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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 »