Monday evening.

We had a very long day due to traveling.  We reached our hotel at 9.30pm local time which is 12.30 EST.

The weather is beautiful and we are looking forward to hiking the Grand Canyon on Tuesday.

Day One - Traveling

Day One - Lake Mead & Hoover Dam


Tuesday.

Happy Birthday to Bianca who celebrated her 13th birthday today!

We hiked down an incredible trail in the Grand Canyon. We had to deal with mud, ice patches, extreme heat and winds. Every girl successfully hiked down and back and we are so proud of them all.

Day Two - Grand Canyon Hike & Sight Seeing


Wednesday

Started the day at the Northern Arizona Museum to see some beautiful Native American artifacts. Also learned that some pine trees smell like vanilla!

Lots of driving and beautiful scenery. We went through Sedona to Jerome, an old copper mining town with great history. On the way back through Sedona we stopped at The Chapel of the Holy Cross, a Catholic chapel carved into the Red Rocks designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

The rest of the day was spent as Slide Rock Park in Oak Canyon. The water is fresh snow-melt and very, very cold but the outside temperature was in the 80's which made it bearable.

Day Three - Jerome & Slide Rock Park.


Thursday

An incredible rafting trip down the Colorado River. The temperature was perfect but the water was 48 degrees. We drove 2 miles through a tunnel carved into the canyon then rafted down the river. The girls can fill you in on the details but it was a memorable day. Lots of photos! 
Excuse my typo - the wall carvings are petroglyphs NOT pyroglyphs!

Day Four - Rafting  

Indoor Rock Wall


Friday

By Friday, my camera had broken and most people had  camera batteries that were fading fast!
Thanks to everyone who shared their cameras and pictures.

Red Rock is just outside Las Vegas.  It's hard to tell how big it is from some of the pictures - look at the size of the hikers on top of the rock.

Red Rock

A culture shock from hiking in the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas, but a great end to a great week.

Las Vegas!