On the Holiday Road 2013: Santa Fe to Grand Canyon

Wednesday, July 10—Day 5

While we spent tons of time in the van, I think this was my favorite day of the trip. We drove through such changing terrains, all of it gorgeous. We also hit three national parks!

We left the Buffalo Thunder Resort early and grabbed breakfast at Arby’s (also our dinner choice the night before…it was the ONLY fast food we could find around the hotel, and we didn’t really want smoke-filled food from the casino snack bar or large meals in the casino restaurants. Voila: an Arby’s Junior!). We made a quick stop to snap some photos of Camel Rock, then we were off to Arizona.

Smooth

Welcome to Arizona!

Our first stop in Arizona was the Petrified Forest National Park. We basically did a drive through of this, getting out at a few overlooks. It was pretty flippin’ hot out there! I think the temperature hovered between 98-100 degrees most of the time, so we guzzled bunches of water and slowly walked around.

I suppose the Painted Desert is mixed in here, but it doesn’t get its own national park? It was robbed!

An awesome experience

Pictures just can’t do this place justice, but here are some anyway.

Such rich, deep colors

Creepiest birds ever

This was really cool.

We looked and looked and looked before we finally figured out what we were seeing.

The petrified forest part of the park.

These were my favorite formations: tepees. The colors come from various minerals.

We continued to head west.

We saw several of these little dust storms along the side of the road.

We ran into a little rain right outside of Flagstaff and were amazed that the temperature plummeted to the high 70s. We turned north and made a quick stop at Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. We walked the Lava Flow Trail, and it was rather surreal to be walking around in this landscape.

Those colors just knocked me out.

My niece was thrilled to see this—a real volcano!

We experienced beauty overload today, and it only became more intense at our final destination: Grand Canyon National Park.

We arrived at GCNP in the early evening and made a brief stop at the Watchtower so my niece could grab her first glimpse. We then checked in to Yavapai Lodge, which was a pretty basic accommodation, but we literally just slept there, and not very long because we got up the next morning for the sunrise. Though our plan was to catch the sunset that evening, we were all pretty wiped out. We ate some pizza in the Yavapai cafeteria, shopped around the gift shop (I bought the book, Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon. What an uplifting tale that one is!), and then tried to figure out a great place to see the sunrise. Then we decided that we would settle for an easily accessible place to see it. While we were driving around, my dad swore he saw a panther lurking around on the side of the road. A panther?

First look at GC

Don’t step over the edge….

Weather: hellishly hot in the desert, pleasant everywhere else

Miles travelled: 501