Wrap-up and Reflections

We've been home for a few days now.  I've had a chance to repay some of my sleep deficit.  The suitcases are unpacked, the laundry done, and we're settling back into a sense of normalcy being at home.

But before that happens completely, I want to remember what made this trip special.

First, some statistics.

Somewhere in Utah.

We traveled over 5,150 miles.  Our van gave us 23.3 miles per gallon, which cost us $801 dollars for the 221 gallons of gasoline we bought.  The southernmost point we reached was Sedona (Bethany and I made it as far as Cottonwood during a WalMart run).  The farthest west was the Hermit's Rest snack bar on the Grand Canyon shuttle loop.

We visited six national parks: Rocky Mountain (2 days), Great Sand Dunes, Mesa Verde (2 days), Petrified Forest, Grand Canyon (3 days), and Arches.

One night at the Grand Canyon, I pulled out our GPS and asked it to route us home.  It said we were over 2000 miles away and that it would take 32 hours of driving to get there.  That made me feel very far away.

Funniest moment: driving back to Longmont from Estes Park while the kids were slap-happy.  (Katie insisted there was something wrong with her ears and kept saying, "What? What?" Bethany pretended there was a goat named Nancy on our van roof.)
Scariest moment: watching the girls jump into the creek in Sedona from the high rocks.
Worst part of the drive: Tie between late-night Indiana and the storm in the Rockies.
Highest price of gas: Mesa Verde National Park (never buy gas in a national park if you can avoid it!), $4.079/gallon.
Most "remote" part of the trip: southeastern Utah around Monument Valley.  I was checking the odometer between passing cars, and one time it was over 2.5 miles between vehicles, which meant we started 5 miles apart.
Most difficult hike (long): Climbing up between the Flatirons in Boulder.
Most difficult hike (short): Going to see Zapata Falls at Great Sand Dunes.  It was treacherous walking barefoot over those rocks in ice-cold water!
Nicest surprise: Seeing a desert rainbow.
Most educational moment: Tie between Mesa Verde tours and Grand Canyon geological exhibits.  (Honorable mention: Meteor Crater factoids.)

Second, some personal reflections.

I've been asked if this vacation was better than our Yellowstone trip.  I think they are very comparable, with some important differences.  Yellowstone had a lot more variety to it: there was lots of life (I remember seeing buffalo and elk and greenery), there was water (I remember the geysers and waterfalls), and there was more of a feeling of wilderness, but it wasn't barren.

During our Grand Canyon trip, rocks were the star of the show.  Whether that was petrified wood at the Painted Desert, or the impact of a meteorite at the crater, or the exposed walls of the Grand Canyon, geology was front and center on this trip.  Water was mostly noticeable for its absence, or the trace it had left upon the land from erosion.  Desert, rather than wilderness, seemed to be the environment.

For that reason, I'm glad we did Yellowstone when the kids were younger and waited to do the Grand Canyon for when they were more mature.

On our Yellowstone trip, the spiritual lesson that I most gleaned was diversity.  God made so many kinds of incredible things in the natural world!  While there was a surprising amount of diversity on our Grand Canyon journey, the primary spiritual lesson seemed, to me, to be vastness.  Whether it was stealing a peek at the incredible night sky where the Milky Way was so apparent, or driving through miles and miles of uninhabited terrain, or trying in vain to absorb the scope and scale of the Grand Canyon, it is clear that God's almighty power is deserving of awe.

As our trip comes to a close, I am painfully aware that a chapter in our family's life is ending, too.  In less than a month, Daniel will be heading to Case Western Reserve University to begin life in Cleveland as a college freshman.  While Debbie and I rejoice at this accomplishment, we also know that change is inevitable and irreversible.  Life is always uncertain, and it is unknown how many family vacations, especially of this magnitude, may remain.  While I don't have an official "bucket list," the urge to see the Grand Canyon, the Petrified Forest, the Meteor Crater, etc, have been a part of me for as long as I can remember.  I feel content and satisfied that that itch has been scratched.

