the grandest

Because we haven't had enough driving in our lives lately (we have had MORE than enough driving in our lives lately!), we decided to make the seven-hour round trip to the Grand Canyon. Our (possibly faulty) reasoning was that we were *so close* and it's anyone's guess when we'll be back this way, so we should see it while we are here. If you are seriously questioning our judgment, don't worry, we are too.

Our first stop, though, was a short tour of Monument Valley, which, like Valley of the Gods, has a long dirt road; in the interest of saving time, we opted to just view the formations from a distance instead of driving to each one, but we did go in and look around at the museum/visitor center before heading to our main target.

I read on a sign in the park that each year, 4 million people visit the Grand Canyon. (National Geographic puts this figure at closer to 5 million.) I am pretty sure that fully a million of them were here today. It was CROWDED. And a little stressful too. Our first stop inside the park was the Watchtower. This was our first view of the canyon itself, and it was spectacular, as advertised. Mike stepped toward the edge to take a little video, and had asked the kids to be quiet while he was filming. I was taking pictures too, so I didn't notice when the boys decided that they would walk down in front of the tower. But you can bet that I noticed when Liam slipped on a patch of ice and fell down RIGHT AT THE EDGE. Luckily, he wasn't hurt, and he didn't, you know, FALL INTO THE GRAND CANYON. From that point on, the boys may as well have been on leashes, that's how close we made them stay to us. They were not at all happy about that development, but honestly, I was much more concerned about leaving the park with all three of them intact than I was about their opinions on the matter.

After the Watchtower, we explored a few more areas along the South Rim, and we even walked along the rim trail for a while, but eventually, one of them decided to break the rules and venture away from us, and that ended our adventure (just as we warned them it would).

Overall review is that we thought the canyon was grand indeed, but the crowds made it not our favorite kind of place to visit. We're glad we went, but I'm not sure we would do it again. Maybe to the North Rim, if we're ever out that way.

Wildlife sightings: a bunch of mule deer and some ELK. Score!