All of us – first timers to the magical Grand Canyon — and our first trip there, from Williams would be via the Grand Canyon Railway, a roughly 2 hour trip through a beautiful stretch of terrain.
But first – a bit of a staging experience at the Williams Train Depot.. with a Wild West (silly) intro.
and then we boarded the train:
and then the real treat.. entering the National Park.. walking up to the South Rim to.. jaw dropping views. Honestly felt like we were seeing a green screen.. it was too perfect. We walked several miles along the south rim, following the geological history of the Canyon.
So incredibly glad this wasn’t our only visit — ready to head back next weekend. El Tovar, we’re coming! but until then.. the train back:
We headed from Flagstaff Friday morning — with some time to kill before we could arrive at our new spot in Williams, AZ (closest town to the south rim of the Grand Canyon!).
William scouted out a dog and family friendly walking area in Flagstaff -> Buffalo Park. The boys LOVED the workout activities along the walk/run track and Tater man kept pretty good pace.
After a lunch (again, Grand Canyon Brewery – good stuff!) we headed to Williams.. a town known entirely for being the closest spot to the Grand Canyon. Our plan for the week is to stay near the town in a beatiful airbnb // 10 acres and a perfect house for a remote feel.
Our first full day in Williams, we ventured into town for a visit to a local favorite (Cruisers 66 // a diner that is proud of the historic location near route 66)
Then we headed out to a beautous, not too involved hike to an area called Keyhole Sink — adventure: climb the mini canyon + find the petroglyphs + find the colledge boys.
Flagstaff has been an amazing spot to visit! Sunday, we arrived from the cross country trip, pretty zonked and spent the afternoon settling into our house with Mom’s recipe — Southwestern bean burritos for dinner.
Monday After school and work on Monday, we left the house to hike a trail near Elden’s Peak. The trail is called Fatman’s loop and was our first chance to test our altitude acclimation — not too bad but definitely a change from sea level.
The landscape is so incredibly different – dry, dusty with many succulents and highly scrappy plants and trees that live seemingly in conflict with the resources available to them.
The boys enjoyed making a video along the way, particularly when William found a king snake (red and yellow, kill a fellow; red and black, okay jack!)
It was boys choice for dinner – sheet pan pizza – rawls loving the mushrooms.
Tuesday William researched some spots and suggested Walnut Canyon. None of us knew what to expect and we were blown away by the canyon and cave dwellings that housed people in the 1200s.
On the way back in town, we drove through downtown Flagstaff, down San Francisco Ave and scouted a few places to visit for dinner. After cleaning up, we came back to Crillo Latin kitchen for dinner – loved our meal which was great for us and the boys: elote, jalapenos, smashed avocado for snacks and lamb birria tacos / largest southwestern wedge salad (ever) for dinner.
Wednesday Another great stop – we visited Wupatki- an Adobe archaeolgical site dating back to 1100. The settlement at one point housed over a thousand people and the remains capture aspects of housing, food systems and social life.
Thursday
For our last day/evening in Flagstaff, we were able to host a hometown visitor — Andre Gruber. Nice to spend some time with him (And for William to have a music partner).
We got on the road from Albuquerque fairly early — and continued down I-40 towards Arizona. Our first destination of the trip is Flagstaff — largely to get settled in the area and acclimate to the weather and time zone.
We arrived in Flagstaff around 2pm (we thought) and planned to kill some time before check-in with a snack at the Grand Canyon Brewery.
Rawls… Florida man on the bottom.
After a quick run to Whole Foods, we headed towards our first stay — only to realize that William’s phone recorded 2PM and mine 3PM. The time zone.. so we were certain that Flagstaff sits in MT.. but forgot that Arizona doesn’t participate in day light savings.. Anyways, a bit early, showed up to our first home away from home in a community just outside of the Flagstaff town area. The National Forest surrounds the area with plenty of biking and hiking options that we’ll look to explore this week!
Shepherd’s birthday! Learned this morning from dad that Shepherd shared a birthday with John Prine, a massive 2020 loss.
We decided to get on the road to make it to Albuquerque by lunchtime. The drive was similar to the previous but with increasing elevation until we reached roughly a mile-high in Albuquerque. Closer to the city we saw more interesting landscape and were able to put S’s social studies lessons on landforms into action.. what’s the difference between a Mesa and a Butte 😉 ?
We drove straight to lunch at Rio Bravo Brewing Co and had a solid lunch along with local beverages, including sodas for the boys made at the brewing co.
We were able to check in early at Hotel Andaluz — the first hotel built in ABQ and by Conrad Hilton (later sold and then repurchased by the Hilton chain).
After vegging a moment, we planned to take the Sandia Tramway to the top of the mountain— apparently the longest tram in the states – nearly 3 miles BUT we arrived to two hour lines and decided against the trip. We were all feeling the altitude a good bit and after driving around the Old Plaza (down old town road – ha!) we called it a day. Hydration and some rest needed by all. The birthday boy requested room service and we ended the day with a birthday treat.
