Days 39 & 40

Posted on October 5, 2020 by Sarah

Days 39 and 40

The Weavers met us at our RV park at 7:30 am and we headed to the Grand Canyon. We couldn’t find an RV spot closer so we are in Williams, AZ which is about 50 minutes from the visitor center. When we arrived the Visitor’s Center wasn’t too busy which was nice. We had our “first look” at the Canyon at Mather’s Point. I think I was about 10 or 11 when I first saw the Grand Canyon. I probably reacted similar to how my kids did which was “Oh, there it is. Cool. What else is there to do?”

We made our way to the South Kaibab Trail to do a hike to the Ooh Aah point. We had a 9 year old, 8 year old, 7 year old, 5 year old and 4 year old. The hike is just under two miles total, but given it’s a canyon your ascent is on the return trip. After making our way to the ooh ahh point, which was pretty incredible, we started walking back up. The total elevation gained is 682 feet. That’s some serious elevation for a four year old, but the kids did great! And so did the adults! We stopped at the halfway point and had a snack. Once we made it back up to the rim, we took our cars over to Maswick Lodge and ate at their food court. I’m not sure if it was the food or how hungry we were after our hike, but it was a pretty delicious lunch.

After lunch, we boarded the shuttle that took us out to Hermit’s Rest and then stopped at Mohave and Powell Point on way back to the car. Hermit’s Rest was designed by a female architect, Mary Coulter, in the early 1900s. I can’t imagine there were a lot of female architects at that time and this fact made an impression on me. At this point in the day, I think the kids were like, “yep, I see the canyon, can we run and play?” Some view points has some space that allowed them to run and play and others I felt like one wrong jump and they would be down about 200 feet. Hudson assessed that death was only a 50/50 chance and seemed ok with those odds. The adults were not.

Since the bus was running at lower capacity and our party consisted of 9 people our kids sometimes had to sit on our laps. The last shuttle ride I told Hudson to sit in my lap and he exclaimed “I’m not sitting in your lap! I’m a grown man!” and the shuttle erupted with laughter.

By the time we got back to the car and made our way back to Williams, AZ it was 5 pm. We had decided we were going to pick up dinner and eat it at our RV. Who knew restaurants in Williams were so hopping on Saturday night? We finally got an order in and Jordan and Nolen picked up our food. By the time we ate it was 7 pm and we had some tired, hungry kids on our hands. After we ate, the Weavers went back to their hotel and we all slept well!

Jordan asked a park ranger if the crowds had dropped off since Covid and he said they absolutely had. He also mentioned that they were at about 1-2% of the normal crowds this time of year. Given the amount of people we saw today I have two things to say about that. One, I don’t think I could handle the Grand Canyon with 100% capacity even if a pandemic wasn’t happening. That is too crowded for me. I can’t even imagine how you get to the rail to see the lookouts if it is that crowded. Two, it dawned on me that this might be the best time to ever go see the Grand Canyon because the crowds are so thin.

Day 40:

We started the day again at the same time, 7:30 am, and we were aiming to get home a little earlier so our kids could have some downtime. Today, we planned to head east to the Desert Watchtower. Well, we got about 2 miles from the Desert Watchtower before the road shut down. At a lookout point, I called and a ranger told me that the watchtower was closed due to Covid. We were all pretty bummed. We hit a few other lookout points and the adults looked while the kids played “the floor is lava” on the rocks. Ashley had mentioned the Shoshone point hike when we were talking about taking this tirp together and I mentioned that to them while we were trying to figure out how we were going to fill our day. We looked it up and it was close by. The Shoshone trailhead is really just a parking lot. You walk about a mile in a pine forest before you reach Shoshone point. This point has a pavilion and you can even reserve to have weddings there. There were tons of picnic benches and we had brought our lunch. It turned out to be the perfect hike to the perfect spot for our last day at the Grand Canyon. On our way there, the kids were all in search of hiking sticks. Courtney, the youngest, had the largest hiking stick, but she made it work! After lunch, the kids played nearby while the adults enjoyed each other’s company looking out at the canyon. I don’t think it could have worked out better if we had actually planned it. As we packed up lunch, each of the kids took a last look at the Grand Canyon before we made the hour trip “home.” We arrived about 2 pm. Jordan and the kids zoned out while I did a few things for PTO, and planned our trip back home. We were going to stay in Williams all week, but decided to start making our way to Texas on Wednesday. At 5 pm, we met the Weavers at Grand Canyon Brewing and Distillery. The kids had a table right next to us and they were so good while we ate. I’m so glad Hudson is finally old enough for those word searches they put on kids menus! Since the Weavers lived in Indonesia up until about six months ago, it was fun hearing them talk about expat life. I’m sure the particulars may be different given we will be in different countries, but their perspective on how to approach life overseas was really great to hear. I haven’t thought too much about Angola in the past few months and these conversations reminded me“oh yeah… eventually we are moving overseas. That’s going to be so cool!”

We said our good-byes and the kids were already asking when we would see them again before we even got in the car. It’s so awesome to see Hudson and Chloe, who met when they were 15 months and 2 years old, still hang out and enjoy each other’s company. I’m thankful for friends who will drive seven hours to see you for two days!

At bedtime, I told the kids the next day was going to be rough given they would have to be on their school Zoom calls at 5:45 am. Hudson asked why it was going to be rough and I said “because it’s going to be a long day.” He replied “More like it’s going to be a tiny night.” He cracks me up.

We are hanging out in Williams for a few days and then we start traveling again!