night in a motel and head out to the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest the next morning.

Yabba Dabba Doooooooooo!

We traded in the van for the new car and camper...

On the road to and from The Grand Canyon.

Friday, August 13, 2010

More at the Grand Canyon National Park

It is monsoon season... and it rained! It rained and rained huge drops of water with loud, echoing, claps of thunder. We found shelter in a General Store and the shuttle bus during the heaviest downpour.

When it cleared up a little the men took a short hike down Bright Angel Trail. Rachael remembering the school lesson on lightening did not want to go hiking down the canyon. I had caught a cold and decided to wait at the trail head under a shelter with Rachael until the boys found their way back to us.

At each National Park the kids completed the requirements for the Jr. Ranger Program. At most parks they had to attend a Ranger lead program. This one was called "kids rock". We got it in before it started to rain.

Grand Canyon National Park

View from Yaki Point.

Walking along the road to Yaki Point.

Wildlife in the parking lot of the Yavapai Geology Museum!

And off we went...

We stopped for breakfast in Hesperia and visited with family. Here are Rachael and Ethan's cousins Zachary and Cody.

Allen and the kids at one of the look out areas at the Yavapai Geology Museum, Grand Canyon National Park.

We got the kids up really early to see the sunrise at the Grand Canyon. They were not very happy about it and thought it was one of the most boring things we did on the trip. I think it takes a certain maturity level to appreciate a beautiful sunrise while tired.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Grand Family Vacation!

4,722.9 miles.

1,847 pictures

unsure of video hours

The Grand Family Vacation of 2010!

We started our trip going to Bubbe and Sabba's house in Sherman Oaks. They took in our furry child Katie so we could go on hikes while at the National Parks. We went to the Grand Canyon NP, Meteorite Crater in AZ, Painted Desert/Petrified Forest NP, Monument Valley NP, Mesa Verde NP, Moab, Arches NP, Canyonlands NP, Bryce NP, Capitol Reef NP, Zion NP and Las Vegas! As we sort through the pictures we start posting them.