Back to Nature...in all its' splendour!

After an exciting five days in Las Vegas, we were all thrilled to get out of the city and back into our trailer. Our first stop was Bryce Canyon, which is sure to become one of the highlights of our trip! Bryce Canyon is not really a canyon at all, but rather is a natural amphitheatre with such extraordinary views and formations, that it was almost hard to take it all in at once.

After a long climb through the mountains and into Utah, we arrived late last Friday evening and were welcomed by Len and Noreen (Shawn’s parents) who have driven their motor home out to meet us. Saturday morning, we took a leisurely hike along the rim trail and marvelled at the amazing view down into the red and white hoodoos. Later that day, we got to see an astronomy presentation and to take our turn to look through the high powered telescopes into the night sky. Bryce is known as a dark sky area and the stars above us were very bright. On Sunday, we tightened up our boots and headed out for a four hour hike down into the hoodoos, along the canyon floor, and then back up to Bryce Point. Seeing the hoodoos up close from down at the bottom allowed us to truly appreciate their size and colours. The kids and I enjoyed being together with their cousin Cassandra and beating the other adults up the one mile and almost 1700ft climb to the end of our route. Interestingly, due to the elevation change, the weather at Bryce was way colder than we had all gotten used to and we had to pull out our coats and sweaters once again. There was even one inch of snow overnight on our last night there, and we awoke to a blanket of white!

On Monday morning, we headed toward Sedona where we camped in the Coconino Forest. Although the drive was a little long and included an unexpected and significant descent down switchbacks into the Oak Creek Canyon, we all enjoyed the views along the way and the chance to camp in amongst the trees. On Tuesday, we prepared to enjoy the much hotter Arizona weather and gathered up our swimsuits for a visit to Slide Rock State Park. Slide Rock is a most amazing place! In the park, the river that flows through Oak Creek Canyon cuts a path through the red rock creating both a natural water slide and deep pools with cliffs for jumping. Although the water was only 55 degrees, our family has made a pact to embrace any adventure that comes our way on this trip, so we suited up and jumped into the very refreshing water. We even jumped off the highest cliff, which was nearly 3 metres above the water! All in all, I think we enjoyed the water slide the most – being pushed down the rocks by the rapids was so much fun that we all went down numerous times despite the temperature of the water and Braedon must have gone down 10 or more. That afternoon, we spent some time in Sedona and enjoyed the many shops and art galleries including a unique pedestrian village called Tlaquepaque which had amazing sculptures everywhere we looked. Yesterday, we enjoyed a visit to another nearby state park called Red Rock and had a hike in the hot sun. Again, the views were beautiful and we were treated to a gathering of hummingbirds at the feeders which made everyone smile. Braedon was even lucky enough to have one energetic little hummingbird buzz by and stop on his hat!

Today, we are on our way to the Grand Canyon. Although some of the members of our group have seen this marvel before, everyone in our immediate family is really excited to finally get a look! We will explore the area for two nights and are excited to try some of the interesting hiking trails and to take part in some of the ranger led activities and tours. Aside from Riley fighting a mild cold, everyone is well and healthy and continuing to enjoy our adventure. We do, however, miss all of our friends and family very much. If you have a minute to drop us a line on the blog, we’d love to hear from you!

Tammy

PS. This was written yesterday - we are at the Grand Canyon and just hiked 3 hours down and back up - WOW!