Summer Vacation | Day 5

Day five of our vacation was spent in Williams, Arizona, just a short drive from Flagstaff.  We visited Bearizona Wildlife Park.

Bearizona is approximately 160 acres. Visitors will drive through more than three miles of Ponderosa Pine Forest viewing North American animals in natural habitats when they visit. More animals are exhibited in Fort Bearizona, a beautiful 20 acre walk-thru area, along winding paths which is more of a “zoo” type setting.

The first part of the park wasn’t overly impressive to the kids.  Many animals were napping in the warm afternoon sun.  It did get much more interesting as we reached the bears, wolves and buffalo.

Rocky Mountain Goat

Rocky Mountain Elk

Arctic Wolf

White Bison

Brown Bison

Bighorn Sheep

Black Bear

Badger

Red Fox

Petting zoo.

Turkey

Javelina

River Otter

Bobcat

The jaguar did not cooperate for photos.

Beaver

Porcupine

American Burro

We thought we should try to fit in one more adventure during our day, so we stopped at Walnut Canyon National Monument in Flagstaff before returning to our rental.

Walnut Canyon National Monument (Hopi: Wupatupqa) is a United States National Monument located about 10 mi (16 km) southeast of downtown Flagstaff, Arizona, near Interstate 40. The canyon rim elevation is 6,690 ft (2,040 m); the canyon’s floor is 350 ft lower. A 0.9 mi (1.4 km) long loop trail descends 185 ft (56 m) into the canyon passing 25 cliff dwelling rooms constructed by the Sinagua, a pre-Columbian cultural group that lived in Walnut Canyon from about 1100 to 1250 CE. Other contemporary habitations of the Sinagua people are preserved in the nearby Tuzigoot and Montezuma Castle national monuments.

We arrived shortly before they closed so we weren’t able to hike the lower trail, but we did get to see the cliff dwellings from the canyon rim.

Up Next: Day Six– The Grand Canyon and some adorable prairie dogs.

Summer Vacation | Day 4

We spent day number four in beautiful Sedona hiking Cathedral Rock, visiting Chapel of the Holy Cross and cooling off in Slide Rock State Park.

Off we go.

The view from the trail.

Looking up towards Cathedral Rock.

Can you find Chapel of the Holy Cross in the photo below?

Or in this photo?

I wonder who lives here?

Closer to the top of the trail.

More photos on our descent.

Leap of faith.

Sebastian’s small rock sculpture.

Sebastian’s large rock sculpture.

Chapel of the Holy Cross

The view from Chapel of the Holy Cross looking back towards Cathedral Rock.

Off to Slide Rock State Park…just before closing.

Last ones out of the park.

The view on the way back to the parking lot.

If you look closely you can see Mike and Sebastian walking back to the car.

Mike enjoyed driving through the switchback Highway 89A on our way out of Sedona.  I didn’t enjoy the hairpin turns as much from the backseat.  The scenery was beautiful though.

Up Next: Day Five – Williams, Arizona including Bearizona and a quick stop at Walnut Canyon in Flagstaff.

Summer Vacation | Day 3

On the third day of our vacation, we drove north to Page, Arizona.  We visited Antelope Canyon, Glen Canyon Dam, dropped into Utah and took in the beauty of Horseshoe Bend on our way back to Flagstaff.  It was quite a day.

Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon in the American Southwest. It is on Navajo land east of Page, Arizona.  A slot canyon is a narrow canyon, formed by the wear of water rushing through rock.  A slot canyon is significantly deeper than it is wide. 

Here’s what we saw when we arrived at Antelope Canyon X.

Then we made our way down the canyon.

And this is what we saw once we got inside.

Off to the next part of the tour.

And into the dark cave opening.

 

A bit of music from the acoustic guitar echoing through the canyon.

Off to our next stop.  Here’s a photo from the backseat on our drive.

Glen Canyon Dam

Utah!

Lone Rock

Back into Arizona.

Lake Powell

Next stop, Horseshoe Bend

Horseshoe Bend is a horseshoe-shaped incised meander of the Colorado River located near the town of Page, Arizona, in the United States.

We didn’t do this.  See below.  But we saw many people doing it.  Yikes!

This is as close as we got.

One last look.  Next time I’ll bring a wide(r) angle lens.

Up Next: Day Four – Sedona and Slide Rock State Park