So what remains?  Our family's plans for a vacation next year are decidedly more urban: we want to go to New York City.  My parents took me during my childhood for a visit, and I would like to explore some of the sights like the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building again.  There is also interest in our family in seeing a Broadway show.  Debbie and I have contemplated going several times over the course of our marriage, but the timing just never seemed right.  We almost went two summers ago, but the Statue of Liberty was closed for remodeling.  We also want to visit Virginia Beach (Debbie's been trying to get us there for years!) and we have tickets that are still good for Disney World, so that is also on our list.

In addition to that, I have another long-term "itch" that I have put off throughout life: Visiting the Holy Land.  I recently attended a pastors' conference at Moody in Chicago, and met with several representative from Israel touring companies.  I can't help but think that, at some point, it will be time to get serious about a true spiritual pilgrimage and see some of the things that I have always read about in the Bible.  I believe that it will greatly enhance my ministry, as well as my own spiritual journey.

So, until next time, I am once again signing off from this blog and thank you for reading it.  I enjoy sharing our adventures with our family and friends, and I also feel that blogging (journaling) while my memories are fresh helps me to crystallize the experiences and remember them better later.

Thank you for going on the journey with me!

In Christ,
Jon

P.S. For anyone interested in planning a trip to the areas I've visited, I would be happy to talk with you in greater depth about these locations.  Several people helped me in organizing our trips, and I would be willing to pass on the favor.

There...and Back Again!

Monday, July 15, was a long day.  We awoke in Longmont, Colorado at 6:15 a.m. and our family's day truly wouldn't end until we were back in Alliance, Ohio 26 hours later (28 with the time changes along the way!)

First things first - Patti provided us with some breakfast breads to start our travels.  We bid the Lees farewell (Addison looked particularly sad about her cousins leaving!) and headed for home, departing just after 7:30 a.m.  After a couple of hours on the road, we reached Nebraska!  As I believe I mentioned before, Colorado is a big state!  And so is Nebraska!

We entered into Central Time, and stopped for lunch at North Platte at a Dairy Queen.  This was the first time any of the five of us had ever been in the state of Nebraska.  It is a long, flat state, but at least it was nice to see so much grass and green after being in the southwest desert.

We finally made it through Nebraska and entered Iowa in the late afternoon.  Because of a lack of good eating places, we made it all the way to Des Moines before stopping for supper around 7 p.m.  We had seen a sign along the highway advertising for the "Iowa Machine Shed Restaurant" and I made an executive decision that I would get to pick the place.  The Iowa Machine Shed Restaurant it was!

It is kind of like a farmer's Cracker Barrel.  They offer complimentary tractor rides around the parking lot.  There is a gift store filled with homespun merchandise.  I felt the food was a little pricey, but very good.  Everything tasted homemade, even the mashed potatoes and especially the bread.  I guess there are now several locations in Iowa, and I wouldn't mind seeing them come to Ohio.  I can think of some farmers I know that would really enjoy the place!

We had reservations at an EconoLodge in Bettendorf, Iowa.  We reached it around 11 p.m. and were faced with a decision.  Stop and stay for the night, leaving VERY early in the morning, or gut it out and press on the rest of the way home.  The final vote was 4 to 1 for pressing on (sorry Debbie!) and so, after a break of less than an hour, we went on.

The best part of our decision was going around Chicago at 2:30 a.m.  If you remember our Yellowstone report, the Chicago leg was the worst drive of the trip!  But in the middle of the night, we had the road almost to ourselves.

Contending with the dark and tiredness was the worst part.  Towards the end of the night around 4:30, my eyes were tired and I could tell I wasn't seeing as good as I should, so we pulled over at an Indiana rest stop for about a half an hour.

We made it to Ohio before sunrise.  Debbie took over the driving around Toledo, and then I drove us home from the turnpike, gassing up in Canton.  Of our entire trip to the southwest, we were the hottest and muggiest when we arrived back home at Alliance around 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, July 16.  It felt so good to be home!

Eastward Bound

On Sunday, July 14, we awoke at 8:00 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time and enjoyed one of the best hotel breakfasts of our trip.  They had blueberry waffles, sausage and eggs, and fresh fruit.

We checked out by 9:30 and headed to Arches National Park, the "dessert" of our sightseeing adventures.  After taking our customary picture at the entrance sign (the kids were almost too cool in their shades to be photographed with us), we toured the Visitor Center, learning about how arches are formed.  We watched the movie and had our passport stamped.  Then it was on to drive some of the trails.  We saw:

The Three Gossips

Balanced Rock

Sheep Rock

...And Several Arches!

