The Nelsons Go Southwest - Petrified Forest and HOME

Leaving Tusayan early Friday morning was sad for us. Not only were we leaving the Grand Canyon, but it was the official end of our trip. The trip had been AMAZING, and we weren't quite ready for it to be over. But alas, real life awaited. 

With about 10 hours of driving time ahead of us, we drove south out of Tusayan, hit I-40, and headed east across Arizona. We had a bit of a hard time getting around as early as we would have liked that morning, and that coupled with several stops for fuel and restroom breaks meant that we weren't making as good of time as we wanted. However, I-40 in Arizona runs right through the Petrified Forest National Park - and while we absolutely didn't have time do much there - we wanted to at least make a quick stop. 

Last National Park of the trip!

We quickly looked around the visitor's center, then set off on the scenic drive to see just a bit of the park. 

We thought the southwest architecture was perfect. 

Brianna had purchased a ring at one of the gift shops near the Grand Canyon. She decided to show it off in this photo, so of course the twins copied her, ha!

Love the pink

This was a restroom facility we stopped at before we exited the park . . . so unique!

By 11:25am, we were saying good-bye to Arizona.

We stopped for lunch at Sonic in a town on the western side of New Mexico. We needed somewhere quick, and we were just tired of eating out of our food bin. Besides, there wasn't much food left in it! While we were at Sonic, a man came up to our vehicle and asked for money. Chris didn't want to give him money, but offered him what we had left of a loaf of bread, lunchmeat, a couple cheese sticks, and a bottle of water. He took all we offered and seemed very grateful for it. We were thrilled to give the food away to someone who could use it because we probably would have thrown it out once we got home. 

Everyone was so tuckered out that they slept several hours in the afternoon as we drove across New Mexico. 

It was already 5:00pm as we were rolling into Tucamcari, New Mexico, and we hadn't even crossed into Central Time Zone yet ("losing" an hour). Chris and I seriously considered driving all the way home because we were just ready to sleep in our own bed! We were both at the point of just being done with the trip. However, it would have been well into the night (like 2:00 or 3:00am) by the time we got home, and we decided we just didn't have it in us to push it that hard. 

At least the sunset was beautiful!

We stopped for dinner in Tucamcari at a sit down restaurant that was very good. It took a while, but it was worth it for good food! After that, we had about two more hours of driving time before we made it to Amarillo, Texas for the night. 

All of us were exhausted that night, but thankfully we only had about six more hours to drive before reaching home on Saturday. Our trip home was smooth. We hit Oklahoma City at about lunchtime and decided to eat Quik Trip food for lunch . . . not our best decision 😂. Also, the kids had played the license plate game during our entire trip, and the only state they had not yet seen was Rhode Island. Wouldn't you know that a car with a Rhode Island license plate passed us on a highway in OKC, and Brianna screamed out "Rhode Island!!!" and scared us out of our wits! We all thought that was pretty hilarious.

We pulled into our driveway right about 2:00pm, looking like we'd been through the ringer. Our van looked the same. I was blown away when Chris pulled the seats out of the van, and we saw this:

😂😂😂

It served us well, but it may never be the same again!

That evening, we went to our favorite local Mexican food place for dinner. Finally some good Mexican food . . . and it hit the spot! On our way home, we enjoyed the Oklahoma sunset. I reminded myself that as much as I love to travel, I must always take the time to enjoy what is in my own backyard. 

Grateful doesn't even begin to describe how I feel about being able to take a trip like this. Admiring God's amazing creativity and majesty through His creation is a blessing that I can't adequately put into words. Spending that precious time together as a family and making memories that will hopefully last a lifetime was truly a dream come true. What an enormous blessing this trip was!

The Nelsons Go Southwest - Grand Canyon National Park

Back at the beginning of the year - when Chris and I first started discussing taking a trip for our 20th anniversary - the Grand Canyon was our destination of choice. That quickly grew into THIS trip, which was more like a tour of the Grand Circle. 

