Grand Canyon

Waking up and realizing it was me, and only me with the kids was, well, interesting.  It's not often that I'm not with Bear in our travels, and here I woke up realizing for the next three weeks, it's me and just me!

YIKES!

After a quick breakfast, we packed the minivan up and were on our way to the Grand Canyon, entering from the northeast side of the southern rim.

Once we arrived, Boo was awed as he scanned the canyon for the first time:

We headed into the Visitor Center to grab a Junior Ranger book, and over lunch realized this wasn't going to be a short stop - we'd need to be here for a few hours to do the program correctly for Boo to really earn the badge.  With that, we headed to some of the canyon sites to explore.  Not an easy task with a baby in tow, but we managed.  Then we headed for a ranger program on the history of the canyon - not its geological history, but how it turned into a tourist attraction and the many changes over the years in tourism.

After doing a couple more activities to explore and find some things needed, Boo earned his Junior Ranger badge and was duly sworn in!

Since it was mid-afternoon, I looked at our National Park Passport and decided that we'd likely make it in time to see Sunset Crater Volcano near Flagstaff, AZ.

We made it to the Visitor Center about an hour before closing, in time, but not in enough time to do the Junior Ranger program any justice.  So, with that, I decided we'd stay the night and return the next day before pushing off to California.

Good decision too - the park ranger let me know there were two other parks in the area that we might want to see too, Walnut Canyon and Wutpatki Ruins!  With all three junior ranger books in hand, we headed to a hotel for the night and laid out our day to try to do all three in one day!