Day 6 - Sunrise, Bright Angel Trail, Drive to Lake Powell

Up at 4:15am. Caught the shuttle at 4:45am out to Mather Point to see the 5:14am sunrise.












Wow. Stunning. Few things are worth getting up this early but this certainly was.

We then caught the bus to Bright Angel Trailhead. At 6:30 we started the hike down into the canyon. The trail is steep but the views are gorgeous. We passed under 2 tunnels. We were hoping to get down to the 1.5mile rest house. We needed to check out of the RV camp by noon so we decided to turn around and head back up after about an hour on the trail which was about 1.25 miles.




It was definitely a tough hike for me up the trail but I made it. We were back at the top by about 8:30.






I bought my hiking stick in Grand Teton on the ’08 trip. I now have 14 medallions on it. Down the front I have Hidden Falls Grand Teton NP, Yellowstone, Glacier NP/ Going-to-the-sun Road, Olympic NP, Olympic NP (2), Mt Saint Helens, Yaquina Head Lighthouse Newport OR, Crater Lake NP, Redwood National and State Parks, San Francisco, and Alcatraz. Going down the back Monte Sano SP, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon NP. I have gotten many comments on it from people on this trip. It really is a handsome stick and it was extremely helpful on today’s trail.

After the hike we stopped in the Bright Angel Lodge Canyon Coffee house for coffee and bagels (sunrise and a 2.5 mile hike on NO coffee!!!).

By then it was time to head back to the RV via the bus service to pack up. I took a quick shower and we pulled out at 10:30.

On our drive toward Page, AZ we stopped at Grand View Point, Lipan Point (sandwiches in the parking lot), and Desert View. Each of these offered spectacular views of the canyon. Just when you think you have oooh’ed and aaaah’ed all you can and seen everything there is another view from a different place or at a different time of day that offers something exciting.

In Page we stopped at the Safeway for a few groceries and a Starbucks!! Then checked in to the Lake Wahweap Campground in Glen Canyon NRA on Lake Powell. Lake Powell was created by the Hoover Dam (been there, done that). It is a hot bed of water sports. Boating, fishing, etc. It also offers the only access to Rainbow Bridge.

It had been a long day since sunrise so we all just chilled in the RV. We finally had internet access so all 3 laptops came out. I was able to update this blog.

Dinner was lasagna then an episode of 24. We were all exhausted from our early start, hike and 3 hours drive so we turned in fairly early.

Day 5 - Hermit's Rest

Today we conquered the “red route”. We caught the “blue” bus to the transfer station then waited in a fairly long line to catch the “red” bus. They have a very impressive bus line here. The red route’s destination is Hermit’s Rest. On the way there are 9 bus stops. There is a hiking trail that runs along beside the rim. You can get on and off at any stop. You can hike between points or just ride. Buses come by about every 15mins. We rode to Maricopa Point and hiked to Powell Point (0.5miles) then on to Hopi Point (0.8miles) where we had our PBJ lunch. We caught the bus to Mohave Point then rode the bus again to The Abyss then Pima Point then to Hermit’s Rest. We got off here and wandered around about 30mins. Then snack bar line was too long so we got back on the bus to ride back to the transfer station.


We got the blue bus back to the Market Plaza where we stopped in for ice cream and coffee and a few groceries.

The boys purchased Passports book on our last trip. They are enjoying adding cancellation stamps to their books as we go. They are filling up the Western Region of CA, NV, and AZ. They will be out of space in the Rocky Mtn Region (MT,ND,WY, SD,UT,CO). They got a good bit of that filled on our last trip. 5 pages just isn’t enough room.


Dinner in the RV. We are planning to catch the sunrise so it will be an early morning. We watched an episode of 24 (season 2) and went to bed.


So far our only minor mishap in the RV a raven poked a hole in our sewer drain line. We bought some Seal All at the store to patch the drain line. On our last trip we would have made friends with 3 RV repairmen by day 5. It has been a good trip so far.

Rim Walk

After a cereal breakfast we were ready for our first day in Grand Canyon National Park. We caught a shuttle bus around 9:00am to the Mather Point Visitor Center. From there we walked the Rim Walk for about a mile to the Yavapai Point Geology Museum.




The view along the way just defies words…awesome, amazing, how about just GRAND. At Yavapai we did a brief walk-thru of the museum. Preston decided he was hungry. Lunch sounded like a good idea so we caught the shuttle to Market Plaza for a yummy lunch at Yavapai Lodge Café. The boys had fried chicken thighs, Ray had a brat, and I had chicken pot pie. Since we had eaten only PBJs for dinner last night I think we were all hungry.


