As we headed off to camp within Zion National Park, we knew that we'd be roughing it for about a week. There are no water hookups at your site. We weren't too worried about that. You can fill up a fresh water tank that's under the RV when you pull into the campground. Our campgrounds in NY were like this, so we thought we were prepared. Well, Zion does not provide showers for its campers...anywhere. We've never turned on the shower in our RV before. No big deal, we figured we'd take fewer showers. We all showered, being conservative, and we used all the water in our tank that first time.... so back to the water station we went.
We hiked the Lower Emerald Falls trail.
The water continually seeps through this sandstone rock, from springs. Mae was not dressed quite warmly enough, nor would she put on the extra clothes that I'd packed. George ended up carrying her back down to the truck.
Another day we had a very nice bike ride through a part of Zion and into town for lunch.
The mule deer were so used to people that you could stand very close to watch them. We did this almost every evening.
The Virgin River, which created Zion, ran right though our campground. It was beautiful.
All of the famous hikes that you see pictures of at Zion, are not safe for children or not appropriate during the fall and winter (you have to hike through the river.) Maybe we can try it when Mae is much older.
Mae still managed to earn her Junior Ranger Badge despite not exploring the park very much.
We had to leave a day early to bring the RV in for repairs in Flagstaff, AZ. Our last day was sunny and warm and perfect for playing some babies with your daddy, while having lunch.
Next we started our stay at a very nice RV resort in Williams, AZ. We were all very excited to have a water hookup, a hot shower and wifi. On top of that the RV resort is part of a hotel resort, so we had access to all of their amenities as well! Yahoo! Hot tub, indoor pool, fitness center, restaurants on site, talk about an upgrade!
We took the train to the Grand Canyon's South Rim! Mae shared her Grand Canyon app with our attendant (ABC Mouse, it is an interactive ebook, that has a very catchy song about the canyon.) Our train ride was complete with outlawed cowboys, looking for gold teeth. Luckily, Mae doesn't have any teeth right now. :)
It was a great introduction to the Grand Canyon. Our train attendant was very knowledgeable about the area. We learned a lot, like the fact that there are volcanoes in Flagstaff! Oh the things you learn when you travel.
Once we got to the canyon, we had a few hours to walk around. We hiked a 2 miles section of the South Rim, on the Trail of Time. The National Park took rocks out of the canyon from different time periods, cut, polished and labeled them. It was very cool.
We stopped along the trail to rest and take in the sights. Mae wanted to draw quite a few times. This particular time, she drew a tree that was growing alongside the trail. We talked about how it is an artists prerogative to draw what they choose in any setting. Most people would have drawn the canyon, I love her unique way of thinking and seeing the world.
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We also stopped often to take video messages for some of our family and friends. Here is one of them. The Grand Canyon, presented by Ranger Mae
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| the only glimpse that we had of the Colorado River our first day |
I so want to know what this tunnel if for! I kept expecting to see a trail leading into it... but I couldn't see anything from the Rim. Does anyone know where it leads? I'm totally intrigued... but not enough to have googled it yet.
The teacher in me sees an amazing writing prompt! Right? Feel free to print it out and use it in your classroom.
This is a view of the Bright Angel Trail. It's the trail down to the bottom of the canyon for people or mules.
We found that it was pretty hard to capture the essence of the Grand Canyon with our photography skills. Here's the best one I managed to take.
On the way home on the train. Our attendant asked if any of the children would like to come up and use the microphone to tell a joke. Mae was very excited to do it. It could have gone either way in my opinion... but she nailed it! Here's a link to the video.
We drove back to the Grand Canyon one other day. Mae and George both had colds while we were in the area, so we spent a lot of time just relaxing at home and in the resort. We picked up Mae's Junior Ranger booklet, and did as much as we could, but it wasn't enough to earn her badge. We can do it next time we are there.
As we were driving through the park that day we saw these deer running through the forest at the edge of the road. They were so fast, and so big, and such a dark brown. We were going to ask a ranger what type they were. I looked through Mae's Junior Ranger booklet, and there they were... ELK! So cool!
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| Beware of elk when leaving work, if you work at the Grand Canyon!
One day we visited The Grand Canyon Deer Farm.
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I'd read in the paper, that you could walk among the heard of deer, and feed them out of the palm of your hand. It was a dream come true for Mae.
She talks, all the time, about owning a farm when she is older. When we were there we did talk about the animals' needs for a lot of space, if they can't be in the wild, so that they can be happy and healthy.
Can you see the look of giddy happiness on her face? She walked away from the herd, and these two followed here. We didn't even have any food.
As she stood there, petting this one deer. The heard slowly came over to surround her.
She looked up, and realized she was in the midst of all the deer, and she in awe.
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| She still doesn't have any food to offer.
Mae wore one of my gloves the whole time we were in with the deer. She was afraid that one would bite her while they were eating. They were very gentle nibblers.
 
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This deer actually unzipped her vest! She thought it was fantastic, and wanted to make sure that I shared it on my blog.
The farm has an assortment of animals, mostly in the deer family. We spent a lot of time in with the goats as well. Mae seems to really like their laid back attitude. She spent a lot of time with one at the St. Louis Zoo too.
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| She called him Goat-uh. |
She also investigated how he chewed. She said "the pink rubber thing is pushing all the food up." We talked about it, and she realized it was his tongue.
On our last full day in Williams, we did the Polar Express. It was amazing, and very well done. They refurbished a train car from the 1920's to be a replica of the train in the story.
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She got to visit with Santa and tell him what she'd like for Christmas. She told him about a stuffed tree trunk, filled with small stuffed forest creatures.
They had a beautiful room set up, where you could visit with Mrs. Claus and write your letter to Santa. Her note said "I'd like what I already told you about, and a Sofia doll, and a habitat for Rudolf.
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We had time to have a dinner at the buffet before our train. This fireplace was in the dining room. I just had to pose her for a photo shoot!
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| I was quite a bit "snap happy," I had to share this one. |
This was our first glimpse of The North Pole through the fogged up window. Santa boarded the train and visited with all the children. He gave them each their own silver, Polar Express, bells. Mae came right home and put hers in a special place.
May we all believe.
