Grand Canyon Trip - October 2009

This year the kids got a whole week off for October break. We decided it was time to take them on a trip to see Arizona, specifically , the Grand Canyon.

We decided to see a bit of our beautiful Arizona on our trip to Flagstaff, so we made a detour and stopped in Sedona for a picnic and a hike. Sedona has beautiful red rocks and formations.










We hiked along a trail through the trees and along the river. There was one tree that I felt was a picture taking tree so we just had to get a few shots of it.








Sedona has many beautiful panoramic shots. The city is fun too with lots of tourist shops, but we avoided that diversion. Next it was up a beautiful canyon were the fall colors were just starting to come out. We saw beautiful shades of yellow with an occasional red leafed tree. The road up the canyon climbs up some switch backs until we are at the top and we stopped at the lookout point and saw this scene.





The we drove on to Flagstaff and spent the night there in a motel. Here we are chilling after a long day at the Galaxy Diner. The food there was out of this world.





The next day we drove up to the Grand Canyon.





After we returned home I started reminiscing about my first trip to the Grand Canyon over 36 years ago. My family lived in Montana, and we were headed to Mesa, Arizona for the wedding of my older brother Harold to his bride Verla. My dad loaded the whole family in our our Chevy and we drove to Arizona. But along the way we made several stops, including Zion's National park in Utah and the Grand Canyon. We stopped at the North Rim on our way down and the South Rim on our way home from Mesa. We saw lots of other beautiful parts of Arizona and southern Utah too. Anyway, I started digging through my old photos and found this.

Grand Canyon Then - first trip April 1973 (Yes, that really is the Grand Canyon, although the photo is kinda old to tell.

Compare that to our most recent trip photo.
Grand Canyon Now - 5th trip October 2009