The Weynand Blog

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The Watchtower and the Palms

Day four started out with the kids waking up at about 6:00am. They were clearly still on Texas time. It did give us an early start to our day though.

The Desert View Watchtower

We ate breakfast and then headed east along East Rim Drive, which traveled along the canyon and offered up some great views every so often. The weather seemed much better today than yesterday. More on that later. Our destination was the historic Desert View Watchtower at the east end of the park. We got there and ascended the stairs up several levels. At the top, we were able to enjoy a 360° view of the canyon and its surroundings.

On our walk back to the RV, the weather took a turn for the worse (again). It started snowing and the temperature dropped. We hurried inside and hit the road. On the way out of the park, we hit some major snowstorms and the ground looked like the dead of winter. It was time to get out of there. We loved the Grand Canyon, but we pointed our RV toward a warmer climate and hit the gas.

We ate lunch near a retired locomotive in Kingman, Arizona

We were headed toward San Diego, where we planned to do a few family activities before we had our reservation at Big Sur. Since we didn’t want to drive all day, we chose a stop about 4 hours west along I-40. The Palms River Resort is a small RV park and community, with some permanent residents, along the Colorado River in Needles, California. We made our reservation along the way and arrived around 4:30pm. We quickly hooked up the RV, then headed for the pool. They had a main pool, a kids pool and two heated jacuzzi pools. We hung out there for a while with the kids. It was very relaxing and the kids had a great time. We laughed when we thought about spending the morning in a snow storm and the afternoon in a swimming pool.

After swimming, we went back to the RV and grilled hot dogs for dinner. Then we put the kids to bed and sat outside the RV, enjoying the amazing weather southern California is known for.

« Day 3: The Grand Canyon in Some Not-So-Grand Weather | Day 5 »

« Day 2: To the Big Crack | Day 4: The Watchtower and the Palms »

Courtney on the trail

The Grand Canyon in Some Not-So-Grand Weather

Last night we kept waking up to rain and hail pelting the roof of our RV. The miserable weather continued into day three of our trip. We sat in the RV most of the morning watching hail fall and snow flurries. Finally we decided that we weren’t going to sit around anymore and packed up to go see the canyon.

We took a shuttle bus to a lookout point, called Mather Point, along the south rim trail. We were greeted with some breathtaking views, the ones that make the long drive in a cramped RV all worth it. There were even a few breaks in the clouds and the rock formations were even more beautiful with sunbeams dancing off of them. From Mather Point, we hiked west along the south rim toward Yavapai Point. This destination gave us more spectacular views and a small geology museum, where we took refuge for about 30 minutes.

Nicholas and Eisley peer out at the canyon

After resting up we decided to keep hiking west toward a bus stop along the trail. However, about half-way into the last leg of our hike, we were greeted by severe hail and snow flurries. The temperature also seemed to drop about 20 degrees. At this point we had two choices: turn back toward the museum or press on. We decided to press on, which was probably a mistake. The kids were cold and getting colder. Everett was screaming his lungs out and we were getting strange looks from the few hikers also braving the elements (“why do you have your kids out in this mess?” we could hear them thinking).

We survived the cold and finally made it to a shuttle stop. From there, we headed to a nearby restaurant and warmed up with some central heat and hot chocolate. After getting our body temperatures back up, we headed back to the RV to drop a few things off, then caught another shuttle to the visitor’s center. It was there that we saw a short educational film about the canyon.

A rock formation that we spotted along the way

After the movie, we headed back to our campsite and called it a night. We can only hope for better weather on the rest of our journey.

« Day 2: To the Big Crack | Day 4: The Watchtower and the Palms »

« Day 1: Out of Texas into New Mexico | Day 3:The Grand Canyon in Some Not-So-Grand Weather »

Eisley on her "Rocketship to Jupiter" at the Gallup, NM city park

To the Big Crack

We woke up and headed out at around 9:15am. We drove for about 4½ hours, stopping in Gallup, New Mexico for lunch. We found a little city park where we ate and played for a while. Near the park was a small peak that we climbed to the top of and enjoyed the view of the small town.

We arrived at Grand Canyon National Park (or as Eisley calls it, the “big crack in the ground”) around 8:00pm. As we were approaching the park, we saw two very large elk (we think they were elk) eating grass near the highway. Tourists were standing around taking pictures and filming them, so we pulled the RV over and joined them. After the Elk were bored, they very carefully crossed the busy street and luckily drivers were smart enough to give them the right of way.

One of the elk we saw crossing the road

After entering the park, we found our spot in “Trailer Village”. We had one of about 80 RV spots with full hookups. It wasn’t scenic, all the RVs were kind of stacked on top of one another, but Trailer Village is the only RV park within walking distance of the Grand Canyon.

After settling in, we made leftover pizza for dinner and then put the kids to bed. Compared to how it went last night, tonight was heaven. The kids went to bed with relative ease and we sat and enjoyed a glass of wine before turning in ourselves.

« Day 1: Out of Texas into New Mexico | Day 3:The Grand Canyon in Some Not-So-Grand Weather »

Day 2: To the big crack »

Out of Texas into New Mexico

The 31-foot "Sunseeker". Our home for two weeks.

We left our house at about 5:15am Saturday morning. We had packed up our rented RV the night before. Our destination was the Grand Canyon, then Big Sur, California then, after that, anyone’s guess. We had two weeks ahead of us to enjoy the great American southwest and had hopes of making the most of it.

We drove for about five hours straight and arrived in Lubbock, Texas around lunch time. We located the “world famous” Prairie Dog Town and observed the little critters go about their daily lives for a while. The babies were really cute and Eisley got a kick out of it. Some nice lady came over and gave us some nuts and berries so that we could feed them.

One of the residents of "Prairie Dog Town"

After that, we settled down for some lunch ourselves. We found a shady area where we ate and let the kids run around and stretch their legs a bit. Then we were on the road again.

One disappointing realization we had was how expensive gas was. By the time we hit Lubbock we had already spent nearly $250 on fuel. We did the calculation and figured out that our gas guzzling RV was averaging just under 9 miles per gallon. And with gas at around $4.00 per gallon…well…this was going to be one expensive road trip. Maybe we would stay put at a few more places then we originally thought.

After getting back on the highway, we set our sights on Santa Rosa, New Mexico. We arrived there around 6:00 in the evening and found a spot at Santa Rosa State Park. It was a quiet little camping ground near Santa Rosa lake. We grilled burgers and then attempted to put the kids to bed. I say attempted because they both put up quite the fight.

Our view of the lake at Santa Rosa State Park

After we finally got them both quieted down, something strange happened. I was on my way to take the trash down to the dumpster when I noticed three men approach our RV and knock on the door. I headed back to the campsite to figure out what was going on. They informed us that they had rights to the spot we were in. They had stayed there the night before and were returning from a day of fishing to get some sleep. When we told them nothing was here when we pulled up, they figured they must have been robbed while they were away. One of the fishermen was most perturbed that his bottle of Crown Royal went missing. After cursing about the situation, the three guys decided to move on and find another spot…only to return 10 minutes later looking for an extension cord. When I told them we didn’t have one, they moved on…only to return 20 minutes later asking if they could pull their boat in front of our RV to plug it in for the night. I said sure and we all finally went to bed.

Day 2: To the big crack »

In August, we went took our annual beach trip to Port Aransas with Courtney’s sister’s family and Courtney’s mom, Patti. We stayed four nights. We spent the entire first day down at the beach. On the second day, we drove into Corpus Christi and went to the Texas State Aquarium. On the last day, we went down to the beach again.