My Summer Vacation 2022 #Arizona #HooverDam #BoulderCity #Nevada #ZionNationalPark #Utah #SummerVacation #RedRocksPark #SaguaroNationalPark #GrandCanyon #MeteorCrater #HorseshoeBend #AntelopeCanyon

 Hello, beautiful readers! I've been a bit MIA for a couple of weeks. My son and I took a two-week road trip in Arizona. I had hoped to connect with my online friends at night, but our days were filled with great activities which left me exhausted at night. Lol! Slowly, I'm reconnecting with my online community. For today, I thought I'd share a bit of our adventures in case you ever decide to visit Arizona.

For those of you who do not know, I'm an Army brat. My dad was in the Army for 25 years. My first 14 years of life were spent living all over the world and traveling to explore other places. Traveling is in my blood, and I love exploring new places. So, when I gave birth to my son, I decided I wanted him to see all fifty states in our country before he graduated from college. The USA is SO beautiful. Every state has its own history and plenty of interesting places to visit. Each state is also a bit different in their accents, foods, culture, and levels of diversity. So far, he has seen 48 of the 50 states. Arizona was number 48.

We started our trip in Tuscon, where we visited Saguaro National Park and rode the Mount Lemmon Highway. The weather was in the 100s with dry heat, which is very different from the humidity I'm used to in Miami. The heat didn't bother me, but the elevation had me breathing a little heavier than I'm used to when hiking. I loved the variety of cacti in this park.

 

 

Our next stop was Sedona. We did some star-gazing at night. During the day, we climbed Bells Rock (almost to the top; it got a little too treacherous toward the top so we stopped when we couldn't find good grips to keep climbing up), Church of the Holy Cross, and Cathedral Rock (all the way to the top!). 

In between those hikes, we stopped at the Amitabha Stupa & Peace Park. It was incredibly peaceful. The park was sectioned off with multiple areas to meditate. The picture above is a meditative wheel that you walk while saying a prayer or wishing others well. 

At the top of Cathedral Rock, we found this inspiring, painted stone and took a picture of it. Unfortunately, right before we made it to the bottom, I slipped on a loose rock and badly sprained my ankle. At urgent care, I got fitted with an ankle brace, which gave me enough support to allow me to enjoy the rest of our trip (thank goodness!).

 

From there, we went to Boulder City, NV. We completed a 12-mile kayak tour that started at the base of the Hoover Dam and took us to several hot springs. The constant 53 degree water in the river and the hot springs (up to 120 degrees) felt amazing on my ankle. The sites along the way were just breathtaking!

We had a bit of fun riding electric bikes along an old railway. You have to pedal to charge the electric motors on the bike, and my son did almost all of the pedaling because of my ankle, but we both had fun. Then, we took a tour of the power plant inside the Hoover Dam.

 

While staying in Flagstaff, we visited the Meteor Crater, where a 150 foot wide meteor weighing several hundred thousand tons crashed into the desert at about 26,000 mph over 50,000 years ago. Then, we visited the south rim of the Grand Canyon. I had been before, but my son never had. We walked the perimeter and just enjoyed its vast beauty.

 

Next, we headed to Page, where we visited Horseshoe Bend and both the upper and lower Antelope Canyon. Antelope Canyon is on Navajo land, and they still require everyone to wear masks, even when outdoors. Interestingly, the upper Antelope Canyon does not allow you to take the masks off for pictures (you can be fined $1500 if you do), but the lower Antelope Canyon allows you to remove the masks for pictures. Both allow you to remove it to drink water, but that is it! Still, the views were spectacular, and I loved the energy within the canyon.

 

We had hoped to visit a few places that require permits, but I was never able to secure them, so we took a day and drove to Zion National Park in Utah. In the park, there is a place called The Narrows where you can hike across rocks and wade in water to walk between large rocky mountains as it slowly gets more narrow. It's more than a 9-mile hike. We didn't go that far because of my ankle, but we did get to do several miles and enjoy the beauty of the park.

I took SO many incredible pictures, but I just shared a few to give you an idea of how beautiful the states are. Slowly but surely, I'll be revisiting my favorite blogs and author websites. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this post.

Oh, one more thing! I've got a short story being released this Thursday! I'll create a post about it, but until then, click here to check it out! :-)