Grand Canyon - Arizona

The much anticipated Grand Canyon was planned for the end of our road trip.  We stayed in Flagstaff, AZ and drove up to the South Rim of the canyon.

As mentioned in my pre-road trip blog post that I wanted to get a good panarama of natural sights along the trip, and the Grand Canyon was the place to do it.  Grand Canyon has trails along the rim where you can walk and get various views of the canyon.  There are also places where people can hike down to the base of the canyon, but for this trip we decided that the view from the top is the one we wanted.

View from Mather Point

We started at the Grand Canyon Visitors Center, walked over to Mather Point then to Yavapai Point and Geology Museum. At the Geology Museum there are hands on activities that show the geological history of the canyon and how it was formed. The museum also has park rangers who can tell you about the canyon and some of its interesting features.  Binoculars were available for visitors to use to look down into the canyon.

View of Canyon and Yavapai Point from Mather Point

 From Yavapai there is a walk called the Trail of Time that has samples of all of the layers of the canyon and information about it.  It was recommended by some people we met in our travels to go along that trail as it is very informational.  However, we didn't get a chance to go, so another time perhaps. 

 The park has a shuttle service that takes visitors between the various lookout points along the South Rim.  It runs on a regular schedule so it is easy for people to get around if walking between points is a challenge, or if you want to see more places in a limited time.

I saw lots of families walking around, and strolling along the trail.  Located at each of the visitor centers is information on how kids to become a Junior Ranger as part of the National Park Service experience.  While I am a bit old to be a Junior Ranger, I enjoyed seeing the rangers inspire the next generation. 

No matter where in the Grand Canyon I was, the views were always amazing.  If we stayed longer into the afternoon or early evening when angle of the sun is not directly overhead, the views are said to be even more awesome.  It only gives more reason to return another day.  Until then, I will just have to enjoy the views I captured from my trip.  Enjoy the pictures, Meet Me Outdoors.

Chloride, AZ - Middle of nowhere but...

After crossing that Hoover Dam Bypass to get into Arizona from Nevada we took a minor detour off US-93 to the small town of Chloride, AZ.  We stopped at the visitors center, that is located in the local restaurant, called Yesterdays to get a map to a rather unique site.  Down the road about 1.3 miles, with a bit of off road driving, or walking if you doubt your car will survive, are cool murals painted on boulders. These pics are a random sampling of the paintings. 

 I also took some pictures of the area around where the murals are located.  Some interesting plant life, mostly things like cacti and other native desert plants.  I even saw some time of small lizard, but it moved too fast for me to get a picture of it. Another awesome find was a couple darkling beetles.  They were found scurrying about between rocks, not in the same places.  Darkling beetles is a very common type of beetle that is found all over the world, with over 20,000 species.  They are easily recognizable because they are usually have black or brown coloring to them.  I was able to get a few pics before it ran away. I only picked one to post here.

Darkling Beetle

 It was nice to see that even small towns have an interesting things to see and do.  Next stop is see Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. Until next time, Meet Me Outdoors.

Driving through the middle of nowhere...

Many days of this road trip that I am on have been spent driving through the middle of nowhere. From Spokane, WA to Salt Lake City, UT have been filled with roads that go through mountains and trees and more mountains. Some areas we went by have lakes, rivers and even farms.

These are just to give an idea of some places we drove through. While I couldn't tell you where half these pictures are from it has been an interesting time driving through and seeing the beautiful sights.  We soon discovered that calling out every cow, horse, tree and mountain can be tiring after the first ten that you see.  However, a quieter game of road trip bingo is sometimes needed for the sanity of other riders.  Sometimes its just easier to pick up a camera and record what you see, of course taking time to just enjoy the sights and sounds is just as good.  The road trip continues, Meet Me Outdoors.

Craters of the Moon National Monument - Idaho

After a long drive through a corner of Montana we made our way back into Idaho for the journey south and stopped in a really awesome park called Craters of the Moon National Monument. It a place like no other I have been to.  An area that was once volcanically active many thousands of years ago is now covered in lava rock.

While very desert-like as you look around there is some plant life in very unusual forms. The lichen that grows on the lava rocks come in all sorts of textures and colors, from bright green to orange to bright yellow. 

I liked how you can see ripples lava rock showing the flow of lava from long ago.  It was very different in the way it has ripples rather than more chunky, rocky texture of other lava in the area. 

The boulder near the top of the frame looks like a frog sitting on a rock. It caught my eye as I was taking in the scenery, just had to take a picture to share.

   There was a ranger there that was going around to the visitors to let us know that a program was going to start soon about bats, since there are a few caves in the area and the bats live down there.  It was part of a Junior Ranger program, but she said that you didn't have to be a kid to join in the fun. We had a limited amount of time here since we still had to get to the next town to find lodging, but the time we did spend was lots of fun.  

Since the landscape is so diverse and has an out of this world feel, astronauts from the Apollo missions trained at the park before going to the Moon.  They had to be trained on relaying their observations to the scientist back on Earth.  Imagine having to look out and have to describe what you see, from the shapes of rocks, big and small, to the way the horizon looks.  Do you think you can describe a scene for your friend to draw who isn't there to see it for themselves?  That's what the astronauts had to do when they went to the Moon. Try it on your next adventure, Meet Me Outdoors.

Spokane, WA

These last few days after Seattle have involved mostly driving and staying in places that are in very small towns, starting with the not so small town, more like a small city of Spokane, WA. 

Tour Train of Riverfront Park

From Seattle we took a train to Spokane, WA which is a place that actually a decent size city in the eastern part of Washington. While there we walked around the Riverfront Park.  The park has lots of fun family things to do. There is a carousel, tour train, and amusment park rides. Embracing our inner child, we went on the dragon coaster, which is one of those mini roller coasters for kids. It was a nice day out so there were lots of families around enjoying the last days of summer before the school year begins.    

Through out the park area there were some interesting sculptures.  This one under the bridge caught my eye, but the one we were in search for was the big red wagon. As you can see from the photo, it is a super-sized Radio-Flyer red wagon that kids can climb on and slide down the handle.  I joined the fun and slid down, too.  It was a great way to start the day before hitting the road with lots of driving.

Me going down the slide as kids watched

Besides the great time playing in the park, I made some interesting observations of the natural side to the park.  There were ducks and geese around in the water, but what caught my eye was the water itself.  Coming from a place where water tends to look murky at best in the harbor, I was rather surprised how clear the water was at the park. I could see all the way to the bottom. I had to take a picture of it because it was just that amazing.  Crazy I know, but I live in a city where you can't even see an inch below the surface, so this was out of the ordinary for me.  

From Spokane we picked up our rental car and started our big drive. I can safely say that I have seen places where there are more trees than people, and lots of wide open spaces. This final picture, was taken when we stopped at random to take pictures of the natural sights along the scenic road we were driving.

More to come as the adventure continues, Meet Me Outdoors.