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Passports Not Hallpasses

Family of Four Traveling the World, Exploring New Countries and Learning a Lot Along the Way

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Arizona

Arizona After Tucson

Petrified Forest

Petrified Forest was so much better then I thought it would be. It is my favorite national park we have been to on this trip. The best part of it was you felt like you were on a different planet. Nothing there looked like Earth.

I would definitely go back if we were passing through. We went on a couple really cool hikes. We at least saw about 50 different whole logs. I thought the coolest bit about the hike was the history of these logs. The most interesting thing that I learned was how the wood got petrified.

How it gets petrified

1.The tree falls down and goes into a river

2.The minerals in the river that make the petrified wood is silica

3.The wood gets stuck in the mud and sits there

4.Then the river dries out and you still can’t see the wood

5.The mud erodes and you have your petrified wood

Bye, Petrified forest
I will miss you:(

Boondocking

We are in Flagstaff, Arizona and are boondocking in the Coconino national forest. We pull into this crazy bumpy dirt road and not sure if we should keep going, and right before we were going to turn around, a nice spot was right in front of us. So we pull in and unload. We all jump out stretching our legs from the four hour drive. Since we were boondocking we let Gracie (our dog) off the leash. Caden and I can’t wait to explore, so we unload and grab our bikes. We go pretty far on a trail and see a herd of about ten to fifteen elk. At about that time, we’re ready to head in. That night it was twenty degrees out side and we didn’t have a heater. Everyone was freezing.

The next day we stay around the RV. Caden, my mom, and I go on a mountain biking trail. It was so fun until we got to a really big incline. We were going up for about 40-45 minutes. It was so hard. We walked our bikes for most of the time. We were so happy when it was flat/not incredibly up hill. The trail was finally over and went on to a road which went back down to our RV. Everyone was so sore the next day (from the biking)

Gracie off leash.

Grand Canyon

The next day we headed out to the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon was beautiful. We did a really short trail along the side of the canyon. I wouldn’t spend more then a day there (unless you go on a long hike). It was so cool. Fun fact: the Grand Canyon rock is half the age of the Earth. What I loved about Grand Canyon is that you could see the history of the rock layers.
My favorite pictures from the Grand Canyon:

National Monuments

Today we headed out to the two National Monuments next to us. The first one we went to is Sunset Crater. It was definitely better then any one expected. The trail we went on was in the middle of dried lava flow. It was so cool and interesting. Every hill and mountain here is a volcano! Scientists are puzzled on how the volcanoes formed here in Arizona.

The second National Monument we went to was Wutpaki National Monument. It was ok. The thing I didn’t like about it was the weather. It was so windy, all the sand got in our eyes. The building that the tribes have built was actually really complex. My favorite thing about it was that there was a fire room. That means there was a vent on the roof and on the sides, so when it got cold they could have a fire and stay warm without the room getting smokey.

 

 

A Week of Drycamping in the Coconino National Forest

Our trip from Tucson ended just south of Flagstaff in the Coconino National Forest. I had learned of some good spots to drycamp (no hookups for the RV) in some of the roadschooling sites we are in. The place we ended up was nothing short of amazing.

Our views outside the RV window.

The forest in our area had already been somewhat cleared by the Forest Service. So there were trees, but not crazy amounts of them or a ton of underbrush. The kids went wild walking around. Our very first evening there, they stumbled upon a large herd of elk. The elk weren’t really concerned with the kids or us, and just continued on their way. It was exciting to see all the babies.

In between our day trips out to the nearby parks and monuments, we had a blast in the forest. Scott was able to set up our solar panels. We were able to get almost all of our power from the solar and only needed to turn on the generator in the late evening due to the freezing temperatures. The only exception to that was one day that it actually snowed. It was beautiful seeing the huge snowflakes falling all around the RV and in between the trees. The only thing more enjoyable than the snow was the sunset.

The forest was fun for hiking and mountain biking. The kids and I went on a long (almost all uphill) mountain bike path. It almost killed me. Once we finally made it to the top of the mountain, it was smooth sailing, but there were moments when I considered just laying the bike down and napping on the side of the trail.

Gracie loved the forest. As long as there was no one around, we let her wander around with us off leash. I was surprised that she wouldn’t go outside without one of us though. It would’ve been handy on that snowy day…

KIB also got in on the great outdoors and even enjoyed a walk about on the ground outside the RV.

KIB enjoying a sunny afternoon on the patio.