The crazy long day to Dallas meant… we could enjoy day 2! We all slept in a bit and headed to a breakfast spot near our hotel, Snooze Eatery (looks to be a smaller, regional restaurant group). It was VERY apparent that they boys needed to stretch their legs when they asked if they could run in circles around the park by the restaurant. We had a perfect spot to watch them, sit with Tater and enjoy the perfect weather morning in Dallas. We jumped straight on the road from there, en route to Amarillo.
The drive stretched through endless flat, plains— very many windfarms (personally think they add, rather than detract from the landscape), oil rigs and Cotton patches. The path itself was one, to two lanes, 75 mph and an easy shot to Amarillo. With one stop for gas, we made it to our next spot around 4pm.
After getting our things settled in the hotel, we visited the Cadillac Ranch, a public art installation funded by Amarillo-native, Stanley Marsh. The installation consists of 10 Cadillacs sunken into the ground. The cars involved ranged from ’49 to ’63 models and supposedly are meant to represent the rise and fall of the Cadillac. The fun of the installation is that you can bring, buy or find abandoned spray paint cans and become a contributor to the installation. The personal contribution may only last a day or so, but we had fun joining in. As we arrived, there were two trailers flanking the entrance selling spray paint, one covered in Trump 2020 flags and the other in Pride/rainbow flags — even the entrance to this remote art installation laid out our current cultural division (not a tough guess as to where we purchased spray paint 😉
Afterwards, we drove through the historic Route 66 district in Amarillo — this once, only gateway to the West Coast feels a bit like the tired areas of A1A near Daytona.
We ended the day at Joe’s Tacos on their outdoor patio for dinner. This felt like our best option in the area, but was pretty much just “food”. The one highlight was seeing Shepherd, in his adventure travel mode, willing to try Guacamole. Even though this was a much shorter travel day, we were all pretty zonked, Rawls nearly falling asleep at dinner, and think we all crashed by 9pm.
We had several months to think through plans for the trip, but there’s always the last minute rush to pull the things we use daily, together. This week we spent making that happen, saying goodbye to family and celebrating shepherd’s birthday a bit early. William’s Daytona city council meeting Wednesday night (the date we had to make sure to stay through) wrapped not too crazily late and we were able to get things packed up Wednesday night.
We woke up early Thursday to take care of the very last things (stove-pot coffee, Tater’s insulin, Shepherd’s bunny and getting the bikes on the back of the Tahoe) and were on the road by 7. Our first day plan was purposefully to make it as far as seemed reasonable.. which when we were planning was Shreveport (12 hours). But…. when we set off on the Road we realized Hurricane Delta might be problematic so we decided to change our trajectory towards Dallas. The drive went as well as could go – no border issues/accidents until the last hour of the drive 😉 To pass the time, the boys finished some schoolwork, watched a couple movies and played games. Amazingly, with our stops and all, we made it to our Dallas hotel around 11pm CT and crashed.
Alabama stop at the largest (physical footprint) gas station in the world, Buc-ce’s.
Writing as we kick-off our fall home school semester on the road. We’d planned a long first day to get to Shreveport.. but with Hurricane Delta heading that way, we’re opting for a longer day and attempting to make it to Dallas. Dallas -> Amarillo -> Albuquerque -> Flagstaff – here we come!
Last stop of the visit – Lake Rabun. There are a number of lake communities outisde of Atlanta and the Lake Rabun community is gorgeous. The entire family came up for this portion of the trip and we spent the last long weekend hiking, kayaking and boating on the lake, cooking together and enjoying the downtime.
Hiking in Tallulah Gorge – lots of steps + great views
Hemlock Fall Trail — popular with some of the crew, but Rawls and Aubrey didn’t love that we made this trek in the rain
We arrived in Dahlonega late afternoon on Monday, September 7th to “the school house”— the most charming Airbnb we’ve visited. The house was built in 1848 and was originally a working school house. Much of the decor reflects this history and there were a number of older desks that the boys enjoyed using. The first night we cooked at the house – carmelized shallot pasta and had a low key night settling in.
Tuesday was a school and work day, but when the boys wrapped early, they went on a hike with William to the top of Preacher Rock. Gorgeous lookout and Rawls maybe a bit unhappy with the “work” it took to get to the top. We went into the main square in Dahlonega to Spirit’s Tavern for dinner — easy family option and we loved seeing Shepherd eating more adventurously. He ordered a salad and ate dressing (never!) and red onion (multiple bites!). Also enjoyed a spicier sauce (gasp!) on his Mac n cheese bites.
Our last full day in Dahlonega was another work and school day, but the boys mixed in a bunch of activities. After school in the morning and lunch at the house, they visited the Dahlonega Gold museum in the main square. The boys were introduced to the Gold Rush, the Trail of Tears and the impact to the Cherokee Nation. They also learned that the gold in GA is much purer than most you’d find (95% vs 75% – not sure if this was just a marketing thing 😉