After lunch we grabbed a shuttle to El Tovar Hotel and Verkamps Visitor Center. We watched an Indian Ring Dance – very cool. We decided to “pass” on the Ranger Tour and head back to the RV. The 3 busy travel days on top of a week of scout camp is starting to take its toll.




The boys watched a few episodes of Psych (season 2) and Ray and I took naps.

After our dinner of Sloppy Joes we went to see the sunset a Hopi Point. It was breathtaking. Wow!!! It was well worth our trip out there.

Best parts of the day

Ray: Rim Walk, seeing the Canyon, sunset

Kerry: Canyon views, sunset
Parker: Rim trail walk, sunset

Preston: Coming back to RV to “chill” and watch Psych, sunset

A Walk in the Sky

Not much to say about Meadview. It is a spot in the middle of a dessert. But they did have gas!!! And that was a good thing. They also had high prices. We had forgotten to get cereal for Parker. He bought some Fruitloops for $5.27. Gas was $3.39 (but we paid higher in N Cal in 2008). $200 fills the tank!

On to the #1 thing to do on my list….the Skywalk. However getting there “ain’t” easy. I remind you we are in an RV and it’s a 17 mile drive down a windy DIRT/ GRAVEL/RUTTY road. I’m surprised the fillings are still in my teeth. We shook, rattled and rolled down that road.

We bought tickets ($70 ea) for the Skywalk tour. We took a bus out to the Skywalk. Cool Cool Cool Way Cool. The Skywalk is a glass structure suspended out over the Grand Canyon. They didn’t allow cameras, phones, knives or any personal items out there for fear of something chipping the glass. And you had to put these cute pink booties over your shoes. We were stylin’.

Then we caught the bus to Guano Point. Seriously it is HOT!!! That whole thing about it being a “dry heat” is just hogwash!! At Guano Point there was a rock structure. Sure enough we hiked down to that and then up the rocks. The boys loved it. And the view was really amazing.

After Guano Point we rode the bus to Hualapai Lodge and working ranch. Our tickets included a meal. OK I’m all about food. We could chose #1 a burger at the first stop #2 chicken burrito at the second stop OR #3 RIBS, baked potato, baked beans, cornbread, and dessert at the 3rd stop. Hello??? I’m taking those ribs. And they were really, really good, not to mention we were starving by then.

After dinner we wandered briefly around the mock western town – poor kids, a grumpy old prospector shot the boys for stealing his whiskey :-)

By now it’s about 2pm and we have a 5 hour drive a head of us to Grand Canyon RV Park. And don’t forget that rode (too bad I can’t say Dam). We rocked, rattled, and rolled those 17 miles again then its smooth sailing down the highway. Found a Starbucks in Kingman (I love Ray, he bought me a Venti).

We arrived around 8pm. We had not realized that lunch was included on the Skywalk trip (really, you didn’t have much choice but to buy it) so Ray had made PBJ sandwiches to take with us. So guess what’s for dinner? Squished PBJs. But we are once again so hungry and tired we really didn’t care. We watched an episode of Psych (season 2) and then just fell in to bed again. Another long day.

Best parts of the day
Ray: Skywalk, an engineering marvel
Kerry: Skywalk, just cool, but those ribs are a close 2nd
Parker: seeing the canyon
Preston: Skywalk, Guano Point rock, ribs

Dam......hot

We woke up early since we are on Central Time. Ray brought coffee and Krispy Kreme doughnuts to the room for breakfast. We met the RV lady at 10 in the parking lot outside. We were a pretty funny sight as we wandered across this HUGE RV lot hunting down the site where Penny was waiting for us. Ray leading the way, followed by Parker then Preston then me – each of us pulling a suitcase, a backpack on our back and/or a laptop plus my hiking stick.

Our RV is a 2006 Fleetwood Fiesta, 2 slides, masterbed rm in back. Very similar to the Bounder from 2 years ago but hopefully not THAT similar. We were happy to say good-bye to “old UN-Faithful” 2 years ago.
We did a quick unpack.

First stop was Wal-Mart for food and supplies. $360 later we were on the road to Hoover Dam. We found a Starbucks!
The scenery is interesting. Certainly something we don’t see – Scrub/Sage brush, cacti. And we wondered what in the world these people do that live way out here in this dessert.

“Dam…Hot” pretty much sums it up. We arrived at Hoover Dam about 4pm in the heat of the day. We had to park in the RV lot which was across the dam and up the hill (a hill which we would later have to walk back up).

