Leaving Utah, we went to the north rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona and found an off the grid camping area where we stayed for a few days until we heard it was meant to rain a ton and we were in already sift ground. The kids got to fort building and gathering wood right away.
Paul answered a few emails and I worked on the blog a little.
We stopped to get some groceries on the way to our campsite, and Matix and Lullaby both wanted to spend some of their birthday money on Pokemon cards.
We walked along a rim trail and saw a bit of the north end of the Grand Canyon. Really amazing to see in real life. Pictures never do it justice.
Back to the campsite for s'mores and stories.
More work on the fort for the kids and more work on the camper for us. Paul fixed the roll-out pantry so it wouldn't get stuck on the track anymore.
Matix found a huge wooden sword.
Leaving Arizona and heading toward 4-Corners, which was one of Hawk's must see places. He was so excited to go there. He did a ton of research on it, and when we got there, he played tour guide. The outside scenery changed SO much in just a few hours of driving.
We got to 4-Corners at night, so we camped in Colorado, just for the night, and went there in the morning. There weren't very many people there yet, so we got to spend lots of time playing games, holding hands, reading books, all while in different states. So fun.
On our way out, toward New Mexico, we saw lots of wild horses.
Paul saw a good spot to stop and stretch and have lunch, and we went on a little roadside hike and found a hot spring we didn't know was there. It was a really cool find! It's called Soda Dam on the Jemez River and was so interesting to see and learn about.
Farther down into New Mexico, all the lanes of the highway converged into one lane and we were stopped, one vehicle at a time, and searched. Who knows what for, we weren't near any border. It was super weird. We were told not to make any right turns for the next few miles because of the "National Research Lab", and that it's "classified" whatever they're doing there.
We found a great little camping spot to leave the camper while we went and explored. The site was just above a little lake that we, once again, had all to ourselves. Paul set up his office outside for the day, and when he was finished working, we went to Aztec Ruins National Monument. It was really spectacular. We got to explore INSIDE the ruins. Some areas had signs that asked us to whisper to not disturb the bats.
We saw lizards and bats and little groundhogs all over the place.
Back to our campsite and Paul worked outside again. Yes please.
After some electronic time for the kids, we headed to the lake to check it out. It was pretty nice and the kids loved being in the water again.
They found this huge wasp, probably 2 inches long, in the flowers and ran to me to get the phone and take it up to the cliffs where they were exploring to get a picture.
Then more swimming and sand castle building until dark. Then I went back to the camper to make dinner and brought that and Paul back to the beach to watch the sunset and eat. What a good day.