We had a wonderful time on this trip. We had so many fantastic experiences and and saw amazing sights, and it was just priceless time as a family discovering and soaking in God's awesome creation. I will say though . . . if I had it to do over again, I would have planned the trip in reverse order. The Grand Canyon was what we thought was the main attraction, but we maybe didn't enjoy it like we would have had it been at the beginning of the trip.

On Wednesday (November 11th), we woke up in Page, Arizona, and everyone had a slight case of the grumpies. I think we were just fatigued more than anything. Thankfully, it didn't take too long for the grumpies to be replaced by excitement and awe for the blessings of the experiences we were having.  

As part of their trip binder, we printed each of the children a little magazine produced by Apologetics Press on the Grand Canyon from a creationist point of view. We knew we'd be exposed to lots of evolutionary theory on this trip, and we wanted the children to be able to see that there is another side of things. Included in the booklet was some information on Glen Canyon Dam and the evidence it provides for the Biblical Flood and creation. Since we'd stayed the night in Page, we decided to make a quick stop by Glen Canyon Dam before setting out toward the Grand Canyon. 

Chris and the kids at Glen Canyon Dam

Chris

The dam was pretty amazing!

From Glen Canyon Dam, we set out for the Grand Canyon National Park. While it was only about 2 hours from the dam to the Desert View Watchtower on the eastern side of the south rim of the canyon, we stopped at a couple different souvenir shops along the way. We arrived at Grand Canyon National Park a little before noon. 

We made it!!! 👏👏👏

Our very first views of the Grand Canyon were from the Desert View Watchtower area. We were in awe!

Brooke and Brecklyn

Bren and Bri

💗

At spots like the one in the photo below, I was a little bit of a nervous Nelly. Brooke and Brenson kept wanting to get waaaaay too close to the edge!

What a way to celebrate 20 years of marriage!

The Desert View Watchtower area had a small grocery store and a picnic area, so we decided we should eat lunch while we were there. It was a beautiful day, although chilly in the shade. 

Sadly, we weren't able to go up in the Desert View Watchtower, as it was closed for "covid safety concerns". Never mind that the small gift shop was definitely open for business. Argh!

After lunch, we continued west on the Desert View Drive toward the Visitor's Center. Of course, we stopped at several more viewpoints along the way.

Navajo Point

Lipan Point

Moran Point

Grandview Point

I remembered from being at the Grand Canyon as a kid how big the visitor's center is, but the kids were all fascinated. Parking wasn't too bad, although we did have to walk a ways to get to the center. After using the restroom, milling around the gift shop, and grabbing a snack, we decided to make our way down the short path to Mather Point. 

It was only about 4:00pm, but we really wanted to stay at Mather Point to see the sunset (which was at about 5:30pm). We walked back to our van, grabbed our winter gear, and then trekked back out to Mather Point. 

The way the light reflected on the canyon when the sun started setting was incredible. 

One of my favorite pics!

Mather Point was already starting to get crowded by about 4:30pm, so we didn't want to leave. However, just sitting and waiting as the desert sun was setting made us COLD. We finally busted out more snacks to keep the kids distracted from freezing.

As time went on, the canyon became more and more colorful. 

My sweet Bri

Twinbie loves

My Brennie Boy

Finally, the sky just lit up with rainbow colors. Photos don't even begin to capture how spectacular it was!

We are SO glad we waited! Worth it in every way!

We stayed that night in nearby Tusayan at the Red Feather Lodge. Even though we had made our reservations back in March - and it was the off season - we couldn't find a place that had suites available. We had to purchase two regular hotel rooms that had an adjoining door. The kids liked this arrangement because that meant we had two bathrooms, haha. Since we had stayed at Grand Canyon for the sunset, then walked back to our vehicle, then had to drive to Tusayan, the kids were really hungry once we got into town. We grabbed dinner at McDonalds because it was fast and easy. 

The next morning (Thursday, November 11th), we ate breakfast and visited a few souvenir shops in Tusayan before heading back to Grand Canyon National Park. Our plan for the day was originally to do a bit of hiking in the Grand Canyon. We were thinking that maybe we would take the first part of Bright Angel Trail or something similar. However, we were just not up for it. This is one of the reasons that I wish we would have done our trip in reverse order. Maybe if we had stopped at the Grand Canyon earlier on in our trip, we would have been able to get down in the canyon a bit. 

