The Isakson Family: August 2011

This year for the Robinson family vacation, instead of doing our annual lake trip, we thought we would try something a little more adventurous. We stayed in a vacation home in Flagstaff, Arizona and visited a lot of places close by.

Before we met up with my family, Ryan and I camped at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Here is Ryan as we are on a hike to the drop off of the canyon.

I was a little nervous not only because we were pretty high up but because as you can see in this picture, there was a big storm coming our way and we were on a trail that was pretty narrow with drop offs on both sides.

We decided to go simple, canned soup for dinner:)

We drove to a part of the north rim called Cape Royal to watch the sunset, it was totally worth the drive. There was hardly anyone around, a very peaceful environment.

Breakfast time! Wesley is such a good sport when we camp!

Alright, this is where the family vacation begins. We started out visiting one of the best preserved meteor craters in the world called... Meteor Crater.

Our next stop was the Petrified Forest. This area used to be a forest with swamps, massive trees, and a lot of dinosaurs.

This place is pretty cool. There are whole trees strewn across the hillside. The minerals get into the plant cells and harden leaving the form of the original tree but making it hard as rock.

This was a really fun overlook of part of the Painted Dessert and some more petrified wood. Here we caught Chris in midair with a hundred foot drop below.

Petrified Forest National Park, besides preserving petried trees and painted sand dunes, also has some Indian ruins and petroglyphs. See if you can figure out what this one is supposed to be.

We heard from a photographer that this giant bird is some sort of boogeyman that was supposed to pick up misbehaving children. Parents do their best to scare their children in every culture it seems. Not grandpas though...

The next day we drove just north of Flagstaff to visit Sunset Crater National Monument and Wupatki National Monument. Sunset Crater is a cinder cone volcano and is part of the Flagstaff volcanic field which is the second largest in North America.

Sunset Crater was named by John Wesley Powell for the orange, red, and yellow colors near the top. It erupted about 800 years ago. There area still large lava flows and other features that make it look like it erupted much more recently.

Next we stopped at Wupatki, which is a series of ruins created by the Sinagua Indians who came into the area after the eruption of the volcano. Here we are all at the Wukoki ruin. It was fun to climb into all of the rooms here and imagine what it would have been like to live on a rock in the middle of the desert.

Below is the Wupatki ruin, the biggest in the park, which had up to 100 rooms in its heyday. There was also a cool ballcourt and a blowhole that blew nice cool air out of the earth and into our faces.

The next day we got a late start since our battery died and we had a hard time getting out some of the poorly placed bolts. Once we drove down Oak Creek Canyon it was worth all of the hassle.

We had a really fun time at Slide Rock State Park. At this park, the creek flows over some smooth rocks and creates a natural waterslide. The water was cold but the scenery was beautiful and it was a very unique experience.

Here we all are at the park. You can tell which of us don't get out in the sun very much and/or have no Indian blood in us.

That night we drove a few more miles down the road to watch the sunset at Airport Mesa in Sedona. It is a beautiful city that we would like to spend more time in next time we are in the area.

On Thursday, we visited the "crown jewel" of the trip, the Grand Canyon.

It was a beautiful day and it was nice to see the canyon from the South Rim to get a different perspective. The Grand Canyon is amazing no matter where you see it.

On Friday, we decided to take it easy and swim at a local pool. This was Wesley's first time in a pool and he enjoyed himself thoroughly. No photos here, but he got in all the way up to his neck.

On Saturday, we decided to stay local again and visit this very cool Lava Flow Cave. It was created by lava running under ground and then hardening over time. It is about 3/4 of a mile deep and around 45 degrees. This was a good time that was Candice's favorite part of the trip.

Grammy Pammy's favorite part of the trip.

The nice house we stayed at in Flagstaff. We really loved it there and wouldn't mind living there. Thanks Dave for finding this great place to spend our week.