Heading home... through Bryce Canyon, Red Canyon, and the Vermillon Cliffs

On our road trip two years ago, we hiked down the Grand Canyon and loved it. But this year, we went to a place even more splendid, not in grandeur, but in uniqueness – Bryce Canyon. It's a mesmerizing place with columns of eroding cliffs and stones, shaped into amphitheaters and canyons within canyons. When we hiked a trail that is considered one of the most beautiful three-mile hikes in the world, it felt like walking in the world's biggest cathedral. I took a hundred pictures within two hours. The kids ran ahead giddy with excitement, and Steve and I oohed and aahed at every switchback.

There are no words, so I'll let the pictures explain.

The day before, we explored Red Canyon, 15 miles West of Bryce Canyon.  There are arches cut out of the rock where the road leads through.  We forced the protesting kids out of the RV and went for yet another hike. Our offspring are getting a little hike-weary.  Oh, well.  Steve and I know that they whine at first, but once they are out there, they are having fun.

We are nearing the end of our road trip and are headed North through Utah, and now Idaho. Yesterday, we spent the day at Crystal Hot Springs, soaking in hot, mineralized water for five hours. These hot springs come from 8,000 feet under the earth and claim to have the most minerals of any hot springs in the world. America. There are two of the biggest water slides I have ever seen, and we spent lots of time tearing and shrieking down them – even water-shy Eva, securely bundled up in a life vest and held on Daddy's lap.

The days before that we made our way through the Catalina mountains, where it was 85 degrees hot. Eva and I went for a walk, and I wanted to take her picture in front of a big Cholla cactus. Seconds after I took the photo, Eva let out a blood curdling scream. One of the evil cactus thorns/needles/spikes/swords had poked through her shoes. It hurt, and I know just how much, because it happened to me, too.

We drove along the Vermillon Cliffs in Northern Arizona. I'm sure you are all tired of me using words like “gorgeous”, “breathtaking”, and “beautiful”, but what else can I say? They look like the Grand Canyon above ground, and they are gorgeous, breathtaking, and beautiful. Look:

The next blog entry will come from our own home - not the RV one, but the real one.  I don't know how to feel about that.  We are all ready to be home, but sad to leave the sun and adventures...

Fun (and an-almost-recurring nightmare) in the Catalina mountains

Friday, January 30, 4 pm

I just got back from a majorly amazing and sweaty bike ride. Seven miles up, up, up a road with gorgeous scenery in the Catalina mountains just outside of Tucson. I never imagined this area to be so beautiful – dramatic rock formations, oceans of golden grass, Junipers with alligator bark, yucca stalks twice as tall as Steve.

It's seems to be a popular road for type A, male bike riders. They kept passing me on top of high-tech racing bikes, with fancy bike jerseys, heavily muscled calves, and serious demeanor. None of them acknowledged me – this strange middle-aged, high-on-endorphins, sweaty woman, huffing and puffing on her ghetto mountain bike. They must have seen my huge smile, the byproduct of exercise, alone-time and nature, but nobody smiled back. Huh. They must have been too busy being professional bikers. It's serious business, that.

Steve and the kids met me in the RV at a trailhead where the boys will mountain bike down the Bug creek trail back to our campsite. They are not back yet, but I bet they will wear huge smiles and maybe some bloody scrapes. (Last time they went mountain biking, Steve crashed and scraped up his hand, which now looks like something out of a vampire movie).

These are the only pictures I have of my bike ride: on the way down in the RV.

This morning, we saw a tarantula on a hike. Since I was little I've had a recurring nightmare of being locked in a public toilet stall filled with big, black spiders. (I wonder what this dream reveals about my psyche. Dream interpreters, anyone?). When the kids bring home books from the library about wildlife, including gargantuan spiders, I can't even touch the book, knowing a spider lurks in there, even if it's not alive.

So you can imagine how I reacted when we came across this fine specimen. The only reason I even got near it was to take a picture for the blog. If you don't like spiders, please skip this photo. I won't blame you.

The hike led us to an abandoned prison camp, where Americans locked up conscientious objectors to World War II.  They made them build the road that now leads up to Mount Lemmon.

