Spring Break revised but enjoyed!

Our Spring Break plans had to be revised from the camping trip we hoped to take to a rock trip/sight seeing trip instead.  The weather forecast in our chosen camping spot turned out to be a bit too cool as yet and we needed to pick up some stone, so we just combined business/pleasure once again for a great time. We always wonder about the places that we don't have time to stop off to see on our way to get stone. This time we stopped and enjoyed some amazing things including Wupatki, Sunset Crater Volcano, Montezuma Castle and Well, Walnut Canyon and Tonto Natural Bridge.  We also stopped off by Marble Canyon to check out a canyon running down to the Colorado river and to get some pics of a cool old corral across the road from it.  We enjoyed cookies at Jacob's Lake, Navajo Tacos at Cameron and a couple of movies at the towns we spent the nights in.  We enjoyed cold/snow/rainy mountain weather and hot/dry desert weather.  And we just had a great time getting away for a relaxing, fun time together!  And before we took off I got the yard weeded and cleaned up and planted a hopeful little garden complete with setting up the drip system, house cleaning, laundry, shopping and cleaning out and filing last year's business papers and burning up a bin of no longer needed business papers.  And we took the older grand kids to the temple to do baptisms of some family names and that night we went and did some endowments and were the witness couple!  It was a week well spent and enjoyed!

Paul, Brynnli, Tavin and Kaebri before and after baptisms.  Afterwards we picked up some
non-sugar treats and headed the the "Skyline Cafe" to eat them!

Checking out a canyon that empties into the Colorado River over by Marble Canyon.

This old corral across the street was really fun to poke around in.

Wupatki was a really amazing site full of ancient ruins spread out over a large area.

The sister site of Sunset Crater Volcano is very close to Wupatki. We did a little hike there before it started to rain and we headed on our way.

We spent the night just outside of Flagstaff where we ate dinner and went to a movie.  The next morning we picked up our rock and then went over to visit Walnut Canyon - another set of ruins. These are different because they are built under the overhanging cliff walls above Walnut Canyon. Some of them were so high up I can't even imagine how the people got to them.  They did their farming up on the rim above.

We also visited Montezuma Castle and Montezuma's Well.  These were both really cool places too.  These people found ways to survive in what seems like some very inhospitable places.

Montezuma's Well was constant water source in the middle of the desert even during times of drought.  The Spring below it just bubbles up so beautifully and is still a source of irrigation today.

In the late afternoon we headed down to Payson looking for a good camp spot along the way.  Most of the roads out into the forest were still gated and it was looking like rain after we got to Payson, so I wimped out and got Paul to stay in a motel.  We had dinner and went to a movie before turning in for the night.  The next morning our last stop before hitting the road back home was Tonto Natural Bridge State Park.  This is really an amazing thing to see.  We couldn't do all of the trails because they were still closed due to high water, but what we did see was worth the stop and wait for it to open.  Then it was time to head home.  We lunched in Flagstaff and snacked at Jacob's Lake and made it home in good time.  Happy Spring Break!