Arizona and the Grand Canyon

We started our trip off at BWI and headed to Phoenix!

Each kid got a cube with three outfits, pajamas, hat, sunglasses, a pair of shorts, and a t-shirt that they had to carry in their backpacks.

This was Ben's and Rosie's first time on an airplane! They were very excited. A huge highlight was the moving walkways and escalators in the airports.

 

Ben waiting to board our plane...

Finally...waiting for take off! I sat with Ben and Rosie on our five hour flight and Chris sat next to Eleanor and Jane.

Mid flight activities...probably a good time to note that we were taking a very travel-heavy vacation and it's the first time I would have appreciated some tablets for the kids. But they did surprisingly well entertaining themselves on the flights and drives without them.

Rosie was excited to use the on plane bathroom.

Disembarking and ready to hit the road!

The scenery on the way to the Grand Canyon was cool! These saguaro cacti were my favorite in this region. As soon as we hit mid-state in Arizona, they were gone.

Finally, we made it to the South Rim! We stayed in a hotel right outside the park called the Red Feather Lodge. We went into the park when we got there and walked a bit of the rim trail before hopping on the shuttle down the Hermit Road. The kids and Chris hopped off at Hopi Point and I rode one stop farther to Mohave Point and walked a bit more of the rim trail to meet up with them. We walked along the rim trail together to Powell Point while the sun was setting and then rode the shuttle back in and went to our hotel for the evening.

The next morning unfortunately I woke up with altitude sickness. I had a headache and was very nauseous. We had a bit of a slow morning. Then we went back into the park to do a little more of the rim trail and then stopped at a few more overlooks. It also snowed 3 inches overnight! I'll be honest...I didn't even know it snowed in Arizona. We stopped at Grandview Point.

You can see the Colorado River running through the canyon.

There were some grumpy people as we adjusted to the time change and the cold weather.

We stopped at Grandview Point and Lipan Point.

We also stopped at Desert View.

Then we hopped in the car and hit the road again. We stopped in Page, Arizona at Grand Canyon Brewery.

The Grand Canyon was just as impressive, vast, and majestic as people say it is. As for any of the places we visited, the pictures don't do them justice. It's size is breathtaking. Would I go back? (With the caveat that I would definitely go back to any of these places, but I guess would I plan a trip specifically to see this place again...?) Probably not. It was very cool to see, but unless you're going to do some more exploring of the actual canyon itself, I'm not sure I would make the trip. I am so glad we went though and it was all of our first times visiting!