BREATHTAKINGLY BEAUTIFUL - NORTHERN ARIZONA

Jules’ Journal: God’s Incredible Beauty!

By: Julianne Lillie, 2/22/23 – 2/23/23

We all woke up before the sunrise (I watched it rise over the cliffs as I ate breakfast) & we left our camper by 7:15am. We arrived promptly at 7:30am for our Upper Antelope Canyon Tour. It was 33 degrees so we all bundled up! Since this is Navajo Reservation land, you must have a Navajo guide lead you through the canyon. Our Navajo guide, Christy, helped us get our settings on our cameras/phones before the tour. So thankful for her knowledge!

As we entered into the canyon, we were just awestruck! The sedimentary lines layered within the red Navajo Sandstone was just beautiful. Every direction you looked was a strikingly beautiful view! Christy was gracious and took photos of all 4 of us throughout the Canyon and knew the perfect places to do so!

The twists and curves of the rock in some places made animal & shapes that the Navajo have named throughout the canyon. She was sure to point them out to us and help us stand in the right place to capture the photo. I was really surprised to capture such great photos with my iphone!

Heart of the Canyon:

Shark:

Sandman:

Firewall:

Fire & Ice:

At the exit of the Upper Antelope Slot Canyon:

Meanwhile, Jaycie was using her new Sony camera. I think she enjoyed it although she’s still trying to figure out the right settings.

After the tour, we grabbed donuts & headed for Horseshoe Bend. It cost $10/car to park & you can stay as long as you want. We hiked out to the lookout and then stayed & bouldered all around! We had so much fun, and although it was chilly and windy, we all worked up a nice sweat! This area was just as breathtakingly beautiful! Of course, we took tons of photos & even staged some silly ones!

Here's our silly ones:

We all enjoyed ourselves except when my son liked to hang over the edge of the canyon trying to scare me to death! He kept wanting to throw a rock over and watch it fall… which it was so high we could never see it land!

After several heart attacks on my end, we headed back to the camper for lunch & then 3 of us Js (Jason, Jett, and I) hiked 1 mile up to the Hanging Gardens while Jaycie had some much needed alone time to paint. It was a nice little hike with again, gorgeous views, and ended at this little alcove full of hanging ferns. Pretty wild that a desert could produce such vegetation like that!

Here's the alcove... notice, still snow on the ground!

Once we got our hike in, we picked up Jaycie and headed to the Glen Canyon National Rec Area’s Visitor Center where the kids earned 2 more Jr Ranger badges each & we picked up some souvenirs. Jr Ranger badge #73 was Glen Canyon National Rec Area & #74 was Rainbow Bridge. Unfortunately, we couldn’t visit Rainbow Bridge this trip. The boat dock hasn’t been operational for some time due to the low water levels. The Park Ranger did say we could do a multi-day hike out to it if we got a permit, we would just have to be hyper aware of the quicksand. That was an easy pass for us… no thanks! But at least we still got to learn about it!

After watching the weather, specifically Winter Storm Olive, we decided to squeeze in tomorrow’s activities today before the precipitation hits overnight. So, we quickly loaded up and drove the US 89A Vermilion Cliffs Scenic Hwy to the Navajo Bridge.

We stopped at the Navajo Bridge hoping to catch the visitor center open, however they had just closed at 4pm due to winter hours. But we were still able to experience the bridge by walking over the Colorado River.

View from the middle of the bridge:

It was SO HIGH! And we saw a few Condors on the side of the cliff which we watched for a while.

We then drove into Vermilion Cliffs National Monument to explore the “Balanced Rock” area.

This area was absolutely wild! It felt like we had stepped onto Mars! These HUGE rocks are carefully balanced with the Vermilion Cliffs set in the background. The kids enjoyed running around, climbing, and staging funny photos!

After that we headed back to the camper for a late dinner. What a special day it was full of God’s Incredible Beauty!

Later that night, winter storm Olive’s winds howled and gusts got up to 65-70 mph. You can only imagine how loud it was in a Tin house on wheels! We were shaking and rocking all night long… much like the night Hurricane Nicole moved over us Orlando, FL. We woke up to snow on the ground and ice on our windows! I had to let the ice thaw a bit before I could snap a picture out our window.

We decided to stay in and have a school/clean/laundry day! Very thankful our water line & tanks did NOT freeze up! Thank you, Lord!

We also were able to have a Lego competition and an art class taught by Jaycie. She taught us the art of weaving which has quickly become her favorite Navajo craft!

She made us homemade looms out of cardboard and we bough yarn & popsicle sticks from Walmart!

Finished coaster & bookmark!

Overall, we explored everything we set out to explore in Page, Arizona! But are quickly learning how to be flexible! We had to cancel our next 3-day stay in Grand Canyon due to the amount of snow they got yesterday and many roads/trail closures. We have added those 3 days to our time in Sedona, AZ and will plan to do a long day trip up to the Grand Canyon (hopefully on Sunday) once the area has thawed out a bit and the road to the South Rim reopens.

The flexibility training continues as we were suppose to leave out today, but unfortunately are now stuck in Page, AZ an extra night. We are hoping and praying that we can make it further South to our campground in Sedona, AZ without issues tomorrow. Driving through Flagstaff, AZ is the biggest concern at this point since they received quite a bit of snow yesterday and continue to get dumped on all throughout today. All major roads leading into and out of Flagstaff, AZ have been closed since yesterday due to blizzard like conditions. The snow looks like it will stop tonight and thankfully the forecast for tomorrow is sunny. I'm so thankful for the flexibility of our campground here in Page, AZ as well as in Sedona, AZ as we are navigating these unusual conditions for this area. Tomorrow we plan to head South and we appreciate prayers for safe travels!

Jaycie’s Bunny Hoppin’ News: Upper Antelope Canyon

By: Jaycie Lillie, 2/22/23

My favorite adventure in Page, AZ was walking through Antelope Canyon. Even though my settings on my camera were too dark and I spent some time messing with them, I did get a few good photos! I had read an article on what settings my camera should be on for the Upper Antelope Canyon and I set them just like it said. However, the article didn’t turn out to be helpful. Lesson learned – don’t trust everything online! I asked the tour guide and she helped me with my settings half way through. Here’s my favorite photos I captured:

It was fun to see the canyon with my eyes even though I didn’t capture it all on camera.

Jett’s Wild Flight: The Canyons RV & Cabins Campground

By: Jett Lillie, 2/21/23

Hello and welcome to the Canyons RV & Cabins Campground! (crickets, chirp, chirp, chirp) There is actually no bugs at all which is awesome! I love this campground because it has a cool mountain behind it, and you can boulder and climb on the huge rocks!

The one bad thing about this park is that it’s hard to back into it because of the sloped curbs, and the gravel is loose. I rate this campground 4.5 stars out of 5!