Day 9, 19 March 2010

Despite the GPS, we found the Sunset Crater National Monument. The kids enjoyed the visitor center and are doing the "Jr. Ranger" program everywhere possible. This area of Arizona has had a lot of volcanic activity, and we have learned how that has impacted the land and the people. It was threatening to snow, but thankfully it did not, and the roads were clear. (there is still several feet of snow in some places we are visiting).

(By Grant) Then it was off to Walnut Canyon National Monument, where Indians lived in a more "cliffy" area. We got our Jr. Ranger Badges.

(By Luke)It was cool to go into the cliff dwellings where Indians used to live on a cliff looking into the canyon.

(By Greg) - Although the picture doesn't show it, the dwellings were actually high on the canyon wall. If you look carefully in the next picture you can see some dwellings about 1/3 down from the top.

Next we drove on to the Grand Canyon.

(By Luke)

The Grand Canyon

It is deep in a canyon in Arizona filled with cactus and streams.

It is wonderful to see the rocks and the sand everywhere in the Canyon.

We went to the Canyon on the 19th, two days until spring.

We looked in the Canyon, a long way down, to see the streams of water, flowing down, down.. down.... down!

(By Greg) - Since we are winging this trip, and did not have reservations anywhere, we moved on out of the park for the night. We don't know who all those crazy people are visiting the park with snow on the ground and spending the night in an RV under threat of snow and 17 degree temperatures, but we did not end up being one of them!