We knew that we couldn't stay long, but it was great to get a taste of this place and see enough to get excited about a return visit...some day.

By 11:00, we were leaving the park and heading for Grand Junction, Colorado, for lunch.  We ate at an IHOP (one of the lesser impressive meals on our trip) where the kids admitted that they were getting "sick" of fast food and just wanted to eat at home for awhile.  It took almost two weeks, but it finally happened!

With that, we resumed our eastward journey into the Rocky Mountains.  As we drove along I-70, we traveled alongside the Colorado River, the hidden "star" of the Grand Canyon.  We also drove through several tunnels and up winding mountain roads.  It was probably not a good idea to put Bethany in the back seat of the van, as she began to get car sick with all the twisty driving. (It was the road's fault - honest!) We stopped to get re-settled, and the kids took advantage of the detour to get their feet wet in the Colorado River.

In the middle of the afternoon, we drove into a whale of a storm somewhere west of Vail.  There was lightning, torrential downpours, and a temperature drop of 23 degrees.  Fortunately, we passed through it fairly quickly and kept going.

The only other snag we experienced was hitting the worst mess of construction we had seen on our trip.  Just after passing through the Eisenhower/Johnson Tunnel area west of Denver, traffic came to a standstill, and then crawled for about 15 miles leading into Idaho Springs where tunnel work was being done.  It cost us over an hour in time.

When we finally reached Denver, we stopped at a Chipotle for supper, making Daniel happy that we had visited two of his favorite restaurants today.  (Katie was unhappy with this selection, however, so we stopped at a McDonald's for her in Longmont while we gassed up the van.)

We reached the Lee's home around 7:30 and were able to visit with Patti, Addison and Megan before turning in for the night.  Patti made us delicious chocolate chip cookies, and also offered us some frozen vanilla yogurt to make ice cream sandwiches out of them.  YUM!

It was nice to be back in a familiar setting, east of the Rockies, with just the Mississippi standing in our way.  (That, and about 1400 miles.)

Leaving Grand Canyon

It was time to leave the Grand Canyon, and it was a looong way home.  Rather than just return the way we came, we chose to strike a different path back to Alliance so that we could still see new things.

We got up Saturday morning, July 13, and finished packing and loading the van.  We checked out of Yavapai Lodge and headed east.  We took the Desert View Drive, going east from Grand Canyon Village, stopping at some of the overlooks along the way.

The canyon seemed especially wide at Grandview Point, site of an early copper mine.

Debbie especially enjoyed being able to see the Colorado River at Lipan Point.

We made a final stop in Grand Canyon National Park at the Desert Tower.  It gave us an opportunity to climb up and get an overview of a larger area at the east end of the park.  God certainly did an amazing job of creation with the Grand Canyon!

We said our good-byes to the Grand Canyon and headed to Tuba City for lunch.  (I was disappointed that there were no music stores there named, "Tuba City!")  Once again, Sonic was the place of choice for lunch.  We then continued on to Utah.  Along the way, we saw many fascinating rock formations.

We went through an area called Monument Valley which provided the backdrop for a lot of westerns.  

A town called "Mexican Hat" (see balanced rock above) had some interesting features, too!

We came across our first Arch, Wilson Arch, which Daniel and Bethany explored.

We also saw a hummingbird at Wilson Arch.

Upon reaching the city of Moab, we checked into our hotel for the night.  We ordered Pizza Hut in, and then took advantage of the swimming pool and fitness center.  We were ready for one final adventure the next day!

Grand Canyon, Part III

With only one full day at the Grand Canyon, we had to be very conscious of our time.  We made it to Tusayan for lunch at noon, but wanted to catch the IMAX movie of the Grand Canyon at 12:30.  We went to Wendy's, but the line was backed up almost to the door.  So we switched things up and went through the drive-through, got fast service, and ate in the van in the parking lot of the IMAX theater!  Then we enjoyed watching the film re-create John Wesley Powell's voyage of exploration through the canyon.

