4 Seasons in 1 day - Monument Valley to Grand Canyon

On this leg went decided to head for Grand canyon. Originally we were contemplating going to the North Rim, and do Arches National Park, Bryce Canyon and Zion National park on the way to Vegas.

But the kids were pretty much over scenery, and the weather wasn’t looking good for the Grand Canyon so we decided to do the more touristy South rim. This will also allow us to “get our kicks on Route 66”. We also altered the plans a bit, coming into Vegas a day earlier, and leaving a day earlier giving us one extra day in Los Angeles.

We headed off towards some grey looking clouds. 

After about 90’s minutes we arrived at Dinosaur Tracks. Which is exactly that, some dinosaur tracks just of the interstate. There isn’t much there except some locals who show you around for tips (hard way to make a living). That said it was worth $20 I tipped him as he gave us a good tour, although the rain the previous night had filled some of the prints in. These were discovered when they were building the interstate 160.

This actually a complete Fossil, the broken skull at the top right

Next we hit Cameron, the town that is (Although the longer the trip goes on the more often Jo and I consider trying to lose him).

I assume this the Cameron Chapter of an Bikie Gang Aka Sons of Anarchy

The closer we got to Grand Canyon the colder it got (The car has a outside temperature sensor).

By the time we arrived it was just above 0 ° C. Lucky we were all dressed for the weather -  in shorts and T shirts. A quick rummage through the bags and we retrieved some jackets (the long pants were well and truly buried) and we were off to see as much of the canyon as we could. Which at times wasn’t much, as many times we were in the clouds. 

Getting Photos of Kids was problematic

Watchtower Lookout

One Unhappy Camper - so cold                                                                                 

One thing I've noticed throughout our travels is that many places don't have the six foot high safety barriers we'd have in Australia. Even at the Grand Canyon, in many of the tourist places there is not a lot of fencing. You are expected to utilise common sense and keep an eye on each other...

 By the time we were leaving a few hours later it had sleeted and then hailed. 

 

That be hail

We decided to pay a bit extra and stay in as close to the Grand Canyon as possible. The thinking being we didn’t want to waste an hour travelling to Flagstaff or Williams, only to travel that distance back the next day.

We ended up 5 miles away in a place favoured by Japanese Tourists. It had a hot spa though so we all took advantage of that. Another plus was that from the bar we could see our room. So Jo and I headed down for a couple of quiets whilst Danielle babysat Cameron.

The next day the weather had totally changed so we headed back into the park to check out some more scenery. 

 
 

 

 

 

 As usual the kids soon grew tired of looking at scenery, and to be fair so had I (even more so as I’d discovered a plane museum 20 miles down the road).

So by lunch time we were on the road again.......

Til Next time

Calum