We walked down the hill and back across the dam to the Visitor Center. We purchased tickets for the tour, saw a movie, then Ray and the boys went on the Generator Tour while I waited in the Observation Deck. We met back up for a quick walk through that Center. The guide told us they only get 4.75 inches of rain a year. Wow!! We can get that much in a weekend. Oh the jokes were numerous…..best Dam Gift Shop…Dam Hot…”go stand in the Dam line”. The guides had a million of ‘em. Preston just thought that was too funny.






We closed the place down. Time for that walk back up the Dam hill!!! We stopped on the dam for pictures of us standing on the Arizona/Nevada line.

It’s been a long day with more to go. From Hoover Dam we have another 1hr 45 min drive to Meadview RV Park. Good luck finding Meadview on a map. We had started with ½ a tank of gas and begun looking for a gas station. We were really out in the middle of nowhere. We called the RV place and they said there was a gas stn 9 miles past them. We had enough gas but with a ¼ of tank left the generator which powers the back A/C stops working. The last bit of the drive was rather warm for Preston and me.

By the time we arrived at the RV Park we were all tired and very hungry. It was about 10pm Central Time. We quickly grabbed the rotisserie chicken and made sandwiches for dinner.

It has been a really long day. Wal-Mart, Hoover Dam, and Meadview. We quickly made up the beds and just fell into them.

Best parts of the day
Ray: Hoover Dam was amazing
Kerry: Hoover Dam
Parker: Getting the RV
Preston: the whole “dam” day (from our soon-to-be 13 year old)

To Vegas

We start this trip with heavy hearts. Thursday night Steven Butler went to be with the Lord after a 2.5 year battle with brain cancer. He leaves behind his wife and my dear friend Tracy, Sam age 15 who is Parker’s best friend, Max age 13 who is Preston’s friend, Spencer age 10 and Molly age 8, my sweet special “little girl” friend. We are sad that we will miss his funeral and this time with this special family. Please keep them in your prayers.

The taxi arrived right on time at 8am. We loaded up and got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. We traveled with 2 large bags which cost $25 each and 8 carry ons which contained 3 laptops, 1 Wii, my hiking stick, and various books, knitting, and DSs.

We flew from HSV to ATL. Grabbed lunch there then on to Las Vegas. This plane had screens on the backs of the seats. WAY COOL! Preston purchased a $5 game set which he and Parker shared by switching seats. Ray enjoyed listening to music. Parker and I watched The Office, some World Cup soccer, an old baseball classic game and followed the plane on a real time map. I knitted most of the time and listened to the book Snow Blind on my iPod. All in all those screens made the 4 hour trip go very quickly.


We arrived in Vegas around 3:45 local time. Grabbed a taxi to take us to Circus Circus. Checked in to room 27703, on the 27th floor of Skyline Tower.

We opted for pizza in the room. After pizza revived us we went down to the Promenade/Casino/Circus area. The boys had a free ride on the roller coaster, the Canyon Blaster, which was really awesome -2 loops/ 2 corkscrews. I gambled $1 and won 5 free games but won no money. Thus ends my gambling career. We went to the Circus and saw an amazing juggler. He juggled 5 bowling pins, 4 bowling pins and a soccer ball on his head, some rings, and then got on stilts and bounced the ball on a platform which he was balancing on his forehead while juggling 4 bowling pins. Not bad. But all in all…I gotta say…. We aren’t loving Vegas… we are too cheap and I find incredibly disturbing to see thousands of people feeding money into machines. And KIDS - I just don’t understand why in the world people would bring their kids, babies just weeks old, to Vegas. For us Vegas was the best place to pick up the RV. In fact we can see the RV park right below our window. I think we’ll all be ready to get on the road.

Best parts of the day:

Ray: it was Friday and I wasn’t at work

Kerry: TV on the back of airplane seats and almost completing Leanne’s first knitted dishcloth

Parker: Coaster

Preston: the flights b/c they had the computers on the back of the seats and the juggler and roller coaster

Saturday we are supposed to meet the RV guy at 10am then off to Wal-Mart then Hoover Dam.

Getting ready for our next RV trip

This Friday, June 25, 2010 we leave for our next RV adventure. We will be flying from Huntsville, AL to Las Vegas. We'll spend our first night at Circus Circus. On Saturday we will pick up the RV and begin our 3 week journey through the Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, Lake Powell, and other surrounding canyonlands.


This week the boys are at Boy Scout camp. We'll pick them up Thursday night so we can leave Friday.

I hope you'll read along as we go on this trip. We had several readers follow us 2 years ago on our 4 week tour of Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Glacier, and the Pacific Northwest.