[Written by Hannah]
March was magical!
One big thing that happened in March was that Daddy moved offices at work. Here is a picture of him during his last day at his old office. He worked there for 14 years!!
We went to visit his new office in Downtown Fort Worth. We got to play at the little playground. His new building was so nice and crazy high off of the ground.
Also, Henry started playing his first season of coach pitch!!
Then we started off on our grand Grand Canyon trip!! Nan decided to come and tag along with us.
We started off by driving 9 hours to Alamogordo to eat dinner in Cloudcroft. We drove through a big dust storm on the way!
Nan treated us kids to some delicious ice cream. Thanks Nan!
Selfie time!
We went down out of Cloudcroft and stopped at an old railroad bridge. The road out of Cloudcroft was pretty neat.
Then, we finally made it to our hotel. Once we got situated we started working on our junior ranger books.
Once we ate we drove to white sands. We forgot a sled and were planning on riding on a carboard box until a nice family gave us theirs. Way to be prepared. We sledded down multiple hills and had a blast. Those dunes were so high. It looked like we were in the middle of a desert like in a movie or something. You may be wondering, why are they wearing jackets when it looked like they were in the middle of the desert? Well, surprisingly the sand was actually really cold and it was really cold outside too. To be honest, my feet went numb because the sand was so cold.
On the way back Daddy and I did a photoshoot.
To wrap up that park we took our traditional sign photo.
Next, we drove 5 hours to Tucson where all of the crazy cactus grow. There, we had dinner at a cute little town square. After we ate we tried to take a cute photo at a cool tree but Henry had a little mishap. You see, after we took the photo Henry decided to climb the tree and then claimed to be stuck. We obviously did not believe him and kept walking to the car. When he did not come we walked back and realized that he had really gotten his leg stuck in the tree. Classic Henry.
After we ate we headed to our hotel, and let me tell you, our hotel was AMAZING!!!!!! It was this old hotel that had been turned into a cool retro inn. It had it’s own pool and outside area. We had two separate rooms, one for Nan and us kids with it’s own fridge, bunkbeds, bathroom, and big screen TV. Then, mommy and daddy had their own similar room. It was so cool.
[Written by Daddy]
The next morning we got up and headed to Saguaro National Park which was only about a 20 minute drive from our hotel. We went to the visitor’s center first but they weren’t open yet so we headed back to the King’s Canyon trail for a morning hike and our first chance to see the Saguaro cacti up close. We did the King’s Canyon/Gould Mine loop which was about 2.5 miles.
We had really nice weather for the hike which made for some really pretty desert views.
Henry with the classic meditation pose.
We had to get a group shot by this old mining structure and also to show how big(!) this cactus was
After this point we decided that I would do a short offshoot off this trail up to the ridge. Nan, Hannah and Nathan took a short break at a picnic area and then caught up with Henry and Jennifer who hung out at the site of an old gold mine. Here is a quick selfie on the way to the top. The views were nice.
Here is another old mining structure
Nan and the grandkids. You can barely see the edge of an old mineshaft just behind them.
Family shot on the way back to the car
After the hike we were ready for lunch so we headed over to the Sus picnic area which was a really great spot. We snagged this table that had a great view of the valley.
After lunch we decided to climb up some of the nearby hills. We followed a sawtooth ridge all the way to the top where we found panorama views and petroglyphs. It was a nice little surprise bonus hike that we hadn’t planned. Lunch was one of the highlights of the day. Here are the boys with cactus arms!
After lunch we drove the Hohokam loop road and stopped at the Valley View Overlook trail. This was a short, flat trail with some really spectacular cacti, and it really puts you up close to them.
More cactus arms!
This is a good view of the trail. We also saw a lot of these ocotillos. This reminded us of one of our favorite books, Roxaboxen.
We also stopped at the Signal Hill Petroglyphs. There were several trails winding through a picnic area that converged on the way to the petroglyphs. On the way back, Nathan took a side trail and Henry decided to try to follow him but instead of sticking on the trails, he tried to cut through. Jennifer tried to get him to stop but it was too late and he walked right into a cactus. You can’t really see it great on this photo but he had several cactus needles stuck in his leg and shoe. I had to pull them all out. Henry was very tough but he winced with each one as I pulled them out. I think he learned his lesson about staying on the trail, especially in a cactus park.
Next we stopped by the visitor center for some souvenirs and to get our books stamped. Then we stopped at the sign on the way out of the park.
We went back to the hotel for a quick swim then went to dinner at El Charro, the oldest family run mexican restaurant in the country.
The next morning we packed up and hit the road for the Grand Canyon. The drive was beautiful, and we toyed with the idea of stopping in Sedona for lunch but it looked too packed. The weather quickly went from sunny and windy to cold and snowy as we went up in elevation and approached Flagstaff!
We ended up stopping in Flagstaff to eat and did a little shopping while we waited for our table. We ended up buying a pair of crampons to help with the ice on the Grand Canyon hiking trails.
We ate at a yummy brewery and refilled our tanks.
We took the scenic route from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon which gave us some great views of Mt Humphrey and the surrounding forest.
