A Mountain of Memories

(Guest post by our daughter, Amanda Cox)

To summarize our amazing southwest trip in one word would be impossible and the blessing it was for our family to be able to “tag along” with Dad and Mom, my younger siblings, and Mamaw are endless. We have had numerous conversations, memories shared, and educational discussions from the moment we arrived home about our “trip of a lifetime.” 

Lost Dutchman 2022

I can vividly remember much of our first trip in 1996 to the southwest. Being able to go as an adult and experience it all again, this time with my husband and children of my own was a very special experience. 

Sedona 1996

Tent camping, picnics in our cars, and amazing places all filled my mind with wonderful memories from my childhood. Each day leading up to our trip, I would sit around the dinner table with my own children, discussing in anticipation our itinerary. Our educational studies took us in depth to many of the places we were to visit. As we sat around the table, I would share with them memories from my childhood about many of the places where we would be going. 

Petrified Forest 1996

One such memory I recounted was camping at the bottom of a tall mountain. Early in the morning I sat alone, with my sketchbook in hand, attempting to capture (as well as an eight-year-old can) a mighty saguaro in the shadow of a majestic mountain. I remembered an overwhelming feeling of awe and wonder and peacefulness as I sat there and took it all in. I still have the drawing and I could vividly picture in my mind the real setting, but whenever I recalled that story to my children I could never remember where that specific location was. I only knew it was a very memorable place that we camped in 1996 on our first westward adventure. 

After driving through the majestic Saguaros on the evening of day 6 of our current adventure, we drove a relatively short distance to our camping spot for the evening. It was getting dark as we pulled into Lost Dutchman State Park, yet the full moon that night set alight the surrounding landscape with a gentle glow. We rounded the corner and a moment that cannot be described in words filled my heart with the same awe and wonder as the eight-year-old, 26 years prior. 

There it was- the same mountain, the same cactuses, the exact place from my drawing. I exclaimed to all my family that this was it! I was giddy as a little child as we pulled in, filled to the brim with overflowing memories.

Treasure Loop Trail 1996

My mystery mountain, the one from my childhood drawing was towering before me, glowing in the moonlit night.

 

Moments like these are worth living for. They are worth creating, sharing with your children, sharing with your family. I am so thankful that my parents valued moments together and that they instilled that passion into their children. 

What a priceless trip we had creating new memories with children, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and my grandmother. It was a trip of a lifetime that will leave us with a lifetime of memories.

The Cox Family 2022 at Grand Canyon

~Amanda Cox

The Hardwood Canyon

We packed our bags, and the tent after spending the night at Blaze In Saddle in Tucumcari, we ate breakfast, and we were off to Palo Duro Canyon in Texas. 

This was going to be the last big stop on our vacation. It did not take long to get there.

Palo Duro is a canyon in Texas. Palo Duro is the second largest canyon in the United States. It is eight hundred feet deep, twenty miles wide, and 120 miles long. That is not as big as the Grand Canyon in Arizona, but it is still big.

When we got there, we drove around the canyon. It was a pretty drive. We drove for a while, then stopped at a little museum. In the inside, there were lots of cool things. There were mounted birds, even a mounted golden eagle! I like looking in museums, it is fun to see all the things in them. After looking around a while in the museum, it was time to drive around the canyon some more.

It was cool that we got to drive inside the canyon, and on the bottom. At the Grand Canyon we could not drive around the bottom. We looked at all the beautiful colored rocks. I tried to look for mountain lions, and bears, but saw none of them. The name Palo Duro means hardwood in Spanish.

After we finished, it was time to head off to Ryan and Amanda’s house. At their house, we got out and stretched our legs. We had some ice cream. They were very generous with sharing their ice cream with us. It was particularly good. 

We stayed at their house for about an hour, then it was time to say goodbye to the Coxes and head toward home.

We drove to Springfield, Missouri and spent the night. Then the next day we drove the rest of the way home. I was glad to be back home. We had fun going to all the different places and seeing new things. I hope someday I get to go back out west again.

~Jonah

Tapestry Of Time

On day nine, we traveled through northern Arizona and stopped at the Petrified Forest. This fossilized forest is in Apache country, in Arizona. This was a trip of a lifetime. We drove our car on the road through the park.