We had the place almost entirely to ourselves while we were there. On the beautiful weekend days, some other outdoorsy folks would drive past us or unload bikes near where we were, but aside from that, we rarely saw anyone. It was brilliant and by far our favorite place to park the RV. Our last night there, we finally used all of our fresh water tank. We never really intended to stay for six nights, so we hadn’t filled up our tank all the way. It worked out fine since since we had a few gallons of water in the RV.

Finally we forced ourselves to leave and headed towards Death Valley. The only surprise there was that we drove through Las Vegas without stopping for a single gamble.

The Grand Canyon

On our second day in the national forest, we realized we were just over an hour from the south rim of the Grand Canyon. We had previously planned to camp for a few days there, but we were all so in love with staying in the forest that we decided to make the drive that morning.

The Canyon of course was beautiful.

We didn’t really go for any hikes, since we only had the day. The kids and Scott managed to go down a steep rocky outcropping to get some amazing off-path views.
The man in blue who happened to be doing some kind of photo shoot made the views even better.

The wildlife at the Park was even less scared that the ones near our spot in the forest. Mommas and baby elk alike walked past us within a few feet.


Through the crowds, we caught the highlights of the Canyon. We made the scenic drive to finish up the kids’ junior ranger badges at the far ranger station.

All in all a decent trip to the Grand Canyon. Since we weren’t able/willing to hike down to the bottom of the canyon, the day trip served us perfectly.

A Day of Geology and Social Studies

About forty minutes from our campsite were two beautiful places to visit. The fact that the kids could earn junior ranger badges made them all the more enticing.

The first stop was Sunset Crater National Monument. We were all surprised to learn that the scientists are still uncertain what caused the volcanoes in northern Arizona to form. Whatever the cause, we were all shocked to see such a stark contrast there compared to the surrounding areas. Lava Flow trail was stunning even with my big mug in the photo!

Aspen trees next to pine trees seemed to be the majority of the very little vegetation scattered among the volcanic rock. Unfortunately the crater itself was closed to visits in an attempt to help preserve it.

The other (and directly adjacent) monument was the Wupatki National Monument. On the way there, we stopped so Scott could help push a couple of women out of the ditch. The kids thought it was hilarious that one of them refused to leave until I hugged her. Backing up, putting my hands up, and even verbally closing it down, she still insisted on hugging me. I didn’t even push her car out!

Finally at the monument, we were able to see pueblos built by the indigenous people over one thousand years ago. The knowledge that went into building the pueblo included making it possible for the people to have a well vented fire room to stay warm in the winters without suffocating. We were all impressed with what it took to make such a large, essentially town-center for hundreds of people, work so well.

The largest and most restored of several different pueblos built in the area.

While we weren’t allowed to go inside the rooms, the walkway took us right up to the building. The complexity of a building so old was amazing.

[I laughed when I started editing these pictures. What the photos don’t show is how unbelievably windy it was that day. There were a few moments where the kids hid behind us while using us as windbreaks. Had we not been there, they may well have blown away. We skipped the last two ruins due to the winds.]

Petrified Forest National Park

Petrified Forest was about two hours from our camping spot, so we shot for a relatively early start. To break up the drive, we stopped just outside of Winslow, Arizona to see the Meteor Crater. Other than actually seeing the almost-mile across crater that was created 10,000 years ago (by a 150 foot meteor!), the stop was ridiculous.

Way down there, is a six foot tall cutout next to a flag. This is provided to give a sense of how deep the crater is.

After not being impressed, we continued our journey to the Petrified Forest National Park.

We had heard mixed reviews on the Forest. I was expecting very little and was very happy when my expectations were exceeded.

The scenery was beautiful.

Even the ridiculous kids thought the landscape was some of the most interesting we have seen.

I was worried we wouldn’t see much petrified rock, but it was everywhere we looked. The badlands areas had very little, but the “forests” were exactly what you would expect in terms of the amount of wood.

Some pieces were small and vividly colored.

Othe pieces were huge and littered the ground.

We managed to make a few smaller hikes to see some of the less discovered areas. I was surprised by how few of the visitors left the paved roads and walked down any of the unsaved paths. Behind the second visitors center on the south side of the park, we were able to see Old Faithful. This particular tree is approximately ten feet in diameter.

Old Faithful is huge!

The kids finished up their junior ranger badges at that visitor center as well. The park ranger happened to be a volunteer. He was pretty entertaining.

All in all, Petrified Forest was well worth a visit. When we left, Keali mentioned that it was her favorite of the parks so far due to the crazy changes in landscapes around every corner. The badlands to the cliffs, the reds to the whites, and all the layers of deposited rock as seen in the Grand Canyon made it interesting. The abundance of petrified wood was fun to learn about. (See Keali’s blog if you are interested in what causes the wood to petrify.) This park is a “must see”.