We rolled into the park and waited about 15 minutes to get in. We must have timed it just right because he heard other people that had to wait over 2 hours to get in later in the week. We got checked into our hotel and took a quick walk along the rim to watch the sunset. It was cold that evening (upper 20s!).
We tried to go a little too far and ended up having to walk back in the dark. We said we would always remember walking in the dark and cold in the Grand Canyon.
We were able to get a roll away bed which made us more comfortable in the Kachina Lodge. It was nice because we were just a few steps from the rim which made it easy to watch the sunrise over the canyon.
We found this little snowman who hadn’t melted yet from the recent snow. He was hanging out on the edge and enjoying the canyon.
We had a bike tour booked in advance but cancelled the day before due to the forecasted cold weather. Then when we got up that morning and the sun came out, we decided that we wanted to bike after all. We were able to rent some bikes for a couple of hours and it was a great start to the day. We rode from the visitors center out to Yaki point and had some great views along the rim. It wasn’t too crowded and we had a blast on the bikes. Nan hung out at the gift shop.
After the bikes we walked out to Mather point and enjoyed the view. Henry found a big rock to climb in the middle of the crowd.
Next we hopped in the car and headed east to the Desert View watchtower. The tower was closed due to COVID but we stopped at the lookouts along the way and enjoyed the continually warming weather.
On the way back we found a nice pullout and had some lunch.
On the way back, we decided to try and hike the South Kaibab trail to Ooh Aah point. We hadn’t been planning to hike it when we left the room that morning so I didn’t have the crampons with me and it was definitely icy, but we made it work!
We used several different strategies to make it down including holding on to the walls, shuffling our feet, and even crabwalking/sliding on our bottoms in one spot.
The views at Ooh Aah Point were spectacular and totally worth it.
I like this shot of the boys hiking in the canyon.
It was much warmer down in the canyon, and hiking back up was a bit of a chore. We started shedding layers as we went. At one point we had a minor scare when a big rock fell down the trail from one of the switchbacks above us. Luckily it didn’t hit anyone but it was a close call for some ladies just ahead of us.
We made it!
After the hike we stopped by the market and grabbed some dinner.
Then we went back to the room, and Jennifer and I sat outside to enjoy the sunset.
The next morning we watched the sunrise again and Henry joined us this time!
We had breakfast in the hotel lobby.
We decided to start the day headed west to Hermit’s rest. The road was closed to public traffic so we had to board the shuttle bus. While we were waiting in line, Henry got his finger stuck in the chain. Luckily Nan had some lotion and we were able to get it out pretty quickly.
We went along the rim and stopped at all of the lookouts. Nan and the kids took the shuttle most of the time and I walked most of the time. It was a nice way to spend the morning.
One time while we were walking, we came around the corner on a family of elk bedded down right off the trail.
At the very last lookout before Hermit’s rest, we waited for a while and when a bus finally did come it was full and we had to wait for another one. Mommy and Henry decided to pass the time by reading a book, Cactus Hotel.
Finally we made it to Hermit’s rest!
We took a break and visited the gift shop, then boarded the bus and headed back to the hotel for lunch. Here is a selfie on the bus
After lunch, Mommy, the boys and I decided to hike the Bright Angel Trail while Hannah and Nan went shopping. This time I had my crampons and we bought a couple more pairs. Jennifer wore one pair and the boys shared a pair (one foot each had traction). It was like night and day compared to the South Kaibab trail the day before. We were able to hike just like normal without worrying about the ice, which was good because the Bright Angel trail had more ice.
We saw some mules coming up the trail.
We had some great views going down.
We made it down to the mile and half rest house.
As always, going up was harder than coming down!
But we made it!
We celebrated with some ice cream from the Bright Angel fountain!
That evening, Jennifer and I had a date night in the El Tovar dining room while Nan kept the kids in the hotel room. It was fun!
The next morning we packed up and hit the road. We stopped at the park sign on the way out.
Then we hit the road and headed east. We stopped at Petrified Forest National Park and had some lunch at the Painted Desert Inn.
After the break, we loaded up and drove all the way to Amarillo. Nan got this shot of Henry in the car making a silly face.
We got there pretty late and stayed at Aunt Rebecca’s house. The next morning Nana and Pappy came over for breakfast and all the cousins played. We drove back home that afternoon.
It was a lot of driving but we had fun and saw some amazing parks. We decided we want to go back for Henry’s birthday one year when he is older and do a backpacking trip into the canyon down to the river.
After we got back, Nan watched Nathan’s soccer game then headed back home.
Later in March we celebrated Henry’s 7th birthday! We decided to have a putt-putt party!
The boys had fun playing and then we had chik-fil-a and cake! After the party Henry had a baseball game that evening, then we had baseball and soccer the next morning on Henry’s actual birthday. We started the day with birthday donuts!
After the soccer game, we had breakfast for dinner at Ol South Pancake House then Nana and Pappy headed back to Canyon. It was a busy weekend celebrating Henry!
Whew! That’s it for March, what a month!
Hubley Happenings 