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Grand Canyon to L.A.

Amy Kline
After we single-handedly ended the drought at the Grand Canyon (you are welcome!), we packed up our soaked tent and lawn chairs and headed out during a lull in the rain. The ravens made a visit to see if we left them any tasty treat. We were told that the ravens are pretty aggressive around food and will swoop down on you. They were the only animal we were warned about in the campground. Apparently there aren’t bears nearby and bobcats and rattlesnakes and other scary creatures don’t live on top of the canyon.
Once we headed southwest of the Grand Canyon, the weather cleared up and the it got hot. We stopped at a rest stop to dry out the tent since we would be staying in a hotel room for the next 3 nights. The trees definitely looked different already and we didn’t even get into the desert yet. 
As we were putting the tent up to dry, a worker came up to us to tell us that we couldn’t camp there.  Ha! We couldn’t even get the tent to stay in one place, because it was so windy!
Plus there was no way I was sleeping on the ground with this sign only feet away.

I didn’t see any snakes or scorpions but I did see a couple lizards by the picnic tables. They were cute!
After drying our tent, the drive was pretty uneventful and pretty desolate.  We saw wildfire smoke in the distance near San Bernadino, and we stopped at an In and Out where the boys invented a new game where the boy in the front has four arms. In and Out was really Sit and Wait as the restaurant was packed during the lunch hour. The food was really really good for fast food though!
We finally got to our hotel about 5:30. It was the Super 8 in Anaheim and it was actually a pretty decent hotel. There was an outdoor pool, a place to do laundry (which was desperately needed at this point of our trip), and a continental breakfast where a worker was making tiny belgian waffles. It was only 2 blocks from Disneyland and perfect for this trip.
I’ll leave you with a photo of some beautiful palm trees that line the roads between our hotel and Disneyland. They were very tall and like little fireworks explosions against the blue skies. 

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Full day at Grand Canyon National Park

Amy Kline

We slept in, because everyone was exhausted. Thunder rumbling in the distance finally drove us out of bed. We drove to the Grand Canyon Village Visitor Center, but went directly to the Rim as the thunder got louder. The view is so far beyond description. There is no way pictures could ever capture the immensity of the Grand Canyon. It was very cloudy and there were clouds floating around inside the canyon, but we could see across to the other side when we first got there.

I discovered that my phone can take panoramic photos just in time. I think if you click on them, you should be able to see the full sized photo.

The clouds are below us floating around in the canyon. A ranger told us that even though it was cold and rainy at the top, it was hot and arid at the bottom of the canyon (up to 30 degrees warmer). The canyon is a mile deep, and an average of about 10 miles across, and 277 miles long. It can even be seen from space.
We had just enough time to walk down the path and get some photos before it started to sprinkle.
We went into the Visitor’s Center and picked up the Junior Ranger books, then walked around looking at the displays. It started to sprinkle. We went across to one of the other buildings, which was a fantastic book and gift store. We shopped around in there for a bit and then it started to downpour.  We hung out there and talked to another family that was looking at the puppets and it turned out the mother was also a school librarian from Wisconsin (Beaver Dam)! Small world! 
One of the requirements for the Junior Ranger program was to attend a ranger-led program, so we headed over to the resort hotel in the Village to learn about how the Grand Canyon was created and the different kinds of rocks that are in the layers. The ranger was fantastic with all the kids as we sat on a patio surrounded by pouring rain. There was about 30 kids sitting at her feet and many adults sitting on benches around the patio. The adults were busy talking and laughing (in English, French, German, Mandarin, Spanish). I was really impressed that the ranger was able to keep the kids’ attention with all the distractions.
I went to the rim, which was just past the patio,  and this was the view as it was clearing out for a minute. Otherwise there was just a wall of white beyond the rim.

Since it was so wet and cold (about 50 degrees), we had decided that it was not a good day for a hike.  We definitely made the right decision.  We walked around the resort area and found a cool exhibit in the main resort building. It was about Fred Harvey and the Harvey Girls. Fred opened the first restaurant chain in the US with restaurants at train stops in the West. The girls who came to work there became known as Harvey Girls and were legend has it that they helped “tame” the Wild West. The exhibit was just one room, but it was really interesting. Find out more HERE.
We tried to attend another Ranger program on the California Condor, but it got canceled. I’m assuming that we would get to see some Condor nests, but there was too much fog.  I took a selfie instead.
We went back to the Visitor Center so the kids could get their badges. It had stopped raining, but there was another batch of storms headed our way. 

Unfortunately we forgot to put our lawn chairs away so they were soaked. It was wasn’t raining yet when we got back to our campsite so I sat at the picnic table to upload some pictures, and check on facebook. A nice young couple came over and asked for help putting up their tent. They were from China and this was their first time camping. He was starting medical school in Iowa and they were hoping to stay in the US when he was finished. They said the air is so much cleaner here and we have a lot more freedom.  So even though it started pouring again, and we personally ended the drought by camping in the Grand Canyon, I still felt pretty lucky to be American and the have the opportunity to see so many places in our country.
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Mesa Verde to Grand Canyon National Park

Amy Kline

August 10th

We only had about 5 hours of driving this day, so we decided to explore Mesa Verde in the morning and get out of the park by noon. We took the hour-long driving tour which followed one of the mesas along the top. A very beautiful drive!

We got out at the Cliff Palace excavation site, but did not have time to take the hike. The hike would have taken another hour, plus we would have had to climb a really tall ladder to get to the site. If you would like more information on Cliff Palace, click HERE to find out more information about this fascinating cultural site.

The ancestral Pueblo people, also called the Anasazi, used ladders to get to the different levels.
The circular areas, called kivas I think,  are used for a large variety of purposes. 

I try to get all fancy and do “photography” with my real camera whenever I get a chance. On these trips, that tends to turn towards animals and plants. Here are a few plants that I discovered at Mesa Verde National Park:

The boys earned their Junior Ranger badges to add to their vests from last year. Unfortunately, I forgot to pack them so we will have to wait to put them on until we get home.
After we left Mesa Verde, it was a short 5 hours of driving to get to the Grand Canyon. Along the way, we stopped at the Four Corners, the only place in the US where four states meet at the corners. Surprisingly, this is not a National Monument, but the Navajo Nation runs it and created a nice place to take a cheesy tourist photo. 

After that the drive was pretty uneventful. It sprinkled on and off and there weren’t very many towns. Just the occasional herd of cattle. 
Towards the end of the drive, we started to see canyons. Some of them were pretty deep. This was the northern tip of the Grand Canyon that is part of a National Forest I think. 
We entered through the east side entrance so had to drive another 25 miles to get to Grand Canyon Village and our campground.  There was only 1 “animal gawker” traffic jam when these elk were grazing along the side of the road. 
We got our campsite set up, ate cheese and sausage for dinner, and than went to sleep. The stars were beautiful and I did take a picture but I was too exhausted to play around with the night options to get actual stars to show in the photos, so just went to sleep. Satisfyingly exhausted 🙂