Trevor and the kids picked me up at the Phoenix airport, April 27th, and we headed toward Sedona that afternoon. We stayed at Dead Horse Ranch State Park near a town called Cottonwood. 
Don’t let the name fool you as it was a great RV site. As well, we met a family from Rhode Island doing the same thing we are (with nearly the same time line), and we had a great time hanging out, sharing meals and stories. 
From Dead Horse we visited the charming artsy town of Jerome, where homes and stores are perched on the edge of a steep mountain. At night we could see the town’s lights from our campground. It was an unique town with quaint shops. However, many shops were closed when we were there (Wednesday) as they close for 2 days in the week and stay open on weekends.
Another unique and first time experience was the annual Cottonwood Rodeo, 
(never been to the Calgary Stamped but I guess that’s what happens when your a tourist). It was priceless to see the expression on Trae’s face when the first rider came out on the bucking horse. His eyes were popping out of his head and he had the biggest grin on his face. Good thing we don’t live near a ranch! From the grandstand, we witnessed a beautiful sunset.
We spent several days in Sedona as we were enjoying
the company of our new friends and Sedona. We visited a couple of native ruins, 
saw pictographs and petro glyphs and did some hiking, while trying to locate vortexes. Sedona is said to be the home of many spiritual vortexes. 
We hiked a trail to find one, and found was a dead bobcat on the trail!! Must have been a negative energy vortex. Trevor enjoyed Sedona as he was able to get a few bike rides in and thoroughly enjoyed the many trails. He found a trail that took him from Dead Horse Ranch to Sedona for a total of 32 miles. Trae even had the chance to explore the trails on his new bike. As expected, he loves mountain biking.
We chose to drift north of Sedona for one night to Cave Springs Campground so that we could check out Slide Rock Park. It is a super awesome natural slide made by the slick creek rocks in the canyon creek. Unfortunately the water was ice cold and we all chickened out, but it was still cool to imagine what it would feel like to ride down the creek and it was a beautiful spot to have a picnic.
Our next stop was Flagstaff, where we left our RV to get some maintenance. We thought we would save a few bucks and pitch our tent off a forestry road, just north of the city, for the night. But at 2:30am, after Trevor and I hadn’t slept a wink due to discomfort from the cold and the hard ground, we packed it up and headed back into town and got a hotel room. I guess we’ve gotten weak!!! Trae was the only one who was tough enough to not let the discomfort disturb his sleep as he slept right through the night!
The next morning we picked up our RV and made our way to the Grand Canyon.
We stayed in Desert View Campground at the eastern entrance to the south rim for 2 nights. When Kiah got her first sight of the canyon from the village at the south rim she exclaimed “Is that real?”. It truly looked like a massive painting. Like most places of such extraordinary beauty, photos cannot capture what one sees with their own eyes, never the less, we took hundreds of pictures as per usual.
We all went on a hike down the Bright Angel Trail into the canyon and had our lunch at the first rest station about 1.5miles down. We bribed the kids with the reward of a large ice cream cone if they hiked back up without complaint. Trevor hiked alongside Kiah and they even managed to run a portion while Trae and I followed close behind. Trae talked my ear off the entire time without a single complaint while we passed many “out of breath” hikers. Trevor and I were so happy because, although we’ve done many hikes with the kids, this hike was definitely one of the most enjoyable. It’s amazing what ice cream can do!
We managed to convince the kids to go back down the canyon the following day on a trail called South Kaibab. We went a similar distance and were rewarded with a spectacular viewpoint called “Ohh Awe Point”. It was incredibly stunning, however, nerve racking with the kids as we sat near the edge of a barrier-less cliff to take in the views.
We left the Grand Canyon and drove North toward Page, an area known for it’s slot canyons. On route we stopped at a couple of road side stands where Navajo people sold beautiful jewellery, blankets and pottery. We also stopped at a place called “Horseshoe 
Bend”. Here we took a short 1km hike to a cliff overlooking the beginning of the Colorado river where it flows from Glen Canyon into the Grand Canyon. Here the cliff makes a sheer drop off and there are no barriers. 
I allowed the kids to lie on their bellies on the rock while I held on tightly to their legs so they couldn’t get too close. It was another beautiful spot where you need to hold onto your adventurous children. A sense of wonder pulls you close to the edge to peer at the river running below, while there is a feeling that a strong wind or a miss step might send you plunging into it.
We stayed 3 nights in Page at Wahweap RV Park, where we met up again with our Rhode Island friends. We took a Navajo guided tour of Lower Antelope Canyon. It’s a slot canyon that we were able to climb down into and walk a portion of, for about an hour.
We watched the sunlight shine on the sandstone walls causing the red and orange coloured rock to glow. The wavy and twisting patterns in the rock seemed to create images of faces at every corner. We also took a cruise tour on Lake Powell into Antelope Canyon, where the rock walls shot up from the water into the sky in a narrow canal not much wider than the boat we were on. The day was very windy and the Captain of the boat later mentioned that it was difficult to avoid hitting the walls of the canyon!!
We are now headed to Zion, Utah and are very excited for what is next. Trevor hears that the biking is fantastic and we are excited for more hiking.
up the long and climbing road to the north-west Big Stump Entrance of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. We were greeted at the top to snow patches but the weather was warm and sunny. We were right on time to join a park ranger in a tour of General Grant Grove, home of one of 75 groves of the earth’s largest living trees. Some of these trees are over 
2,000 years old and I think they can live for over 3000 years! The older ones have a ground circumference of over 100ft! One tree, named the Fallen Monarch, was once used as a home and then a horse stable and we were able to walk right through it. We enjoyed breathing in the smell of earth and trees as we listened to the park ranger and wandered among these majestic giants.
Breath-taking waterfalls await at almost every turn and at the bottom the fierce Kings River flows back-dropped by moss-tinged granite walls that stand thousands of feet tall. Kings Canyon is surrounded by rugged wilderness and unlike Zion and the Grand Canyon, surprisingly, there were very few tourists here. There is a trail called the Pacific Crest Trail that runs through Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and stretches from Canada to Mexico. Maybe next time we visit Mexico, we’ll take this route!!!
We hoped to do some hiking the following day but we only managed to see a few viewpoints along the roadside before the rain started coming down hard. We decided to drive to the top and stay at a campsite up there. After a very scary drive up the edge of the deepest canyon in the US in the heavy fog and rain we decide it was best to continue down to the foothills so 
that we didn’t awake to snow the next morning. We had planned to visit Yosemite, but with the cold weather in Sequoia, we decide instead to head west toward the coast. Because we had such a late start we ended up driving into the evening and finally found an RV park close to Santa Cruz.
