Day 11 – Red Rocks

Destination: Sedona, The Grand Canyon and Williams, AZ (5.5 hours, ~300 miles)

We started the day by saying goodbye to Auntie Marlene. We had a great time visiting her in Gilbert and she truly was a life saver! The majority of the morning was spent packing and making sure we didn’t leave anything behind. While we were packing, Marlene helped Brooke send her pen pal letter to Mia (pictured below). We then packed up some lunches and hit the road around 10:30am.

Our first destination of the day was Sedona. Since Beckett is wildly behind on sleep and he fell asleep as we approached Sedona we decided to just drive through. Jaclyn and I were partially reliving our honeymoon when we spent a few days in Sedona. We found the place we stayed and looked around for the various places we remembered.

While driving through Sedona Brooke said, “This is amazing!”. Unfortunately, Jaclyn and I weren’t sure if she was talking about the red rocks or the number of M&M’s she got in her trail mix from Christina…

After Sedona we took a great windy mountain road towards Flagstaff. There was a great viewpoint that was our first real stop of the day and finally gave Brooke an idea of the scale of the mountains/scenery out here. She was really impressed, which impressed me because she is only 5.

As we approached Flagstaff I actually saw an all blacked out Tesla Cyber Truck being towed on a flatbed which was pretty cool! The thing is huge and looks like a military vehicle.

After about another hour of driving we finally arrived the Grand Canyon via the East Entrance, which is much more scenic then the classic south entrance. When approaching The Grand Canyon I said “entrance station ahead” and Beckett yelled, Yay!!!

We stopped literally like 500ft into the Grand Canyon to visit the Desert View viewpoint and watch tower. Brooke and I climbed the Desert View tower which was pretty cool. She was really fascinated with the old-style construction and all the Native American paintings inside.

After checking out the viewpoint we realized we were a bit behind schedule so we got some food from the little shop at the viewpoint and bought some souvenirs. I let Brooke pay and afterwards she was skipping outside and saying “I’m an adult, I can buy anything I want!”

We drove about 30 minutes south to Williams, AZ for our AirBnB. On the way we saw a deer/elk/moose animal in the road which was cool. We really like the AirBnB as it’s in a totally remote area and is completely off the grid. I’m geeking out at their solar and battery setup lol.

We got the kids to bed quickly and are just relaxing now! Getting ready for another day at the Grand Canyon and then Horseshoe Bend tomorrow.

-Jay