Weekend at the Grand Canyon, Day 3

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Tusayan to Tucson

Snow in Arizona!

On Sunday morning, we left Tusayan around 8 to begin our drive home. We had planned to go back to the Grand Canyon if there was snow on the ground, but it turned out that it had only sleeted the night before. Personally, I wouldn't have minded a little detour back to the canyon, but we had a long drive ahead of us.

As we were driving though, we started seeing more and more snow as we rose in elevation. At first it was only a small patch here or there, and we joked about playing in it. But the higher we got, the more snow was on the ground. Soon, we were driving through a winter wonderland! We were shocked and delighted to have found snow in Arizona in late April. :)

At around 8000 feet above sea level, it became extremely foggy. The roads were perfectly fine which made it all the more enjoyable. We couldn't get over how cool this looked!

We looked for a good place to pull over, but that turned out to be more difficult than we thought because none of the side roads were plowed. We finally found a turn off about 20 miles North of Flagstaff, and not 2 seconds out of the car, the guys began their great snowball fight. ;)

As soon as we reached Flagstaff, the snow disappeared. It was quite cold though and very cloudy. We stopped at the "best Barnes and Noble in Arizona" while driving through. I was finally able to text my family and tell them we survived. ;)

Rather than taking the I-17, we opted to take a scenic route along Lake Mary, then went South on highway 87 until we reached highway 260, which we took to Camp Verde. We really enjoyed seeing the lovely lake and driving through the gorgeous forests. As soon as we came down from the Mogollon Rim, we enjoyed expansive views of the valley with low-hanging clouds and a few heavy rain showers in the distance.

Mitch and Julianna had never seen Montezuma Castle, so we stopped here for another quick break. This was Curtis and my 3rd time visiting, yet we always forget how big it is. We always enjoy stopping and seeing the creek and sycamore trees as well. :)

After that, we got back on the I-17 and stopped once more North of Phoenix for lunch before finishing the drive home. Both puppies were asleep when we arrived back at Mitch's, but once we woke them up they were thrilled to see us again. While they ran around and greeted all of us, we could tell they were both exhausted from a great weekend of playing together. We're so thankful for Austin and Seneca watching them this weekend and making our trip possible!

And that wraps up our awesome weekend. We loved having the opportunity to have such an exciting adventure with some of our closest friends. And most of all, we thank God for keeping us safe and blessing us with perfect weather and amazing beauty!