Yeah... Whatever

Emily was not impressed in the presence of a "Wonder of the World," and seemed more interested in the latest Facebook postings....

More Grand Canyon

We explored further to the west on the canyon.  Access is only available by buses or hiking.  We did a bit of both. 

One interesting finding was an old uranium mine from the 1950s and 1960s that is now a SuperFund toxic waste site.  Apparently, in the 1950s, they literally gave out tiny samples of uranium to visitors!  Now, it appears almost encased in sheets of lead or something.  They have not even begun to clean up the incredible contamination from the site.

...And we were there, soaking up the radioactive rays!

Our Hike into the Canyon

So, we got up early to take our hike into the canyon.

Yep!  We hiked all the way down and all the way up!

Uh... okay...would you believe we hiked just far enough to get really short of breath on the upward climb... just enough to take a couple of pictures?

Night walk to the edge of the Grand Canyon

Our evening hike from our room to the rim of the canyon was longer than expected because they are doing a lot of construction on visitor centers, parking areas, and so on.  We had to take a big detour and our planned sunset hike to the rim turned into night by the time we hit the edge. It turned spooky.

Foolish Canyon Visitors

Even though you find warning signs all over:

You still see people who simply cannot obey the rules....

Day at the rim of the Canyon

We wandered several miles along the rim of the canyon.

Grand Canyon

We arrived into the park at sunset.

Indian Ruins

On the way to the Grand Canyon, we stopped at another National Park filled with 800 year old Indian Ruins.

Sunset Crater

We traveled north.  It's always weird to see road signs in this part of the country.

About 1,000 years ago, a huge volcano appeared out of a flat field.  It's now a National Park with all sorts of bizarre lava fields:

Click on this picture to enlarge it and see the amazing lava rock fields.

Climbing Cathedral Rock

Emily took the lead in our straight up climb of Cathedral Rock.

Then, we had to come down....

Then, we ate....

Slide Rock and Pictographs

We saw some 900 year old pictographs from the Arizona Cliffs:

Then we went to Slide Rock.  Click on the picture to see the video.

Sunset in Sedona

Everyone crowds at the local airport, which sits up on a big hill, to see the sunsets. 
They charge $1 per person to stand there and watch the sunset!  Can you believe that?

Pink Jeep Tours

We took a "rough and tumble" trip on an impossible road, thanks to "Pink Jeep Tours." 
Emily made a new friend on the way from Pennsylvania.



A fault line ran through the huge rock we stood on.
On top of a huge rock hill, an unlikely puddle contained hundreds of tadpoles that were in danger of having their water dry up. Fortunately, when the trip was done, a gentle rain fell, perhaps saving the tadpoles for another day.

It may be a dry heat, but it's still hot!

We took a small hike this morning.  The time change from here to Fredericksburg is three hours, so we were up early.

Drive to Sedona... Wow! It's dark here!

The service was so slow at the cafe, it was night by the time we got out to make the major part of our drive north.  We couldn't see any scenery!

Day number one: Not enough daylight

We stopped at a famous diner called the "Rock Springs Cafe," which is north of Phoenix on the way to Sedona.  It's apparently been around for 80 years or so when the wagon trains stopped and cars appeared.  It's been on the Travel Channel a few times.  We were less than impressed with the service.  Their famous pies were.... okay.

Arriving in Phoenix

Obligatory Airplane Pictures as we approach.