Southwest Trip Part 2

Well, we are back home from our great southwest adventure!  When I last wrote, we were in Albuquerque.  Well the next morning, we headed out for the Grand Canyon as our destination for the evening.  Along the way, we entered a new state for Evie: Arizona. 

And we drove through Petrified Forest and Painted Desert National Parks where we enjoyed stopping to look at beautiful scenery, had a picnic lunch at a look out, and saw a 1930s car parked right near where Route 66 ran.

Evie was especially interested in trying to figure out the petroglyphs on the rocks at Petrified Forest, but I didn't manage to get a picture of that.

We arrived at the Grand Canyon National Park and got checked into our hotel room.  We were staying at the Yavapai Lodge inside the park, which was one of the few places that had air conditioning.  Our room had a view of a bunch of woods and Evie said she was worried about bears and rattlesnakes.  I told her that the hotel had been there for many decades and no one had ever reported any attacks by bears and rattlesnakes.  She replied, "Well what if no one has lived to tell the tale."

We got in the car and drove over to a shuttle stop to be able to get to the western side of the canyon for a view of sunset, which was just as marvelous as I had hoped sunset at summer solstice at the Grand Canyon would be.

We took the shuttle back to the car and then were planning to eat at the restaurant, but it was packed and we decided better to eat our picnic stuff.  So we went back to the hotel and had sandwiches and then hit the hay because Seth, Dad and I were up early the next morning to catch sunrise.

Sunrise at the Grand Canyon

Evie and Granna stayed at the hotel in our adjoining rooms and Evie was still sleeping when we got back into our room, so Seth and I went back to sleep for a bit.  I was woken up at 7:45 by Evie sitting on the bed and whimpering.  I asked her what was wrong and she said, "I'm starving!"  I told her to go get some breakfast in Granna and Grannadaddy's room where all our food was.  She told Granna something funny about her parents not understanding something, but I can't remember what it was, so maybe Granna will provide the details.

After we got cleaned up and packed up, we caught another shuttle to another part of the Canyon we hadn't seen yet.

Then we got lunch at the restaurant where Evie had wanted to be sure to try Elk burger, which she said was absolutely delicious.  We drove on out and headed to our next stop, making a few pull outs at other scenic overlooks.

Our next stop was a Burger King in Kayenta which sounds just a random pit stop but was actually a planned attraction.  They have a collection of items from the Navajo Code Talkers, because the owner of the Burger King is the son of one of the Talkers and had his permission to put the items on display.  It's a very well done display and highlights how critical the Navajo contributions were in our success in the Pacific Theater.  And we also had milkshakes.

We drove on and Evie got another new state: Utah.

Our stop for the evening was Goulding's Lodge which is set at the bottom of a huge rock formation and has beautiful views of Monument Valley, right from your balcony.  We enjoyed the view from the restaurant also, and then I got up early with Granna and Grannadaddy the next morning for sunrise, while Seth and Evie slept.

Our plan for Wednesday was to leave Gouldings and drive the 17 mile loop through Monument Valley, but the loop was closed.  The land belongs to the Navajo Nation and they have closed everything they are in charge of, because they were so hard hit with COVID.  We were trying to understand why you'd need to close a road where you're just driving past rocks, but we decided to just put it on our list for "next time."  We also had to put Four Corners on that list because that was also closed for the same reason.  And also Antelope Canyon.

But we did stop at a shop in Cortez, CO where Evie found a lovely beaded barrette for her hair.

We had a picnic lunch and then finished our drive to Mesa Verde which had gorgeous views.

True to our luck for this day, the Cliff Palace was closed which is the most impressive view of the cliff dwellings at the park, so that's on our "next time" list too.  But we did get to see Spruce Tree House and Evie wants to go on a tour of it when those are running again.  It is quite impressive how people made these cities in the cliffs (circa 1200 AD).

We tried to see Chimney Rock on our way to our next stop, but, just to keep with the theme, it was closed.  We got to our hotel in Pagosa Springs, which I did not realize was a hot springs location.  We got checked in and then walked over to a restaurant that had patio seating over looking the river, the springs, and the bath house that has been built by the springs, so that was a lovely view for dinner.

On the walk back to the hotel, Evie found a giant chess board so we played a few turns.

Thursday, we went on to Santa Fe by way of Taos.  We stopped at the Kit Carson Museum where Evie was most interested in looking at the beaver pelts.  Once we got to Santa Fe, we got into our AirBnB I took naps.  Then I spent a while on the phone with Enterprise (this is a whole saga about the cigarillo smell in the van, plus a tire losing air, both problems we had tried multiple times to solve to no avail...), and we drove on a leaking tire over to this place called Meow Wolf at which we'd already made reservations for a certain time.  

Meow Wolf is one of the trippiest places I've ever been.  They do a lot of things with black lights and neon and art made of found objects.  It's an immersive experience and gave me some sensory overload, but Evie loved it and didn't want to leave.

Here's Evie climbing through the dryer which is actually a slide.

After Meow Wolf, we aired up the tire, got some groceries, and went back to our AirBnB.  I haven't mentioned that this AirBnB was a last minute replacement because the nice adobe house we had picked originally was pulled out from under us a week before because of construction.  Hotels were expensive and this AirBnB option looked decent online, but it had some serious problems.  It seemed like it was undergoing a lot of half-finished renovation projects, with exposed wires and glass stuck in window panes, etc.  We weren't really thrilled with it, but it was a place to sleep and wash clothes and cook breakfast the next morning.  I took the car to Firestone to get the tire repaired so we could stop worrying about it, and they had me out in about 2 and a half hours.

Then we went to the New Mexico History Museum and then had lunch at a cute cafe, did some shopping from the street vendors and the Christmas store.  Then we went to the San Miguel Mission which is the oldest church in the U.S.

Then we headed to a chocolate shop where we bought probably too many truffles, chocolate covered orange peels (Seth's favorite) and drinking chocolate.

Saturday morning we checked out of the AirBnB and headed for home with pretty much no specific plans of places to stop.  Oh, and it should be noted that we listed to the song "Santa Fe" from Newsies at least 5 times, including one more for good measure when we left.

We crossed the Oklahoma border which was Evie's last new state of the trip and her 33rd state in her running total.

I forgot to share this picture from earlier in our trip.  This position happened quite a bit....

We got to Oklahoma City where it started to rain so Evie was disappointed not to go swimming.  But she was entertained instead by throwing a globe with Granna and Grannadaddy and seeing where they were going to go on their trips based on where their thumb was when the caught the globe.

Evie got a chance to swim in the morning while Grannadaddy went to church, and then we went to a steak house down by the stockyards for dinner.

A buffalo outside the Oklahoma City courthouse

We made it back home this evening and unpacked the car, and our dogs were so happy to see us!

We had a wonderful trip.  We drove over 3600 miles, through 7 states, saw beautiful sunrises and sunsets against breathtaking scenery, spent $20 on air for a leaky tire, and had an amazing trip of 3 generations with memories to last forever.