I was thrilled to be there; it was a wonderful experience to be able to see the colorful trees lying around the Crystal Forest Trail. There were loads of stone tree trunks lying around us on the ground. The wood of the trees was now hard as a rock. All the water that has minerals in it was soaked up by the wood and fossilized them. Their crystal-like form was exciting to see.

We hiked the trail and looked around at the countless colors, hues, and shades painted on this tapestry of time. There was also a rule- “Don’t take a thing from the forest.” I really wanted to take something, but I did not. We followed the rules.

The trails to me were not hard to hike. We then came to the Agate Bridge Trail. We could see a petrified wood bridge. Sadly, it was closed, and we were not permitted to go on it, because the huge, long log crossing one hundred ten feet across the gully was in danger of breaking. The park is trying to preserve it.

We hiked two trails and then drove for a while to the Painted Desert. We also crossed Historic Route 66 on our way there. There were all kinds of old-time things. We saw a 1932 Studebaker car and part of the old roadbed and a line of historic telephone poles. Later we would travel part of the Mother Road in Tucumcari, New Mexico. There were gas stations and old-time stores and vintage motels. Everything there was amazing.

We drove through the Painted Desert and came to Blue Mesa. We hiked the one mile black-topped trail there; we were up remarkably high. We could see a train off in the distance, traveling beyond the blue, purple, gray, and peach banded scenery.

We were running out of time. We needed to go to the next adventure. The colorful badlands were a great exciting experience for me. But it was time to move along and set up camp before it got dark. We continued our way to next fun place, Tucumcari.

~Unique

The Trading Post

After leaving the Grand Canyon, we headed for the Cameron Trading Post! While we were visiting Sunset Crater, a park ranger told Dad about the family friendly restaurant. It was on Navajo territory, and we did not know what this adventure would hold.

We arrived at the Cameron Trading Post around 5:30 p.m. and all gathered about for our big family picture in front of the building. After the picture was taken, we hungrily headed into the shop. There were loads of handmade Indian things- lots of rugs, beads, jewelry, hats, shirts, and other things. Because we were ravenous, we headed for the restaurant located on the other side of the store.

Our Navajo waiter brought us the menus. After studying the list of foods, I decided to try the Navajo Beef Stew. The stew was filled with cut beef cubes, potatoes, carrots, celery, and onions. It also came with some Fry Bread, a round flat Indian bread served with butter and honey. It was delicious! Others tried the Yah-Ahsay Chile, it was a soup made of pinto beans, lean ground sirloin, and a combination of spices.

After the delicious meal, we did some exploring around the fascinating gift shop. There were some neat Navajo decorations, some leather gun holsters, some cool and big knives, a few puzzles, and a few other Indian items that were pretty interesting. Before we left, we each picked out a souvenir T-shirt with a picture of the Grand Canyon to help us remember our trip.

With our bellies full, we loaded into the car and headed 129 miles to where we were staying that night, the Wigwam Motel. The motels were all in the shape of wigwams and were located along the historic Route 66. There were lots of old cars around the accommodations. When we pulled in, it reminded me of the movie “Cars.” I was delighted to see the wigwams and looked forward to sleeping in one.

~Samuel

The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is certainly named appropriately. Grand is the word that best describes this 277-mile-long crevasse. I have seen countless pictures and heard from many who had witnessed the majestic scene, but finally seeing it for myself was a dream fulfilled. The Grand Canyon is the second most visited National Park in the United States, following the Great Smoky Mountains. It is estimated that about 6 million people visit the canyon every year. The annual visitation in 1919, the year of birth for the park, was 44,173. What a difference!

The park rangers at Sunset Crater told us the day before, that they were expecting snow at the Grand Canyon. A lot of it, too. Sure enough, we woke up the next morning to snow gently dancing down from the grey sky.

By the time we made it to the park and got out of the car, the snow was blowing so wildly that it was all you could do to keep your eyes open. We hastily made it to a sheltered place and waited for the other bus load of our family to come along. Zero visibility were the words I heard murmured a few times. How long would this keep up? Are we going to be able to see anything?

The others came along and after watching an informational video in the park theatre, we opened the door to the outside and lo and behold, the sun was shining, and the snow had slowed considerably. We walked along the path to the overlook. I was so excited. We were really at the Grand Canyon and were about to see a sight I had been looking forward to for as long as I can remember!

We made it to the railing and at first, we could not see much. Then, as we stood there for just a few minutes, the clouds slowly began to roll gently away. As they rolled back, they revealed a sight that was enough to take your breath away. It was beautiful, majestic, breath-taking. It was the Grand Canyon! It was really there after all!

