"The one great sight...every American should see."--Theodore Roosevelt
My trip out West was awesome! I went with my parents and my kids. We survived the thousands of miles of car travel, fast food and motels. My Grandmother was turning 90 and she lives in Washington. So, on the way to Washington for her 90th Birthday party we stopped off at some sites.
We went to the Grand Canyon, Sequoia National Park, Yosemite, Redwoods National Park and Mt. Rushmore. I decided to do a post on each site so I could post pictures on each one.
I had never been to the Grand Canyon so, I was pretty excited about seeing it. We were fortunate that we had good weather at every park we went to. It was a little chilly at the Grand Canyon, but the skies were clear.
I was amazed and somewhat concerned about how close to the edge you were able to get at certain places. I was especially nervous having all of my kids with me. My youngest made a big deal when he turned 9 that he was too old for me to hold his hand anymore. Not only did he make an exception at the Grand Canyon, but he told me that if "I wasn't holding his hand, he might faint." It was very cute!
Since, I homeschool this trip automatically gets turned into an educational field trip ;-). My 15 year old daughter lamented about this. Yet, I enjoyed learning along with my youngest from all the different books we read on the different parks. Below are just a few things that I learned.
Basic Grand Canyon facts:
--Became a national park in 1919
--Its located in Northwestern Arizona
--It is 277 miles long
--5 million people visit the park each year
--90% of those people see the canyon from the South Rim
--It takes 5 hours by car to get to the North Rim, so fewer people see it from there
--You can hike or take a mule train to get to the bottom of the canyon
--The Colorado River flows through it (some take rafting trips down it)
--Major John Powell lead an expedition through the Canyon in 1869
Plants & animals that we saw:
--Yucca plant
--Ravens
Resources:
--Grand Canyon for kids!
--Welcome to Grand Canyon National Park
--Exploring Canyons
--Grand Canyon National Park
--Grand Canyon National Park