On our way back into the park, we stopped for one of our family photos at the sign:

We also happened to see a herd of elk(?) grazing near the rim:

With so much to do, we decided to split up.  Debbie and Katie took the van and went to the campground to do several loads of laundry.  They dropped Jon, Daniel, and Bethany off at the Visitor Center for a hike along the rim.

Daniel and Bethany as we begin our hike.

We hiked from the Visitor Center to Yavapai Point and the Yavapai Geological Museum.  We explored the museum and got our passport stamped.  At 3:00, we heard a talk from "Ranger Dan" about how geologists believe the Grand Canyon was formed.  It consists of D.U.D.E. (Deposition of thousands of feet of rock and sediment, Uplift of the Colorado Plateau from sea-level to a much higher elevation due to plate tectonics, Downcutting of the Colorado River through all those thousands of feet of rock, and Erosion of the surrounding area and tributaries to create the carved canyon look.)

Following our ranger talk, we hiked the "Trail of Time" from the Yavapai Geological Museum to the Verkamp Visitor Center.  This fascinating trail has rock samples from the different layers of the Grand Canyon which visitors can touch along the way.  There are A LOT of layers!

I got a little frustrated with Daniel and Bethany during this part of our day as they were constantly monkeying around, running and wrestling along the trail.  I told them the canyon rim was not the place for horse play!

Oops!  Bethany got a little too close to the edge at one point.

Having completed the laundry, Debbie and Katie picked us up around 4:30 at the Verkamp Visitor Center after we had explored that place and received another passport stamp.  The five of us then parked our van at Maswik Lodge and hopped on a shuttle bus to the western overlooks we had not yet seen.  We stopped at Powell Point and took the bus to the farthest stop on the route: Hermit's Rest:

Hermit's Rest was the farthest westward point on our Grand Canyon vacation, over 2000 miles from home!

We bought a few items at the Hermit's Rest snack stand for our supper, then caught the bus back to Powell Point.  We took a short rim hike to Hopi Point for the Friday night sunset.  It did not disappoint.

The sunset was a beautiful ending to a wonderful day.  We caught the bus back to Maswik Lodge where we also had something to eat.  We drove back to the Yavapai Lodge area for some final shopping and souvenir hunting to remember our time at the Grand Canyon.  Then it was back to our room to pack and re-organize for the trip home.

Grand Canyon, Part II

Getting up at 5:00 in the morning does not come naturally for me.  (I didn't even know that time came around twice a day!) But in order to witness a Grand Canyon sunrise, such a sacrifice was required.  I offered to take Debbie and any of the kids along with me, but they all chose to sleep in.  I can't really say that I blame them, but this was something I really wanted to do.

It was already starting to get light when I got to the van.  I took off for the nearest recommended sunrise-watching spot: Yavapai Point.  When I arrived there were already several dozen cars in the parking lot.

I found a place near the railing where I set up a tripod and video camera.  Within a few moments, I had other photographers all around me, so maybe I picked a good spot?  

As the sun came up, I was stunned at the changing shadows, the way the colors of the varied bands on the canyon walls seemed to "pop", and how the shafts of sunrise hit different parts of the canyon.

I concluded that it was the most beautiful sunrise I ever saw in my life.  (However, as my sister Jenny later pointed out, it's not like that category has a lot of competition.)  

After about an hour, I went back to the Lodge.  It was still too early to wake up the family, so I looked at some of my photographs and blogged.  We had so much planned for the day, I knew I had to get the family up at 8.  They resisted, but it was futile.  We were able to get up and out the door after an in-room breakfast from our food tote, and by 9:30 we were catching the shuttle at the visitor center for our first activity of the day: a hike down into the canyon from the South Kaibab Trailhead, about 1 mile to Ooh Aah Point.  (This was Debbie's pick.)

We made it down along the pathway with some steep drops off to the side.  We saw a snake along the trail.  It seemed like a long way down.

After a lot of huffing and puffing we finally made it to Ooh Aah Point!

Then it was time to hike back UP.  The guidebooks say to budget 1/3 of the time for hiking down and 2/3 for hiking back up.  But we did pretty good in getting up in about the same amount of time that it took going down.  The first picture below shows what the trail looked like looking up from Ooh Aah Point.  In the second photo, you can see people hiking back and forth on the switchbacks leading up to the rim.

