Triple V Life: Part II

Oh Sedona, how I love you so. But you come with a warning: Pictures do not do you justice.

First thing's first, Sedona has the ONLY McDonald's in the whole world that does not have golden arches. Please fact check. 😝

Secondly, Sedona has Oak Creek, which not only ran directly behind our campsite at The Rancho Sedona RV Park:

But also created Slide Rock State Park, which is a natural waterslide created from the creek carving it's way through the rocks and the algae on the rocks giving it a natural lubrication (which is actually not that gross at all, see the picture below of Gavin and the clear water). The water was refreshing (cold) and the scenery was beautiful.

We picnic'd at Airport Mesa Viewpoint our first evening in town.

Day 2 in Sedona had us visiting Chapel of the Holy Cross:

Then we headed over to Bell Rock to test out our Mountain Biking skills. Needless to say, Liam and Alex split off to session a bit on their own. The elevation does not look that bad, and the picture of the main trail below looks easy enough, but lets just say I REALLY enjoyed the return trip.

Our next stop was hiking up to Boynton Canyon Vista. We may have taken a wrong turn at some point and had to backtrack, making this a bit longer hike than necessary but the spire/vortex was worth the extra work.

The boys did some shopping in downtown Sedona while Gavin napped and then everyone rebounded for my MOST FAVORITE HIKE of the entire trip: The Birthing Cave.

Perhaps it was my favorite because Gavin decided to walk (or run) the entire hike himself. Or because we did it later in the evening when the weather was perfect. Or because we ran into very few other hikers, having the cave almost entirely to ourselves. Or because the shape of the cave lends itself to some fantastic pictures.

PS We rewarded ourselves further with a stop for ice cream in town at Rocky Road.

Last but not least on our final morning in Sedona we went to explore Red Rock Crossing.

It seemed fitting to get a pic with the hubby in front of Cathedral Rock, since he is MY rock.

Goodbye Sedona, we hope to meet again, love,

The Voigts Family

Tuesday, June 1:

The GRAND Canyon

The first thing to distinguish is where we stayed because there are 2 primary locations people visit in the Grand Canyon, The South Rim and The North Rim. We stayed on The South Rim. We were fortunate enough to book an RV site at the only full hookup RV campground within the National Park, called Trailer Village RV Park. It is designated on the map below at the end of the southern blue line on the east side of the blue loop. The campground is well centered and has bike trails leading to all the main areas of the South Rim. While I didn't realize this when booking it was perfect for our biking family. We were able to leave our vehicle behind most days and just bike up to our starting point for the day.

One of the other things we noticed right away, besides the bike trails, was the wildlife. The elk were very comfortable in our campground. I guess it had been so dry they were desperate to get water wherever they could, even if off someone's water hook up to their RV (Ranger Kelly also says: Don't feed or water the wild animals). We saw elk, rabbit, squirrels, many ravens, and even a javelina on our last day!

Of course we couldn't resist seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time as the sunset at Mather Point.

On our first full day at the park we decided to take the scenic Desert View Drive which heads to the East entrance of the park, and the Desert View Watchtower. The view of the Colorado River from this viewpoint was amazing and the canyon had an entirely different/darker look to it:

We then headed back along the drive, stopping at the many different view points (Grandview, Navajo, Moran), but ultimately parking at the Shoshone Point for a 1 mile hike and the payoff of a nice quiet, almost private, picnic spot:

And of course because we were so close and could just ride our bikes up after dinner we walked the Trail of Time on the South Rim after dinner for another sunset:

On Day 3 we rode our bikes to the Hermit Rest bus stop, and took the shuttle which stops at all the best viewpoints on the way. We hopped off at a stop and hiked about .75 miles along the rim to the next bus stop, which was enough "rim hiking" for this scare-dy cat:

At Hermits Rest I was under-whlemed. It was nothing exceptional in my opinion.

On Day 4, our final full day at The Grand Canyon, we opted to bike the trail to the South Kaibab Trailhead (orange in the table/map below). This was a very pleasant bike ride.

We hadn't really talked in depth about hiking below the rim. I pretty much told Alex he could if he wanted but I would keep Gavin back. Gavin is not a wanderer, and he is sure-footed, but I'm just a worrier (hi to those that are nodding their heads reading this right now). So, when we came to South Kaibab, I'm glad he decided to take the big boys down a bit. It also gave Gavin (and I) time to chat up the ranger that was at the trailhead, doing an awesome job checking that visitors know that "hiking down is optional, coming back up is mandatory". He was busy with the number of hikers at this important trailhead but also made time to answer all my questions (when did you become a ranger, why did you become a ranger, how did you become a ranger) and Gavin's questions (do you like my hat, do you like my water bottle, do you like my shoes).