We just got home from an amazing family vacation in Arizona. We were there for 10 days and really saw a lot. It was the best trip!
We had a really late flight on Friday night from Nashville to Phoenix. I was a little worried about Caitie wearing a mask for an extended period of time, but she did wonderfully. We played it safe and arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare. Caitie loves to be on the floor, so we just rolled with it. She is obviously very covid friendly, ha!
We arrived in Phoenix around midnight. All the kids took a nap on the flight and were ready to party once we arrived! We arrived at the Phoenix Grand a little after 1am and promptly went to sleep!
When we arrived in Phoenix they said it was a terrible storm and to really be careful out there. We kind of laughed because it was a very mild rainstorm compared to what we are used to in Nashville. Unfortunately, the rain brought in the cold and windy weather for the next day. We had planned to swim at the hotel waterpark for the day on Saturday and relax. However, since it was so windy and cold it wasn't a good pool day. We decided to go to Sweet Desert Cafe, which is a cute little brunch spot in Tempe. It was delicious!
After brunch, we headed to Saguaro National Park for the day. I didn't know a lot about the park, except that it was known for it's amazing cactus plants. Saguaro is about an hour and a half outside of Phoenix in Tucson, Arizona. I am so glad we made the leap and headed to this beautiful National Park. It ended up being one of the most unique things we did on the trip. It was Peyton's favorite activity that we did the whole trip!
The park is split into two sections, east and west, which are separated by the city of Tucson. We visited the Red Hills Visitor Center which is in the Tucson Mountain District and is the west portion of Saguaro National Park. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to visit the Rincon Mountain District (east), but we would definitely go back if we are ever in Arizona.
We only had a half of a day in the park, so we decided on a few short trails. We all hiked the Desert Discovery Trail which is a half of a mile. We stopped to read all of the exhibits telling us about the cactus plants and all of the animals that inhabit the area. It was a really great introduction to the park.
They loved this cactus with all of the crazy arms pointing everywhere.
The boys loved collecting all kinds of sticks to help us hike. We were told to beware of rattlesnakes, so they were ready with their sticks.
The cactus were so tall! It was really amazing to see!
Next we headed to the Valley View Overlook Trail. The trail is a little under a mile and the whole family was able to complete pretty easily.
The trail takes you up to a gorgeous overlook. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but it looked out over thousands of cactus plants.
Peyton thought the trails were boring and loved to make his own trails throughout the park and try and meet up with us. He found this rock structure and insisted upon climbing to the top. Of course all of the others followed.
The "tiny cactus" as Caitie liked to call them.
The Valley View Overlook Trail connected to the Wild Dog Trail. The little two were ready for a nap so Michael took them back to the car and I hiked the trail with the older two boys. Since the trail was one-way, Michael drove to pick us up on the other side. The trail was 2 miles long and we didn't see a single hiker on the trail. It was such a peaceful hike.
Such a pretty view!
We stopped on the way out to take another picture with the sign.
She was so tired after hiking and such a late night the night before.
We were pretty tired and hungry after our day hiking, so we decided on in-n-out burger on the way back. The kids spent the remainder of the night relaxing in the hot tub. It was the perfect day!
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