Here are some highlights of the hike, minus the prison camp, because there was not much to see.

This trip will be dubbed “the trip of skirts”, knitting wise. I am knitting my second “Little Flirt Skirt” - a fun, wooly, bouncy skirt. It's perfect for this weather – worn over some black leggings, or just by itself when it's warmer. I finished one with blue alpaca and wool, with yarn from my amazing mother-in-law Donna, who sent me a huge box of yarn for Christmas. The second skirt will be hot pink. I'm indulging my inner Diva.  

We've been hanging out with our friends Brandie and Bradley (they got married at our homestead five months ago).  Good times, good times!

And here are some pictures of leaving Sedona, driving up the Colorado Plateau, and hiking in a secluded canyon somewhere.

Grand Canyon!!!

The grand finale to our road trip: a hike half way down the Grand Canyon with Kai and Lukas. Today was the last sunny day in the weather forecast, so the boys and I went for it! Three miles down, three miles up, with the boys charging ahead, and me eating their dust. I did try to keep them close by on the Kaibab trail, because the beginning was icy, and a lot of it was steep. I cannot possibly describe the beauty of this famous canyon, and my dinky little camera cannot capture the grandeur of it, but here are some pictures anyway.

Here is a part of the trail we hiked.

The boys charging ahead.

Mules hauling things up the trail (Look familiar, Steve?).  

There's always enough energy left for a hug.

Steve and Bradley will hike here tomorrow.  Except they will go all the way down and come up again the same day (12 miles roundtrip), which is so very, very macho, if you ask me.  If anyone can pull it off, it's these two!  At least it won't be dangerously hot like it is in the summer.  In fact, the weather forecast calls for snow...  It will be an interesting descent into the underworld for them!

Talking of descending into the underworld:  A couple of days ago, we were at Kartchner caverns, 30 miles away from the Mexican border. Steve kept trying to explain to the boys that we are 30 miles away from Canada where we live in the Pacific Northwest, and that now, we are 30 miles away from another country as well, but somehow, the kids don't seem to quite get it.

I asked Steve how to describe Kartchner caverns. Here is what he said: “It is an awesome spectacle of nature's grandeur.” Yes, he's right. He said it's an inside joke, but I'm not in on it, and I don't need to be, because the fact is: The caverns ARE a spectacle of nature's grandeur. We slapped down $70 to participate in a tour of the caverns. Usually, we are very thrifty and spend that much money for four or five days of campground fees, but it was worth it. There are very strict rules when visiting the caverns - you can't touch anything at all, because otherwise, bacteria would grow and mess with the cave's delicate environment. Someone spit out a cough drop once, and in three days it had grown to the size of a baseball. 

You can tell this cave is alive. There are stalagmites and stalactites, columns, and mineral deposit formations that look like popcorn and slabs of bacon. I kid you not!  And since it's a wet cave, the awesome formations keep forming.

The main feature of the cave is a 60 foot column that is hundreds of thousands of years old. Even Eva was awed by it, staring up at it in stunned silence. I think she realized that we were in the presence of something sacred.

It broke my heart that I couldn't take pictures. I wish I could show you the beauty of these caves, but you just have to take my word for it.

Here is a picture of a huge sloth, whose bones were excavated from the cave.

After the tour, we went for a 2.5 mile hike around the perimeter of the cave, which was so unreal because the hills that hide the caves underneath are the plainest, most boring looking brushy hills you can imagine. It's crazy to imagine what beauty is hidden underneath. On the hike, Steve and I served as Eva's mules, as usual. We got quite sunburnt while following tracks of Javelina (a kind of native pig), chasing lizards, and marveling at towering yucca and agave seed talks.

Sunrise at the campground.  The boys slept in a tent for several nights because it was so warm.

The day before Kartchner caverns, we visited an ancient native American site in the Catalina mountains – the remnants of a walled village. We meandered along an interpretive trail with a lot of great information about the site and the people who lived there. This is homeschooling at its best!

Learning from one of the interpretive signs.

Old growth Saguaro cactus.

Eva playing in one of the ancient "houses".

And here are some pictures from the past week just because.