Road Trip Day Six

Before I begin about our road trip on day six, I have to wish my wonderful husband a happy anniversary. Nine years ago today we tied the knot! It's hard to believe it's been nine years. I remember it like it was yesterday. I've been blessed to have Greg in my life as my husband, father of my children, love of my life, and my best friend. We've had ups and downs, as any marriage does, but overall it's been a great nine years, and with two wonderful healthy children in our lives I can't complain. So with that said, with nine years and counting under our belt, here's to many more years together. I love you Greg, thanks for everything you do for me and our family!

Now onto the road trip where we left off in Flagstaff, AZ at the end of day five on the road. Tuesday morning (June 8th) we got up fairly early we thought so we could get going to the Grand Canyon. Well early wasn't early enough as the sun was up more than we wanted before we got to the Grand Canyon. For picture taking Greg didn't want the sun too bright, but that wasn't going to happen after the sunrise had already happened way before we thought it would. At that point nothing we could do, but journey on. The drive from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon wasn't bad at all and when we got just outside of the Grand Canyon entrance we stopped at a tourist info spot to find out what the best spots were to stop at. After getting a map and some info we headed on in through the main south entrance and parked at Mather Point which was at the Grand Canyon Visitor Center area where there was a gift shop, restrooms, and a trail leading to the south rim. The area was under construction so we had to take a roundabout way and walk about a mile to get to the rim. Once we got up to the viewing area and made sure we were hanging on good to the kids (no fences at the Grand Canyon, the park ranger told us) we took our first look at the Grand Canyon and it was absolutely breathtaking! The two words that first came to my mind were WOW and BEAUTIFUL! I've seen pictures before so I had images in my mind of what I thought it would look like, but until you actually see it in person you really can't imagine it to it's full extent! It really is a sight that everyone should see in their lifetime. There really aren't words to describe it that can do it justice. Yes, it's beautiful, amazing, big, unbelievable, and the list could go on, but it really is so much bigger than any picture or description can do it justice. Here's one of my pictures (I'll share more on Facebook).

Before we left Tucson my uncle had said we'd probably only need about an hour at the Grand Canyon. I was a little shocked by this, but thought maybe I'm imaging more than it's going to be after being so excited to go there. He said he preferred Sedona to the Grand Canyon, and while the Grand Canyon is nice we wouldn't want to spend too much time there. Well, I don't know if it's an age gap thing or what, but for us we totally loved the Grand Canyon way more than Sedona. We spent five hours there and it still wasn't enough! We were kind of disappointed that we had spent so much time in Sedona the day before. We wished we would of drove further than Flagstaff the day before and stayed a little closer to the Grand Canyon so we were right there in the morning and possibly even visited it a little the night before. The time we spent finding a hotel in Flagstaff (an hour) we could of been to the Grand Canyon and probably gotten some wonderful sunset pictures. Had we known too the park pass was good for seven days we probably would of driven closer the night before. Live and learn I guess, but for those of you who have never been, both Greg and I felt like the five hours wasn't enough and really you need at least a whole day if not more.

We walked and walked and walked along the south rim. The guy at the visitor bureau we stopped at before entering the park pointed out many stops along the south rim where you could park and view the canyon. We didn't realize though that the paved path we took from where we parked at Mather Point went on and on and on. We ended up walking all along the path versus getting the kids in and out of the car so many times. We figured that was a waste of time and we might as well just continue on the path and see the canyon all at the same time. While you can see the Grand Canyon all along the path we walked on, there's spots you can climb down a little ways and view the canyon from different levels. Some of the spots where people were standing were just nuts. It was fairly windy there, and there's no way on a calm day you'd find me standing where these people were. Check them out!
Way out on the edge with a huge drop off, no thanks. I was good with staying up on the path for the most part. After spending quite some time walking along the path we headed east along the rim. My uncle recommended we head back towards Flagstaff instead of this two lane road the AAA map told us to go, and then go onto Utah where we were headed to end our day. We saw signs for stops along the rim that were on this two lane road and almost to the end was a viewing area where we were told we could see the Colorado River. We opted to take the two lane road instead of back towards Flagstaff and am I glad we ever did. In the end it made more sense because as we were driving we could still view the Grand Canyon. It was a beautiful drive and as we got towards the east entrance we made a final stop to see the much talked about Watchtower at Lipan Point.

Here's the WatchTower

We ended up spending about an hour and a half there and got a great view of the river at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Another beautiful sight. Here's a view of the Colorado River from Lipan Point.

The kids absolutely loved the Grand Canyon and had a good time. I wonder down the road how much of it they will remember since they're so young. Evan probably will remember quite a bit since he remembers about everything, but Em being only 2 1/2 probably not so much.

We exited out of the park at the east entrance and continued on our drive heading towards Utah. We could still see the Grand Canyon for quite some time as we drove northeast. The Grand Canyon really does go on and on and on and on. We were hoping to make it to around Moab, UT that night. On our drive we drove through Monument Valley in Arizona. My uncle told us about this area and it was quite the sight. Lots of different shaped stand alone mountains that looked well, like monuments. Very neat scenery on our drive. We stopped along side the road at one point to get a few pictures, but once again the sunlight wasn't right. Here's one shot of the "monument" like mountains.

It was a good thing we passed through this area because basically once we got away from the Grand Canyon, northeastern Arizona and southeastern Utah were horrible to drive through. Seriously readers, absolutely nothing around! I really don't know how people live in these little po-dunk towns. Not my cup of tea. The drive was long and boring (besides Monument Valley) and there were a few spots where there were some ups and downs through the mountains which I'm glad Greg was driving because I didn't like it. We finally decided to call it a night when we got to Blanding, UT around 9pm. It was a long day and we were still a little over an hour away from Moab, but decided we'd had enough. Our total mileage for that day at the end of day six on the road (day two heading home) was 327 miles.