Day two of our get away entailed a lot more driving, but we were headed to the Grand Canyon and we were excited. Jake had a special pass that entitled all 4th graders in the country and their families to go to any National Park or Monument for free for the entire year and we wanted to take advantage.
Along our way we saw signs for Sunset Crater, so we decided to stop. We took the full loop detour through Sunset Crater National Park and Wapatki National Monument all free of charge thanks to Jake.
Anthony loves rocks and was very interested in all the cool lava rock. We hiked around the trails a bit to look at the full beauty.
This mountain with crater in the top is the actual site of the volcano.
As you leave the lush forest and head toward the Wapatki Monument, the landscape changes immensely.
Flat Barron lands dotted with rock mountains filled the distance. We were able to learn about the ancient people who lived here before and hike to Wukoki, one of the old homes that the Native Americans built here 1000s of years ago.
We continued on 87 toward the Grand Canyon. We were able to drive through some more beautiful land was we passed the Little Colorado River. When we made it, we were awed.
It had been more than 20 years since Anthony and I had been there, way back when I went to NAU. It was just as beautiful now.
We climbed up and observed from the watch tower before we drove along the road toward the main entrance.
When we made it and parked, we found some elk drinking from the water bottle fill up station. They were close enough to touch and many people were.
We enjoyed the scenery for a while before we ate a late lunch. We were ready to head back to Flagstaff, but not before we stopped for a heard of elk.
We followed a rainbow or multiple rainbows the entire drive south to I-40. We had a little bit of rain at the Grand Canyon that lead to a beautiful sky on the way home.
The weekend was perfect. One of my favorites that I will always cherish.
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