Good morning!
As promised, here is the segment of our trip from Sedona and Flagstaff through to the Grand Canyon. I know God was watching over us, providing not only safety from the storms, but providing us with spectacular evidence of His splendor in the beauty of His creations.
A little gecko perches on a rock, waiting for the sun
The view driving through the town of Sedona
Views on the way to Flagstaff
A small tree finds a way up through the rocks
There was a place called Water Slide Park along the way to Flagstaff, where there was a naturally formed water slide. I had heard about it years before during a winter visit. It was too cold to go then, but since it was in the 100’s again, I thought it would be a good place to visit and cool off. Apparently every other tourist in the area had the same idea. By the time we got there, it was so full that we couldn’t get in. The parking area in the park itself was full to capacity, and there were more cars lined up along both sides of the road for at least a mile in each direction. People were walking along the road, looking for places to access the river and many more already in the water. It looked like a really fabulous place, but we just couldn’t get to it. The road is very narrow through this section, and between all the parked cars and people walking along the road, we used extreme caution driving through. I took a few pictures but they didn’t turn out well. There was no where to stop for pictures, and since we were moving, the ones I took turned out blurry.
Christian was pretty disappointed that we didn’t get to stop. He was really looking forward to the water slide and going swimming. I promised him that we would try to find a motel in Flagstaff with a swimming pool.
We stopped at a few places along the way, enjoying the scenery, and at a U.S. Park for a brief history lesson of the area.
We didn’t get to drive the whole road, but we did get to drive on it through Flagstaff! 🙂
One of the beautiful old churches in Flagstaff
Working off some pent up energy with a good arm wrestling match
As I had promised Christian, we got a motel with a swimming pool and a hot tub. So once we settled into our room, we went swimming. There were other children already there, and Christian quickly made some new friends. While the children played, Amy and I soaked our bones in the hot tub. It felt great to just relax in the hot water.
We hadn’t been there very long when we noticed dark skies in the distance. As the clouds got closer, we began to see lightning and hear thunder. We didn’t stay in the water very long after that. We ended up sitting in the motel room with the door open, being treated to another fantastic lightning storm. One strike hit so close, it made Amy and Christian jump over the bed. The storm continued for a couple of hours with heavy rain and lightning. Once the storm was over, we went to bed, ready for a good night’s sleep. We planned to get an early start since we knew we wanted a full day exploring the Grand Canyon. Flagstaff is only about an hour and a half away from the south entrance, so we were getting close.
Tomorrow I will continue with our journey into the Grand Canyon. Until then, I pray everyone has a great day filled with God’s love and sunshine! God bless – Amber & Christian
AmberLea of Alaska's Blog 
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