Arizona National Parks Day 6

Day 6 – March 16, 2017

We left the Grand Canyon this morning and drove south to Flagstaff via Hwy 180 (and Mt Humphrey’s – the 12,300 foot snow peaked mountain in the middle of Flagstaff.  We arrived at Walnut Canyon National Monument at 9:45 and hiked from the Visitor Center down to a whole bunch of steps to the Island Trail.  It was a steep .9 mi hike through some amazing ruins.  Even the kids seemed engaged.

 

 

From there we drove to Sedona via 89A.  The entire road was under construction so it was slow, but beautiful, going.  In Flagstaff we were at about 8,000 feet and we descended rapidly into a canyon then landed in Sedona where the traffic was unexpectedly heavy!  We drove around for a bit until we found a public parking spot.  Then we hit the main road and ate at Open Range Grill and Tavern.  The food was delicious.

After a good lunch we walked along the main “strip” for a bit and did some souvenir shopping.  We stopped in this one store and as I was looking a book full of pictures of the rock formations all around us, as I was showing a rock formation “Snoopy” to Ryan, this man walked up and said, “Come look out this window”… and there was the Snoopy rock.  He named all of the other ones around us then we learned that he wrote the book I was holding.  So we bought it and he autographed it for us. 

The kids got ice cream then we got back in the car and drove more into the heart of town.  We checked into our hotel around 3 (The Best Western Plus) and we got a room with a million dollar view.  Incredible. 

We went to the outdoor pool & hot tub for a few hours then came back to the room, cleaned up and walked down to the Whole Foods for a dinner that we ate on our “back patio” as we watched the stars come out.  The weather here is magnificent.  This has been a really relaxing day.

Now it’s about 8:30 and we’re relaxing in the room but I think we’re going back outside shortly to check out the stars one more time.

We’re up early tomorrow for spring training!!