Arizona - The Grand Canyon State

Yes, It is a grand canyon state.  With Canyons around every bend.  If you aren't careful while walking in the desert you might just find yourself in one.  Perhaps not the best state to live in if you are scared of heights.  I have talked about the Dhs fear of heights before.  He said hes not afraid of heights.  No, hes afraid of people falling.  Hmmm, I think hes a big chicken. 

Yesterday, we went to Walnut Canyon, and they even had guard rails most of the way and he was STILL scared to look over the edge.  Oh what he missed!  The views were incredible.

There were ruins inside of the cliffs, like Montezumas Castle.  A lot like Jerome, just older.  Very educational because you are actually able to walk inside the ruins.  This picture was taken from the Rim trail.  We didn't get to go deep inside the canyon because the dh was chicken.  But the rim trail was pretty and educational.  Inside the visitors center was a museum and some artifacts that they found.  This park, more than any we have visited in the past, really explored archeology, why we need to excavate the sites and why its important not to disturb anything. 


As if Walnut Canyon wasn't enough we had to visit the Meteor Crater.  If you don't know about Meteor Crater, it is the best preserved meteor impact site on the earth. Its about a mile wide and 550 feet deep.  Its a HUGE hole in the ground.  And you get to stand on the edge.  You can imagine this went over really well with the Dh.   The science center was very educational though.  The children got to see and touch meteor fragments.  Well fragments of the 150 ft meteor, so fragment is a relative term.  It looked about as big as the boulder in our front lawn.  My 4 yr old especially like the video of Shoemaker-Levy 9 hitting Jupiter.  There was a "movie theater" explaining how the impact happened and why studying meteors is important.  My 3 yr old kept asking for pop corn and soda.  I think he was a little confused with the role of this particular movie theater. 

Here the kids are looking down in the meteor crater.  The Dh refused to come down.  He stayed inside with the little ones. 

Heres 7 of the kids at a replica of the floor of the meteor crater.  Wierd thing looking down from the rim, I couldn't see any walk ways down.  How people got down there, let alone made buildings, is beyond me.  I think I might edit the photo so it looks like they are right down there. 

And here are 2 of my goofs with a cardboard cut out of an astronaut.  It was funny, they had a memorial to the astronauts there and my daughter found it boring, there was no pictures.