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Published: October 25th 2017
After an amazing experience at the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert, we continued west. The drive on 40W (new Route 66) is endless...you can see for miles - fields/deserts, wide open spaces. In some areas you can see the Historic Route 66 (2 lane road) right next to 40W. Off in the distance, trains ? We can only imagine what it would have been like driving on Route 66 back in the day. You can pop on and off from the new Route 66 (40W) to the Historic Route 66 along the way. My dad, when he was a young boy, travelled the now Historic Route 66 with his parents and talked about no air conditioning, windows rolled down, and canvas bags ? filled with water ? attached to the front of the car ? for drinking and/or the radiator.
We searched for a ⛺️ campground. No camping was allowed other than backcountry in the Petrified Forest and not many other options on the highway we liked, so we decided to rough it again at a hotel ?in Flagstaff AZ. Spring Hill Suites this time...another great option which gave us the opportunity to get super clean as well as eat
up the rest of the food we brought. We did a great job with our food ?- we have only eaten out twice since we left ?We were within walking distance of a Walmart, so purchased another propane tank and a hot plate for when we have electric camp sites moving forward. Should’ve kept the one we had from the remodel ?
We got all our gear reorganized and Karen researched for a grocery store and an REI nearby that we could check out before we headed to the canyon. Thinking we may need some warmer sleeping gear☺️so we are not dependent on electric ⚡️ camp sites. Hit the jack pot ? grocery store and REI less than 3 miles away?
Restocked our cooler with more food for the week ahead and we now have extreme cold weather sleeping ? bags ?? woohoo!! This will ensure we are prepared for our northern route later and allow us to have more options for camping.
Grand Canyon National Park - entered the park with our National Park Pass hanging from the rear view mirror...the Ranger waved us on! We decided we have advanced our camper status from beginner to
intermediate ⛺️?
Mather Campground - the largest campground ⛺️ in the Grand Canyon National ?
We were greeted at our camp site by a huge elk ??seriously, he was just walking through and could care less about us. Karen said, in a loud whisper, ‘Kathy - look, look, look...take a picture!’ This campground is absolutely beautiful. Before we setup camp, we decided to stay for 2-nights, so we went back to the Ranger Station and added a night. The Ranger smiled ?you girls will have a Grand time! $18/night - what a deal ?
I needed some time to get our meal prepared, so Karen setup Spa Haven and our new sleeping bags...we enjoyed mushroom ?, kale, spinach, spaghetti ? with roasted garlic and toasted buttery crescent ? rolls??We are going to need the energy for a full-day of hiking in the Grand Canyon.
We cannot even begin to describe the sky and the stars here at night...we sat by our camp fire ? and stared in awe. It takes your breath away. We had an awesome night of sleep ?in our new sleeping bags - it was 34 degrees and we had to open up our windows in the tent and our sleeping bags ‘cause we were too warm! We have decided camping ⛺️ is like skiing⛷...if you have the right gear, it makes all the difference.
Off to hike the Canyon ??
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Jamie Buckley
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Keep these comin'....this whole trip looks and sounds amazing!! Might be adding a couple of your stops to ours next summer. I am so glad you guys are having such a great time! Can't wait for Grand Canyon pics!!! :)