Grand Canyon NP, AZ

GRAND CANYON & SNOW BOWL

#125 (December 3, 2022): Since we want to arrive in Nashville on December 20, we only have 18 days to make our last sweep across the Southwest along I-40, which will take us from Bakersfield, CA, all the way home to Nashville, TN (Navigation just got a whole lot easier! Yes!). We won’t make it as far south as we had originally planned, but that’s okay. Even with a whole year of travel, it is impossible to see all the beauty and sites that this vast country has to see.

We hit the road early today because we have decided to skip Joshua Tree National Park and instead drive to Williams, Arizona, (6.5 hours east) to Grand Canyon Railway RV Park. We thought we would see the Grand Canyon from the North Rim while we were at Zion, but the roads closed for the season just before our arrival. We also considered seeing the Grand Canyon from the Hualapai-run Western Rim while we were at Valley of Fire State Park, but decided not so that the kids could have more time on their beloved rock forts. But we definitely don’t want to skip the Grand Canyon (it’s one of the seven natural wonders of the world after all!) on our travels out West, so we have decided to see it from the South Rim. Therefore, Williams, Arizona—"the Gateway to the Grand Canyon”—here we come!

Passing through the Mojave Desert once again, we made amazing time, stopping only once to potty. Woo-hoo! How nice it is to travel on an interstate with strong cell signal after all these months of driving on slow, unpredictable roads with spotty or no cell signal! After parking and setting up camp, we ate dinner at Frontier Barbeque enjoying their ribs and brisket, Brussel sprouts, and mac n’ cheese.

#126 (December 4, 2022): After virtual church, we bundled up into our snow gear, and went snow tubing just a block or so from our campground at Canyon Coaster Adventure Park. We’ve sled in our front yard and in our neighborhood, but we’ve never snow tubed! It was a blast! We all agreed snow-tubing in tandem with our tubes tied together was the most fun. Afterwards, we rode the mile-long Canyon Coaster.

Williams, Arizona, is a cute, small Western town on historic Route 66. The short strip of town along Route 66 looks like it’s straight out of Disney’s Cars movie, one of preschool-Neil’s favorite movies back in the day. We walked along the sidewalk, passing cafés, motels, and small shops that looked like they were stuck in time. Very fun and nostalgic!

#127 (December 5, 2022): During the Grand Canyon’s earliest years as a national park, most visitors arrived at its South Rim via railway from Williams, AZ. So today, to relive a little bit of history, we boarded the Grand Canyon Railway Train at our campground and rode 2.5 hours north to the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. Ironically, the most memorable part of our day started before we boarded the train. We gathered 30 minutes early at the Williams Depot where the Cataract Gang, a group of rowdy cowboys, called Chris out of the audience to play a friendly game of cowboy poker. After the first round, Chris was accused of cheating, gunshots were fired, and consequently the Marshall was called in; Chris was framed for murder. Thankfully, the Marshall saved the day and acquitted Chris of all his charges. Our favorite fun-lovin’ character from this whole shenanigan was a man named Sawed-Off Sam, who memorably was shot and fell face-first into a pile of horse manure during the act.

Once we arrived at the South Rim, we only had 3 hours before it would be time again to reboard the train back home. No time to waste! We first took a 90-minute bus tour along the rim to Mohave Point and Hopi Point, stopping at each for pictures. For the last 90-minutes, we walked along the rim in the Village visiting the different historic buildings: Verkamp’s Visitor Center, Hopi House, Kolb Studio, Lookout Studio, Bright Angel Lodge, and El Tovar Hotel.

The Grand Canyon is definitely a wonder to see! In fact, Theodore Roosevelt once said that the Grand Canyon is “the one great sight that every American should see.” I admit, I hope that someday I will be able to admire it from its valley floor; there’s just something special about admiring a canyon from down inside, gazing up and soaking in its grandness. But for now, we are thankful to have stood on its rim and gazed into its vastness. Arizona’s state motto is “God Enriches,” and that, He most certainly does!

