Arizona!

Page, AZ  to Flagstaff, AZ

By delaying our travels a few hours, we were able to see Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon Dam. We stopped at the Visitor Center for the Glen Canyon Dam Recreational Area and were welcomed by a beautiful view of the lake and the ginormous dam. I tried to take a picture, but the windows had some special heated mirror effect. You can still see things, but there is a goofy rainbow in it. 

After exploring some of the history of the dam and the Colorado River, we chose to do the Horseshoe Bend hike. This hike has one of the most famous views of the Colorado River and it was dog friendly! It was only 1.5mi round trip as well! A truly beautiful area. There were many notifications to not get to close to the loose sandstone on the edge! It is amazing to me that a river so mighty used to reach the Pacific Ocean and doesn't anymore. So many desert municipalities draw water from the Colorado R. that it can't possibly make it that far anymore. In fact, if you click on my link to the Colorado River you can read more about the water levels from National Geographic. Can you tell I miss teaching a little?

Next stop: Grand Canyon National Park! It is bigger and more immense than I could have ever imagined. It was also difficult to capture a picture because of the rock strata continuing to stack upon one another with various shades of reds, browns, and oranges. I have a few good ones, but I was taking more mental pictures and enjoying the views. We were able to hike with Kobi on the Rim Trail that stays on a paved surface looking into the canyon with many look outs for photo ops and what not. We even saw a few other dogs, which we really haven't in any National Parks thus far but I suppose there were more people at the Grand Canyon than any other park we have visited. 

I saw a woman lecturing her young daughter about staying on the trails and designated areas. She was explaining to her daughter that “we are guests in this beautiful park and you must respect the rules if you want to stay…” I wish all the tourists were listening to her and shared her mindset. I saw so many people walking off the paths to get that perfect selfie not noticing the small cacti struggling to make it in this world. 

After some deli sandwiches to go, we carried on out of the park. We headed in the small town of Williams on Route 66! Although the once booming and bustling Route 66 town is a bit quieter these day, there are still ghosts of old cars and bikes haunting the store fronts and gas stations. 

We carried on to Flagstaff and had some wonderful beer at a microbrew pub, Lumberyard Brewing Co. We settled in a bit earlier than normal due to my sinus cold. We were able to watch the Badgers win, so it's not all bad.

We planned our route out to Phoenix for the next day.We followed highway 89A through a canyon. We stopped in Sedona to walk around and visit the Harley shop. We continued on the scenic highway to a Route 66 ghost town of Jerome! We also visited Prescott and continued on to Phoenix. 

In Oak Creek Canyon on 89A

Downtown Sedona

Jerome, crazy house

View from the top of Jerome, the peak are in Flagstaff

Neat door in Jerome

The locals in Jerome

Obviously, we needed to find a place to we went to the East side of Phoenix which we have learned is the "valley". Nate and I are both getting used to new terminology here. We went to Tempe and looked up some places as we bellied up to an outdoor bar on Mill St. We drove by some places, set up for the night at a hotel, and were fortunate to find a place on Saturday in Scottsdale!