The Ruly Road Trip – Part Three

Thanks for all the great comments on the road trip! Glad you are enjoying it too! Picking up where we left off in Albuquerque. . .

Day Five: Albuquerque, New Mexico to Tusayan, Arizona

We woke up in Albuquerque and I wanted to spend just a bit more time there before we headed off out of town. We went back to Old Town in the daylight to shoot a few pictures of the historic Catholic church in the square. The orange adobe contrasted with the bright blue sky was so striking.

We stopped briefly at Boca Negra Canyon in Petroglyph National Monument, a national park just outside the city. We hiked up a small mesa studded with black rocks, admiring the artwork chipped into the volcanic rocks by Native Americans thousands of years ago. Our favorite was finding the dragonfly.

A short trail leads to the mesa top where the hiker is rewarded with a beautiful view of the city. Albuquerque is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. The adobe houses match the landscape so perfectly they look like they naturally grew out of the ground. Albuquerque seems to prize individuality and artistic expression. Even the highway overpass incorporated art. It is not hard to see why this area inspired artists like Georgia O’Keefe.

Reluctantly, we drove on out of Albuquerque into Arizona.

We stopped for gas at a small town near the Arizona border. We were surprised to see how much the population had changed at this point in our journey. Nearly all the people were of Native American or Hispanic descent. My historian husband explained to me that drawing the line between “Native American” and “Mexican” in this part of the country is not very easy to do and that both groups have an extensive history in the area. This gave us new insight into the current Arizona immigration law debate. With such a diverse population it is easy to see why people are concerned about being unfairly targeted.

We stopped at Petrified Forest National Park, which claims to be the largest collection of petrified wood in the world. What is petrified wood? Fossilized trees from millions of years ago. The “wood” is now rock and often contains gemstones. As you can imagine, the wood is a target for looters and the park has officers stationed at the entrance and exit points to make sure visitors are not leaving with any “souvenirs.” The park is in a beautiful desert area and the landscape changes around nearly every corner.

Native Americans inhabited this area thousands of years ago leaving behind “Newspaper Rock” covered with petroglyphs.

We drove on to Flagstaff, Arizona. I imagined all of Arizona to be a flat desert but Flagstaff is really more of a mountain town. The air is cool and smells of pine. We ate at a fantastic pizza restaurant before driving on into the Grand Canyon area. It was evening by this point and we drove mostly in the dark, enjoying the beautiful stars.

Tusayan, Arizona is a large tourist town just outside the Grand Canyon. It is enormously popular in the summer and populated with tourists from all over the world. You can tell there is a lot of money coming into this area. Prices are quite high for everything from food to gas. It took us about half an hour to find a parking place at our hotel. The soaps in the hotel are not nondescript brands but from Bath & Body Works.

Our hotel, the Red Feather Lodge, had two interesting ideas to share. First, the hotel sold advertising space on its keys. Your key served as a coupon for a nearby restaurant, a rather clever marketing strategy. Secondly, the hotel provided a recycling can in addition to the trash can, the first and only time we saw this on our journey.

Day Six: Tusayan, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada

We awoke the next morning early to get an early start into the Grand Canyon. The Park Service website warns that you need to enter before 8:30 a.m. to avoid long lines. We were dreading the park visit a bit, fearing that we would be stuck behind long lines of tourists. Fortunately, this turned out not to be the case.

The Grand Canyon is a United Nations of sorts and the park offers literature in at least 5 languages. We encountered tourists from all over the world. The park makes so much from entrance fees that a large construction effort was underway to expand the visitors center. It appears that most people take the shuttle buses and get off quickly at various spots around the park. If you want to avoid crowds, walking the trails is a good bet. Once you get more than a quarter mile from a shuttle drop point, you have the park practically to yourself.

We walked along the Rim Trail which is about a 3 mile paved trail running about 5 feet from the very edge of the canyon! People are constantly wandering right to the edge to take photos and one person was even taking a nap with his legs dangling over the edge.

There were a few overlooks that made my knees wobble and we kept a close eye on our children but the experience was simply amazing.

We had lunch at the El Tovar hotel whose menu was perfectly designed for vacationing families. While there were elegant selections for adults (like Mediterranean salad and chicken with prickly pear cactus), there was an extensive kids menu complete with activity book. The tables had white tablecloths and the meals were served on beautiful “Mimbreno” china with Native American designs.

After lunch, the El Tovar offers a wonderful porch with a swing and rocking chairs to relax in the shade and enjoy the scenery. Our children loved the swing and it was a great moment to relax after a long morning walk. We continued on the trail to the Kolb Studio, an art studio built right on the edge of the canyon where we viewed a wonderful collection of black and white botanical illustrations.

