May 2008: Arizona

Grand Canyon Overlook

Williams, AZ

Well on Tuesday of the Njeru's visit I surprised them with a trip to Arizona. Dennis couldn't make it but I couldn't let the opportunity for them to see some of the beautiful places this area of the country has to offer so the three of us hit the road bright and early Tuesday morning. As we drove along I-40 about an two hours into our journey we noticed digital weather signs warning "Winter Weather Driving Conditions" to my dismay. I reassured my guests and we continued on as I had checked the weather and it was to be in the 70s today. As we drove further the landscape and weather changed. The early morning mist quickly changed from mist to sleet to snow. I figured how much snow can there be after all it's May and it is supposed to be 70. We stopped in Williams, AZ for gas. The attendants there were just as surprised as we were about the weather. Turns out this was a wonderful event since my mother-in-law had never seen snow and my father-in-law hadn't seen it since 1963 atop Mt. Kenya. Moma Dennis was ecstatic and me for her. From Williams we headed North to the Grand Canyon. We enjoyed a few hours gazing at this marvelous hole in the earth and did a short hike. We even stumbled across a family of elk. This was a little unnerving much different than seeing these giants from your car. Moma Dennis took off ahead but Dennis' Dad and I took a bit to observe these creatures at a comfortable distance. We then headed to Flagstaff--we were amazed by the amount of snow on the way to Flagstaff. We stayed the night in Flagstaff where we heard from the news they had gotten a foot of snow and hadn't seen that much snow in May in a very long time.




The next day we visited Native American ruins at Wupatki National Monument and Sunset Crater Volcano north of Flagstaff. It was wonderful to see how well the 900 year old ruins had been preserved and the lava flows from the volcano were beautiful. After spending most of the day there we stopped at a Mexican restaurant which was absolutely delicious for the second time "Casa Bonita" before heading back to Vegas. It was wonderful trip filled with many pleasant surprises. We made lots of great memories and had some good laughs.


Sunset Volcano National Crater


Crater Lava Flows


Wupatki Ruins


Door-Wupatki