Here are a few more good pics from the beach portion of this road trip. We’re a little bummed to leave, especially with the last few days being misty and chilly and not ideal for playing in and by the ocean – which totally just means we will need to come back again next year. 😎
Now on to our next destination!
posted by ARR
posted by ARR
posted by ARR
posted by ARR
Wait until dark. Grab your lights and a bucket. Search the beach for crabs. When you find one, chase and squeal and scramble and eventually get it into the bucket. All cheer. Hunt for more until you think you’ve caught the biggest one on the beach. Dump the bucket and watch them all scamper away.
posted by ARR
Something I’ve learned recently about the beach: A red flag raised on the beach means no swimming, dangerous rip current activity expected. A red flag raised means that my kids are severely bummed….(at first anyway).
“If you’re dying to swim we can go in the pool”, we offer.
Silas protests. “We didn’t drive ALL the way across the country for THREE days to swim in a POOL when the ocean is RIGHT THERE!”my oldest exclaims.
“Well, then you’re just going to have to be angry at Mother Nature then. There’s nothing we can do about it.”
This anger lasted about, oh maybe 3 minutes. After breakfast we all headed down to the beach and both boys went wild in the sand, digging and building. We walked down to a recent “shipwreck.” Someone and their boat from Florida wrecked on the beach three days earlier. We threw the frisbee and football. Ivan looked for cool shells. Soon it was if no one even noticed that the water was off limits.
A few hours later a lifeguard drove up to the flagpole in his quad and started messing with the flag. I look at both kids and they have their eyes on him. At first we think he’s just replacing it, as it was quite tattered. Nope. The life guard took down the red flag and then walked out closer to the water and put up a yellow flag. A yellow flag means some rip current activity is expected. He came back to us, clearly noticing that we were all eager to know the current state of affairs on swimming. He told us it was safe to go in as long as we stayed close to shore.
The boys were in the water within seconds.
posted by ARR
posted by ARR
posted by ARR
As noted a lot here on apAdventures, many of our best adventures evolve from an idea that gets planted during a prior adventure. This is another one of those instances. This is also one of those instances where when the opportunity presents itself, we jump on it.
While cruising down the South Kaibab trail last October, we took note of this inviting little thread of a trail headed into a massive plateau of sage bush about two thirds of the way down to the river, off to our left. The little thread was a tiny segment of the massive Tonto Trail, a 95 mile path that traverses the canyon lengthwise between the Little Colorado River in the east and somewhere waaaay downstream in the west, Garnet Canyon according to my map. While the link up possibilities of the 95 mile long Tonto are enough to plant a lifetime of future adventure ideas, the one we had that day in October was both simple and achievable, as long as we stayed fit: start/finish on the South Rim, South Kaibab trail to Tonto West to the Bright Angel Trail, around 14 miles in total and maybe 3500 feet elevation descent/gain. Tonto being notorious for no shade and no water meant we would have to get creative on when to fit this in before summertime temps started to climb, otherwise wait until next fall (because the winter bouldering season is of course off the table as an option). Well, fresh off a 14 miler last weekend that went surprisingly well, and two nights in Mather Campground on the south rim that opened up on recreation.gov meant “time to jump boys!” Bonus: it’s Mother’s Day!
posted by ARR
Tanque Verde Ridge to Juniper Basin, about 14 miles and 3000 feet elevation gain. Very pleased to report that the high mileage base we built last summer and fall with the kiddos is still intact.
It’s gonna be a good summer. 👍
posted by ARR