By this time, we were getting tired and walked back to the car. Our children fell asleep in their stroller. There was so much more to see in the Grand Canyon but we will just have to come back again.

One surprising thing about the Grand Canyon was the climate. I was expecting a desert-like environment with harsh, unrelenting sun, especially in July. Due to the high elevation of the area, however, the climate is really more mountain-like with cool breezes. It was hot but not nearly as hot as we expected. I still managed to get badly sunburned on my back but everyone else escaped burn-free.

We drove on toward Las Vegas stopping for dinner at a little diner. There was a great organizing tip here too. Silverware was provided in little paper sacks with a napkin, fork and knife. It was a great way to keep the napkins clean before serving and it felt like we were getting a little present to open too, which was fun. Continuing the trend of chefs with a sense of humor, this cute sign was found above the kitchen.

As we approached Las Vegas, my husband who had visited several times for work conventions, was preparing me for the landscape. “Is it really a desert?” I asked. Having grown up in Utah where “desert” means not sand dunes but just dry weather with some greenery and even mountains, I wasn’t sure what to expect. “Yes,” he replied. “With sand?” I asked. “Yes,” he replied. As we drove on, I was surprised to see he was right. The landscape became denuded of any greenery.

We drove past the Hoover Dam, which is a tremendous feat of engineering.

We drove into Las Vegas and checked into our hotel, the MGM Grand, where we met up with Ruly Ruth and family.

Day Seven and Eight: Las Vegas, Nevada

We awoke the next morning and Ruth took us on a tour of some of her favorite kid-friendly places on The Strip. I have never been to Vegas before and wasn’t sure what to expect. I was prepared for a Big Texan Steak Ranch type of over-the-top décor. While Vegas is definitely loud and in your face, I was surprised to see there was also an elegance to it too.

The architecture of the buildings was tasteful and interesting and the interiors of the Bellagio were impressive and artful. Granted, we didn’t have time to tour the whole strip so Ruth steered us toward the higher end places.

With four children in tow, we escaped the dark and air conditioned casino space (where it perpetually feels like it is about 7:00 p.m.) into the bright, hot Vegas summer sun. How hot is Las Vegas? Hotter than anything I have ever experienced! At one point, our car thermometer read 111 degrees! It is an exhausting, dry, blast-furnace like heat. Every 10 feet on the sidewalk, someone is selling bottles of ice cold water.

You would think that a person might pass out immediately in 111 degree heat but we were surprised to find that this isn’t the case. You can function in that heat although you have to conserve your energy carefully. You will also see some of the darkest suntans on Vegas vacationers. My 4-year old thinks of Vegas as “escalator city” since there is an escalator in nearly every store and even on the sidewalks to connect to pedestrian bridges over the roads.

In Vegas heat, it is also a good idea to spend a lot of time in the pool. Amazingly, the pool was only open until about 8 p.m. In party city Las Vegas we though for sure the pool would be open 24 hours and we could look forward to using it once the intense sun went down. We were not taking into account the fact that alcohol would be sold at various places near the pool and that the lifeguards were probably concerned about intoxicated people swimming in the dark. We slathered on tons of suncreen and headed into the pool in the late afternoon. Our children LOVED the enormous pool, especially the lazy river. They literally cried when the pool closed.

Dinner was at the Rainforest Café complete with animatronic animals. We weren’t able to explore the Vegas nightlife but the hotels were packed with younger people dressed to impress.

Overall, Vegas was an interesting lesson that even in a recession, people are willing to spend money to get a little crazy and have some fun. The hotels and restaurants were packed and the city seemed to be doing just fine.

Day Nine: Las Vegas, Nevada to Salt Lake City, Utah

That morning, we had the delicious buffet at the hotel, which was an interesting lesson in organization and efficiency. We arrived just before the changeover from breakfast to lunch and watched as the buffet manager instructed the chefs to switch over their stations from pancakes to fajitas. It was amazing how seamless the transition was.

We did a little shopping and then bade farewell to Ruth and family and drove on to Salt Lake City, our hometown. Utah is an incredibly beautiful state. Southern Utah in particular is full of interesting mountains and geologic formations that are simply breathtaking.

We stopped in Fillmore, Utah for a quick break for dinner at a small diner, where we encountered one of Utah’s signature cuisine items: fry sauce (a mixture of ketchup and mayonnaise).

The diner had a clever tip to share. The paper liners used to line the food service trays came from the local town’s tourism commission. The liner presented information about what the primary attractions were in town, why people like coming to Fillmore and annual festivals. It was a good lesson that anyone looking to attract tourists passing through to their business, would do well to befriend local restaurants close to the highway.

We watched a beautiful sunset over the Utah farmlands and drove through an exciting rainstorm into Salt Lake City that evening.

Hope your weekend is full of adventures! Next week we will finish up the trip. Please check back for the journey east!