Arizona

Woot woot!! State line sign stop #3 of 50 was Arizona!! We just spent 3 wonderful days hiking in Zion National park and we’re on the way to Page, Arizona for a Colorado Rafting Tour and Antelope Canyon Tour. This sign was located at the Utah/Arizona border on Hwy 89 South. An elderly couple was at the sign taking pictures when we pulled up and they offered to take ours. It turned out great, don’t you think? Arizona was really pretty. The Lake Powell area and all the way to Antelope Canyon was amazing. Colors and landscapes I have never seen before. Lots of boats were out on the water, what a great place to explore. We might have to come back here for another vacation. Lots to do!

First stop was Antelope Canyon. We did it through a tour company called Ken’s Tours. I purchased tickets online so we didn’t need to wait in line. I will warn you though, to get on the Native American Land you have to pay a Navajo entrance fee of $32 that isn’t included in the cost of the Canyon tour. Luckily we knew this ahead of time and had the cash.  The tour company also only took cash as well.

A short wait and we were off on the tour. Very slippery and you had to be very careful walking down to get on the steps to go into the canyon. Lots of steps to get down, this is not for the faint of heart, see picture above. Once you are down in the canyon it is hard to take a bad picture. This place was gorgeous, and a must see! I will admit they herd you through like cattle but they do give you plenty of time to get pictures. Don’t plan on having lots of pictures without people in the background, this will happen unless you take the special photography tour.

Here are a few pictures of what to expect on the tour. It was very pretty, my pictures don’t do it justice. What really helped is our tour guide knew the settings to get the best pictures for my camera, he just set them for me before the tour started. How awesome!!!

When this tour ended the next one began. We did a Colorado River Rafting Tour through a company called Colorado River Discovery. Lunch was included in the rafting tour so we headed straight there. Rode in a bus to the river where we boarded the boats, lunch was actually really good I suggest getting it through this company if you are short on time. The place we were dropped off at was the picture on the front of my son’s math textbook that year, needless to say this made the trip all that more exciting!! LOL!! We did a 4 hour boat ride and got some pretty amazing pictures. What excited me the most is that we were on the river at Horseshoe Bend. Most people only get to see it from the top looking down, we saw it from the bottom up! Kids were also pretty brave and got in the 60 degree water at the halfway point, CRAZIES!!! What a fun trip! The driver of the boat let the kids sit on the side, this helped in cooling off, it was so hot out there!! We really enjoyed this trip, very relaxing with 360 degree beauty the whole way.  Highly recommend!  I hope you enjoy our pictures from that tour as well!!

A stop for dinner and Wal-Mart for Origami paper and we are off to the Grand Canyon!  Check out the blog for our visit to the Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon National Park

Thanks for stopping and until next time, enjoy your travels!!

Update:

We revisited this great state in January 2018 for Gunnar’s Christmas Present, a hot air balloon ride!!!!

We have a Highschool classmate that flies hot air balloons over Arizona in the winter months. So when my 10 year old mentioned always wanting to ride in a hot air balloon one day we knew this would be the perfect gift!

We chose a sunset ride with Rainbow Ryders and requested Andy as our pilot. He did not disappoint! Fun to see him again and catch up, and the balloon ride was unforgettable!!

We arrived at the shop around 3 pm for our ride. We hopped in a van and the crew transported us to an open field north of Phoenix. We watched while the crew inflated the balloons with a fan and then filled with the “hot air”.

 

Before we knew it we were jumping in and in the air! It doesn’t take long to get elevated!

 

The views were gorgeous! He took us up and then down over some mountains and then back up again!! The highest we got was around 7000 feet!

The landing was not what I expected but I am up for an adventure anytime!!

Mimosas on the ground while the crew packs up the balloon!

Andy let the kids play with the “hot air”, they were super stoked about this!!

Back to the shop for some good eats!

What an amazing experience ❤️❤️❤️

Thanks Andy and Santa!!!

Until we meet again Arizona!!!