Advertisement
Published: April 27th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Montezuma Castle Nat
We were told by a NPS ranger that this is a spiny lizard. Cole was very excited to see him on his scavenger hunt as a Junior Ranger. After Liam decided we needed to go to the Grand Canyon on this trip, too, we changed up our itinerary a little bit. Unfortunately, it meant getting up early. Jeff was up at 5, but we still didn’t get out of the hotel until 6:30ish. Thankfully it’s Saturday morning so traffic around Phoenix wasn’t too bad.
Our first stop was Montezuma Castle National Monument in Camp Verde, Arizona. It is Junior Ranger Day in the national parks, so Liam and Cole both received laminated guides for a scavenger hunt. Liam had a blast singing a new song, “We’re going on a scavenger hunt, a scavenger hunt, a scavenger hunt . . .” He found cacti and other spiky plants, a tiny lizard, a squirrel, and of course the ruins. He was disappointed to not see any birds, although we heard many. For his efforts, he and Cole both were given Junior Ranger badges, which they think are pretty cool.
We spent much of the monument near a group of motorcyclists. We apologized for our boys’ volume and they kidded us about having the audacity to bring kids to a national monument. Liam was very impressed that they all had
helmets and were dressed appropriately for motorcycling. To him, that includes “good motorcycle boots, good motorcycle pants, a good motorcycle jacket and a helmet. Oh, and good motorcycle gloves.”
Our second stop was Tuzigoot National Monument northwest of Clarkdale. While the four of us wandered around the pueblo, Liam sang (at full volume, of course) a junior ranger song, whose refrain started with “1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 we’re junior rangers and we’re going on a tour . . .” Thankfully we were outside and there weren’t all that many people around.
Our final stop, per Liam’s request, was Grand Canyon National Park. As I mentioned on blogspot, it is crazy windy and 50s in northern Arizona. Liam got out of the car and decided we shouldn’t even stay because it was the wrong temperature. There were also tons of people. (In comparison, last time we went before sunrise and so it seemed quite uncrowded.) We were able to find a place to park at Yavapai Point and did a little walking around and taking pictures. Liam thought that was good and was ready to leave. I would’ve felt very guilty
about going to Grand Canyon and only taking photos at one place, so Jeff dropped me at Mather Point to take a few more. (I justify staying less than two hours by knowing that we stopped at every single point on the south rim the last time we were there.)
We are now on our way to Gallup, New Mexico to find a hotel before starting our tomorrow. Unfortunately, we got stuck on I-40 behind who knows how many miles of trucks and miscellaneous vehicles. Did I mention that it’s windy? Not knowing just how long we could end up staying there, we decided to skirt around it, which is easier said than done in northeastern Arizona. We’re about to head into Navajo Nation, hoping that we skip enough of I-40 to get past the blockage. Oh, the joys of road trips.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.21s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 13; qc: 66; dbt: 0.0589s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb