Grand Canyon Camping

August 31, 2013 - September 2, 2013

Saturday

We got up and packed up the truck to spend the weekend at the Grand Canyon with the Shafers, the Goons, the Thatchers, and the Sawyers. It looked like rain would be heading that way so we had to tarp everything down.

When we got to Williams, AZ we found a cute Route 66 themed restaurant to eat at. The food was good but the service was slow. All the other families passed us up while we ate.

We got to the campsite and set up our tent when it started to downpour. Dave and I tried to put up tarps to keep things dry and got soaked and extremely grumpy in the process.

We decided to go to the visitor's center to get out of the rain. We went in looked at the displays and watched a short film. During the video the rain stopped so we took a tram to one of the overlooks and walked to another. The shear size of the canyon is awe inspiring.

We headed back to camp and set up more, made tinfoil dinners, and tried to dry out our chairs and shoes. After dinner, the families all hung out at the Goon's campsite to make s'mores, chat and play games.

Tanner, Taz, and Lex had a competition to see who could keep their butt by the fire longest - of course, Alexis won - she couldn't stand to see a boy beat her.  The kids played Mafia while the grow ups played Phase 10 before heading to bed.

Sunday

After a breakfast of Barney Biscuits, we all took trams to hike around. Alexis and Taz went with some of the Thatchers on Blue Angel, a more difficult hike, while the rest of our crowd hiked along the rim.

The big group did 3 small hikes that were about a mile each, taking the shuttle between hikes. Dave decided to go to the last shuttle stop by himself and hike all the way back. He didn't quite make it and took the shuttle most of the way back too. Hiking was fun and the kids did pretty well.

Camryn and Heather told stories and jokes the whole time, barely taking a breath.
Some of the paths went a little too close to the edge for my comfort, but we all made it safely. The shuttle ride back to the cars wore us out.

When we got back from hiking the kids played tag; Dave napped, and I read and dozed a bit.

The Shafers took their kids to a Jr Ranger activity and Seth went along to learn about deer and play a game. We all met up at the Geology museum to watch the sunset. Taz and Lex liked to go to the edge, or what looked like be edge to freak me out.

The sunset was beautiful.

We had a late dinner, including delicious blueberry cobbler and went back over to the Goons. The kids were humming songs and we had to guess what song it was. Seth and Tanner had a long talk about music. 

After a good night's rest, we ate a quick breakfast and packed up to head home. We stopped at the Visitor's Center so Seth could receive his Ranger Badge for doing some assigned activities, then we hit the road. We had a great weekend and enjoyed the vastness of the canyon. Most of all we enjoyed spending time together as a family and being with great friends.