We got back on the shuttle bus and stopped to look at the farthest east stop on the route: Yaki Point.  A very nice lady offered to take our picture, and I think we have the 2013 Truax Family Christmas Card:

We returned to the visitor center to get our van and drove to Tusayan for lunch.  More to follow...

Grand Canyon, Part I

After spelunking in Lava River Cave, we dispensed with a couple of our side trips (Sunset Crater Volcano and Wupatki National Monument) in order to have more time at the Grand Canyon.  I'm glad we did.

We arrived at the South Gate around 4:30 p.m.  We drove to the Visitor Center and proceeded to Mather Point for our first look at the Canyon:

Our first look.

It is incredibly impressive.  Much has been said about how the Grand Canyon cannot be captured in words or art.  I agree.  The thing is just so...vast.  It runs from beyond one end of the horizon to beyond the edge of the other, and it stretches out before you for miles.  Debbie and I both agree that the picture we had in our minds was that of "a canyon."  But the Grand Canyon seems to be riddled with canyons upon canyons.  It is so three-dimensional that it is astonishing.

Another thing I noticed is how perspective at the Grand Canyon plays such an important part.  With every movement you make, the foreground changes but the background remains the same.  This gives rise to a seemingly infinite number of views.  There are so many good views that it's hard NOT to find a good angle or shot.  I wonder how many pictures are taken of Grand Canyon every day or in an average year.

Our family probably took hundreds of photos, which I will spare the readers of this blog.  If you ever want to sit through them all, just let me know!  Instead, I will just share the most significant or meaningful from our journey.

After we had gaped in awe for about 45 minutes, we returned to our van and drove to Yavapai Lodge for check-in.  Since it was close to supper time, we ate in the Lodge food court.  The meal was...adequate.  We then went to our room and unloaded.  We were delighted to find that we were given a very user-friendly room with lots of shelves and storage space, and we ordered a rollaway bed for Daniel.

After so many busy days, the kids wanted some time just to crash in the room, so Debbie and I decided to go check out the shuttle bus system so we would know it for the next day.  We caught the first bus that came along, and it took us to the transfer point for continuing our journey to the west.  From my research, I knew that Hopi Point is one of the best spots to watch the sunset over the canyon.  We made it there around 7:30, with enough time to enjoy the sunset at 7:45.  With a hazy, overcast sky, however, the sunset wasn't overly remarkable.

Sunset at Hopi Point.

Grand Canyon National Park does a great job running their shuttles.  They got us back down to our room very quickly.  The kids went to the lobby to get on the internet, while I went to bed early because I had a special mission for the next day: to see the sunrise over the Grand Canyon.

Almost There

On Thursday, July 11, we woke up in Sedona.  After a hotel breakfast and loading up the van, we were ready to finish exploring Sedona, make a quick stop in Flagstaff, enjoy one more surprise with the kids, and finally enter the Grand Canyon area.  We definitely need a break to re-organize and re-pack as our van is looking like this:

We decided to drive around Sedona and see some of the sites we hadn't yet seen.  We went on the Red Rock Loop and saw some magnificent views.  At one of them we ran into a couple from Dallas who shared that they had been coming to Sedona for years and, loving it, wanted to move there.  Afterwards, Debbie and I talked and agreed that, although the area is very beautiful, it didn't quite capture our hearts as some other places have, but I could see how it could be that resonant for some folks.  The friendly couple from Dallas took this picture for us:

One thing about Sedona is that it seems to be the center for New Age-y kind of beliefs.  There were signs for psychics, "aura readings", and a UFO center.  There are supposed to be some kind of "vortexes" here in Sedona.  We never saw any, but they had plenty of those roundabout things.

We hit the road for Flagstaff and arrived in time for lunch.  We had seen a Chick-Fil-A the previous day, so we stopped there and also filled up the gas tank.  We made another stop at a Wal-Mart to replace the air mattress that Daniel uses sometimes.  (The old one has a slow leak in it somewhere.)

