Provo, Utah to Flagstaff, Arizona

I don’t think that I have ever seen anything as beautiful as the drive from Provo, Utah to Flagstaff Arizona. We took the Scenic Byway – Hwy 89 and the sights were something out of this world. From the amazing red rock canyons all the way to the pine trees of Flagstaff this part of the trip was like candy for the eyes.

Of course the kids were less than enthused that we would have 1 more sleep until we saw Granny…”But we are in Arizona mom!!” and so I brought out the sticker books and Bakugan Stickers and all was well for a couple hours. I had also invested in dry-erase crayons and white boards from the dollar store. (much smarter than dry erase markers…)

By waking up early, the baby would nurse before being put in the car and then we would stop for a snack at 10am, then noon for lunch and then 2pm for another snack (unless he was sleeping from 1-3pm) in which case we would push through unless someone had to pee.

The Hwy 89 is like one of those highways that you see in the James Bond movies or car commercials. Incredibly beautiful and roads that wind around and down the moutain ranges. Chris said that he would LOVE to come back with something with a little more horsepower and sleekness than that of a minivan.

We went into Bryce Canyon and I can honestly say that it was the most spectacular thing that I have EVER seen in my entire life and if you are going into Utah it is well worth the stop. We had a nice lunch of Subway that we had gotten from Panquitch, and then after the canyon stopped at the gas station at Carmel Junction to pee and get more water. (The bathrooms were really nice for a gas station! I was pleasantly surprised!)

The next stop was Kanab, but seconds before we hit the town we saw a place that we could go into a cave system, but in true Utah fashion the flow of traffic was going way too fast and the sign came way too late for us to stop and see them. We are going to try for the way back.

As the red rock changed to orange I thought of all the mothers who must have such a job cleaning dirty mud prints from their children and/or pets!

We passed over a dam and decided that when we drove back that it would be a stop, and we stopped at a scenic point to get our pictures taken. The kids were happily watching Ponyo (thanks to a great friend lending me her DVD library) and we continued with not much issue to Page, Arizona.

That is until we left Page. We should have stayed the night as the kids were done! So the next 2 hrs were the worst part of the trip so far. No amount of DVD’s, food or anything would make them happy. So we hit the road hard, and made it into Flagstaff….we did get a little lost and had to rely on the TomTom to make it to the hotel. We ordered from the Olive Garden and went fast to sleep!