Knowing we weren't up for any major hiking, we made a new plan to park at the visitor's center and take the free shuttle west of the visitor's center all the way to Hermit's Rest. 

One of the great things about the shuttle was that it made several stops along the rim between the visitor's center and Hermit's Rest. Visitors could get off the shuttle at any stop, spend some time, and catch the next shuttle if desired. Also, there is a great walking path (even paved in spots) between each shuttle stop. We got off at one of the first stops to see the viewpoint. 

Brenson

Brecklyn

Beautiful morning and even better views!

We decided to walk along the rim trail for a while instead of take the shuttle the entire way to Hermit's Rest. I'm not sure how long we walked exactly, but it was several miles. Poor Brecklyn got a big splinter in one of her fingers from a resting bench at one of the overlooks, and we had to stop to dig it out.

The rim trail was full of interesting things to observe . . . including animal scat. 

Brianna was less than impressed with me taking photos of them pointing to poop, haha!

We also saw some creatures and lots of fascinating plants!

Oh, and animal tracks, of course!

But the real attraction was the views of the canyon. It just didn't get old!

While taking the photo above, I somehow got too close to a thorny tree and it hooked my shirt, ripping a hole in it. I was sad!

This crew did great walking for several miles on the rim trail!

Brooke and Brecklyn

More animal scat, ha!

Brianna and Daddy 

Chelley and Chris

The girls

At some point, we caught the shuttle and rode the rest of the way to Hermit's Rest. By this time, we were ready to sit down and eat the lunch we had packed.

We made it!

Hermit's Rest had a small {crowded} giftshop where we purchased freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. They were delicious!

I loved this sign on one of the stone pillars at Hermit's Rest 💖.

After our break at Hermit's Rest, we caught a shuttle going back east toward the visitor's center (the only way the shuttle runs from that point). We didn't ride for long, though. The kids wanted to walk along the rim trail again!

Walking was more fun than riding, for sure!

💗💗💗

After several more miles of walking, our feet and legs started to really wear out. By this point, the shuttles were much more crowded than they had been earlier in the day. We got on one, but had to sit separately. Chris sent me this photo just a few minutes after we got on the shuttle. 

Poor, sleepy guy 💙

Our shuttle ended up being delayed quite a bit by an RV that was blocking the road. Normally, I wouldn't be annoyed by that sort of thing because it doesn't do any good, but I was tired and irritable by that point. We probably waited over 20 minutes for the RV to get out of the way so we could continue to the visitor's center. We did see elk several times on the way back, though. 

We got to the visitor's center just a few minutes before it closed, and booked our way to the gift shop so Chris could purchase a hat he had seen there earlier in the day. We made it even though we were exhausted! Then, we headed to our van to drive into Tusayan and find some dinner.

We ended up eating at a pizza/pasta restaurant for dinner, and all felt much better after getting some real food in our bellies. At the restaurant, Chris pulled me aside and mentioned going back into Grand Canyon National Park to see the stars after dinner. Feeling revived after some rest and food, I agreed with him that it was a great idea! We wanted to make our time at the Grand Canyon count, and we felt like this was a great way to do that!

So, we all finished eating and loaded back into the van to drive back into Grand Canyon National Park. We parked at the visitor's center and took the short trail to Mather Point. At first, it seemed really dark, but soon our eyes adjusted and the moon and stars gave off plenty of light for us to see. We didn't even have to use the flashlights we brought along.

I don't think I have ever felt so small as I did that night under the vast, dark sky on the edge of the Grand Canyon. I got a little overcome with emotion while we were there and just felt speechless. I'm SO thankful Chris thought to do that . . . it was a precious experience for our family!

Driving back into Tusayan, we enjoyed the Christmas decorations!

That night, we fell into bed exhausted and achy, but happy. It had been a day that exceeded my expectations, and I felt so grateful for the experience.