Tears were shed by some, exclamations of wonder by others, and still others, (myself included), just stood there in the sheer wonder at it all.

Every turn on the trail would bring a new snap of pictures from every camera. We would all gather around at a beautiful viewpoint and take family pictures.

After a good long look at the Grand Canyon and walking the trail, we took a trolley ride through the park. We saw quite a few elk including one decent-sized bull elk. That was exciting!

There were two gentlemen from Germany on the trolley with whom my sisters struck up a conversation. They were visiting the States and had hiked down into the Canyon and back up that day! They started at the top early in the morning when it was -2°C (28.4°F) and then made it the ten miles or so to the bottom where it was 14°C (57.2°F). They said they were quite bundled up at the top and were in T-shirts at the bottom! I had never thought of a temperature difference from the bottom to the top! The elevation of the Grand Canyon is anywhere from 2000 to 8000 feet, so there definitely would be some variety in the weather conditions. The temperature usually increases about 6 degrees with every thousand feet elevation loss. They said it was a long but beautiful hike. They did not seem tired in the least!

We went to several of the viewpoint locations to see as much of the canyon as we could. The Grand Canyon is 1,904 square miles in total. That is 692 square miles bigger than the state of Rhode Island! Every window with a view looked like a lively picture. We all had a great time. I am thankful to now be able to say I have been to the Grand Canyon and witnessed the miraculous sight. It was indeed wonderful. It was in fact… Grand!               

~ Jayla

Sunset at Wupatki

The chilling blast of wind whipping about us was quite a contrast to the morning of day six of our western vacation. Instead of short sleeves, we were bundled in layers of shirts, hoodies, jackets, hats, and gloves.

The blue skies which had smiled on us at Lost Dutchman Park, had switched to a dark and dreary cover above us when we arrived at Sunset Crater National Monument.

A head of frowning clouds was preparing to blanket the sky as we hustled into the visitor center to escape the cold and prepare to experience the next stop of our trip.

We had already caught a glimpse of Sunset Crater on the road to the park. A giant black cinder cone arose out of the fairly rolling region. An extinct volcano is not something you get to see every day and I was anxious to get a closer look at this destination.

After viewing the displays inside the visitor center and talking with the rangers there about the cold and snowy weather approaching, we stepped once again into the nippy November evening and set out to do a little hiking.

Lava flows, like giant mole burrows, broke apart the terrain around us, creating ridges and valleys and craters of their own. The crater itself, rising black and red in the background, was a mountainous reminder of past chaos and destruction.

We marveled at the terrible beauty of the place while huddling together to keep warm in the constant halting wind.

Before we headed back to the car, we got several photos of the landscape. We were glad to be back in our vehicles, as it had been a chilly appointment with Sunset Crater.

Our next destination, Wupatki National Monument, was only a few miles down the road from the peak that rose 8,042 feet behind us. It is thought that the nomadic bands of Native Americans, after Sunset’s eruption, moved from their destroyed lands to where the cinder cone’s ashy layer lay just thick enough to enhance the soil, but not too deep to make it impossible to grow vegetation. Wupatki, means “tall house” and was used to describe the Puebloan type cities built by the Hopi, Sinagua, and other groups around the National Monument area.

Ironically, the sun was descending as we stepped out to see the park’s largest adobe apartment-like structure, Wupatki pueblo. Determinedly, we braved the cold once more, following the trail to the base of the ancient houses. The light from the setting sun was fading fast, so we snapped some pictures before it became too dark to see with the camera. As we walked along the paved trail in and around the ruins, I tried to imagine what it would have been like to have lived here when the Wupatki people did. I could almost hear the babble of children’s’ voices and the sound of the mothers’ chatter and the warriors’ boasts. We took shelter from the wind in a niche in the wall, played a small game of tag in the ball court, and searched for the blowhole. It was mostly dark by the time we discovered this little wonder, a hole continually blowing air from the underground into the sky. Cool in summer, warm in winter, we warmed our hands over the spout of air, and then tried to balance a cowboy hat over the column of invisible heat.

Finally, it was time to leave the National Monuments. It had been another day of adventure and memories. We drove away in the darkness, glad to have experienced not only the Sunset Crater, but the sunset at Wupatki!

~Halayah