There was still the issue of a mystery side trip.  We followed directions that I got from AAA for a little place I had discovered on tripadvisor.com for "one of the top things to do in Flagstaff."  We pulled off the highway onto a dirt road, then onto a second dirt road, then onto a third dirt road, before ending up here, at Lava River Cave:

The three kids made it all the way to the end of the cave and back.  I made it about 1/6th of the way in before I realized I was slowing them down, so I went back.  Debbie had only ventured in as far as you could no longer see natural light, and decided to return because the rocks were too difficult for her to climb them safely.  Still, we all agreed it was a fun activity!

Now it was finally time to do what we had come to do - visit the Grand Canyon!

Free Fallin'

As promised, here are some videos of our cliff dives.  All I can say is that my kids are more fearless than I am!

Daniel jumps:

Katie jumps:

Bethany jumps:

I have to edit my jump because I took a rather long time to be convinced to jump in.  I'll try to post it eventually.  :)

Goodness, Gracious!

On Wednesday, July 10, we awoke in Winslow and continued our westward journey on I-40 after a decent hotel breakfast.

We quickly made our first stop of the day - Meteor Crater!

What can you say about Meteor Crater that hasn't already been said?  Is it expensive?  Yes.  Is it just a big hole in the ground?  Yes.  Is it sensationalized?  Yes.  (They have their own low-range radio station which advertises the site with an emphasis on it being 4000 feet wide, followed by a loud echo - 4000 FEET WIDE!)

Was it fun?  Yes!

Four of us on the half-hour tour of the crater rim.

Katie opted to wait in the air conditioned visitor center!

My impression of the crater was that it is larger and deeper than is often depicted in film and photos - it pushed up so much dirt and rock around it that resembles a huge football stadium.  (The literature says 20 football fields could fit in the base of the crater.)

Since our family likes scientific things, we enjoyed the tour by our guide Eduardo teaching us about the history of the crater, how it was believed to be formed, and its modern background.  The accompanying museum and 2 films were also very nice.  We stopped in the gift shop so I could get the souvenir I most wanted on this trip: a cactus!  (Hopefully it will survive the trip home.)

One highlight was getting to actually touch the largest surviving chunk of the meteorite itself - a 1400-pound fragment of iron/nickel.  It was cool to touch a piece of outer space that had crashed into earth 50,000 years ago at 26,000 mph!  (Yes, I learned a lot of factoids about Meteor Crater!)

Debbie and the Holsinger Meteorite (Genuine article, not a reproduction.)

Katie made it out to see the crater eventually!

It was hard to top Meteor Crater, but I think we did.  We continued heading west, stopping for lunch in Flagstaff (it was so nice to be back in civilization) and eating at a Five Guys Burger and Fries, per Daniel's request.

We then headed down an incredibly scenic drive through Oak Canyon to Sedona.  I had heard that one of the best things to do in Sedona for kids is an area of natural water slides.  So we stopped at a little park called "Grasshopper Point" and headed to the creek.  The kids got to jump in one time, and then a thunderstorm hit.  We tried to wait it out (playing the "I'm going to Arizona, and I'm bringing..." alphabet game.)  Eventually we gave up and went to check in to our hotel.  We saw a break in the storm on the Weather Channel, so we headed back out.  For over an hour, the kids fearlessly jumped off cliffs, and persuaded me to jump also, although not so fearlessly!

(I am not sure how to post videos on here - If I figure that out, I will put on some videos of the jumps. Bethany and Katie actually jumped off one of the high cliffs in the first picture!)

We ate dinner at a Burger King after driving around to look at the massive rock formations in Sedona.  They were very beautiful and impressive.  They all have great names like "Snoopy" or "Courthouse" or "Bell."  Debbie and I couldn't discern any of the shapes, however.  I guess that's why they offer tours.

Chapel of the Holy Cross

Courthouse Rock(?)

Two people recommended that we head up to the Sedona Airport for a view of the sunset.  We did, and that was quite nice to get a sweeping view of the town and many of the buttes and mesas.  It was a little overcast due to the weather, so it wasn't the best sunset, but it was still definitely a worthwhile experience.

Jon and Debbie up at the Sedona Airport

Bethany and I took a trip to Cottonwood for a Wal-Mart run while Katie swam in the hotel pool.  After a very full and exhausting day, we were ready for the refreshment of a night's sleep.