We reboarded the train at the Grand Canyon Train Depot, the only operating log structure depot in the world. (It looks like it was made with a Lincoln Log set. Very neat!) On our train ride back to Williams, we passed old telegraph poles, wild turkeys, and mule deer in the sagebrush-covered plains before our train was held up by Sawed-Off Sam and the rest of the Cataract Gang on horseback. They climbed aboard and “robbed” all the passengers, making their way through every train car. Chris and the kids still laugh and laugh when they think of this gang of rowdy cowboys.

#128 (December 6, 2022): Starting in October, we have narrowly missed the opening of this year’s ski season, first for Colorado, then Utah, then Nevada, then California. Rats! But today, our wish to go skiing while out West came true in Arizona, of all places! We didn’t even know Arizona had any ski slopes. Sweet!

We drove an hour to Flagstaff’s Arizona Snowbowl, which is at the top of Mount Humphreys (the tallest point in Arizona). Neil opted to snowboard, while the rest of us chose to ski. We all started with a 2-hour small group beginner lesson in the morning. The three girls loved their ski instructor, Brayden, who was so fun and encouraging. They got a kick out of Brayden jumping and hollering for joy when it started snowing; it was the first snow for this season, so he was pumped! We spent the afternoon practicing on Little Spruce, a short, simple bunny slope perfect for beginners. By the end of the day, we had all made significant progress!

#129 (December 7, 2022): Well, it snowed all night at the Snowbowl, and it hasn’t stopped! Yay! Since we loved skiing and snowboarding so much yesterday and there’s so much fresh snow (12+ inches) on the ground, we decided to go back! We each took another 2-hour small group lesson in the morning, and this time our instructors took us onto the green slope, Hart Prairie. So much fun! We spent the rest of the day practicing on Little Spruce and Hart Prairie. It’s so amazing and satisfying to see how much progress we’ve all made in just 2 days!

The Snowbowl is a fantastic place to learn to ski. The instructors and fellow skiers were so nice and patient, and the prices for off-peak days for the lessons, rentals, and ski lift tickets were much more affordable than most ski resorts. We are so thankful that we got to ski and snowboard! We are already missing the slopes, and we can’t wait to go again some time.

#130 (December 8, 2022): This morning we rested in, knocked out some schoolwork, and explored the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel next door before heading to the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff. We grabbed some hamburgers and chicken fingers, as well as concretes and shakes at Freddy’s Frozen Custard on the way.

Lowell Observatory, once dubbed “America’s Observatory” by Astronomy magazine because of its significant space contributions and discoveries, is one of the oldest observatories in the country. It was here, on Flagstaff’s Mars Hill, that V.M. Slipher first detected the expanding universe in 1912, Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930, the Moon was mapped in 1961 in preparation for the Apollo missions, and rings around Uranus were discovered in 1977. Wow!

We first (safely) observed the sun through a solar telescope, seeing its sunspots and flares. Next, we went inside the historic Pluto Discovery Dome to see the Pluto Discovery Telescope and hear the story of how Clyde Tombaugh used this astrograph (aka star camera) to discover Pluto. We then walked through the Rotunda Museum to see various artifacts and treasures from the observatory’s 128-year history, before going to a Moonrise talk.

Afterward, as we waited on the moon to rise so we could look at it through a telescope, we went to our favorite spot on campus, the Giovale Open Deck Observatory, where we looked through tall, fancy telescopes to see Mars and its ice cap, Jupiter and its dark and lighter bands and its moons, and Saturn and its rings and the spaces between its rings. Wow! How amazing to see what we’ve seen in books and videos, right here firsthand through these powerful telescopes!

Next, the biggest treat of the night, we looked through the largest telescope on campus, the 24” Clark Refractor, for another fantastic view of Jupiter. This massive telescope is the same one used in 1912 to see spiral galaxies for the first time which led to the discovery of the expanding universe, and then later was used in the 1960s for the moon mapping project and by astronauts to come and study the moon before their infamous moonwalks. Amazing!!

Last, we looked through a different telescope at the moon to see its craters and maria. What a spectacular evening of “stargazing” that we have enjoyed here at the “Home of Pluto!”