Day 17: Grand Canyon to Camp Verde AZ

Rohan woke us all up at 5:35am.  Thankfully Steve managed to quieten him down until the talking/giggling was getting out of hand at 6:45am.  We all got up, had breakfast and had the RV ready to go by 8:15am.

Rohan was on his last nappy (the local General store didn’t have any at all!), so our top priority was finding a supermarket.  Jane found the nearest biggest supermarket was Safeway in Williams which was 85km away - thankfully we were heading that way anyway.  The road was probably a third tier road, and the scenery was pretty boring considering where we had just been.  Julian was happy as it alternated between forest and scrubby desert because for some reason he likes forests.

We eventually came to Williams and discovered that it was on the famous Route 66.  The main drag was actually 2 main drags, both one way and both LINED with motels!  It was a bit surreal as it had a 1960’s vibe to the place. 

We bought the essentials at the supermarket – nappies (though we still haven’t been able to find nappy bags anywhere!), milk, pasta and donuts.  Unfortunately the donuts were not a patch on the Walmart ones L  We drove out of town to the main reason for heading to Williams – Bearizona.

Bearizona is a drive thru (of course) American Wildlife park.  It has Wolves, Bison, Elk and Deer and of course, Black Bears.  Julian had been looking at the brochure for days and was beside himself with excitement when we finally arrived.  We were given a GPS transponder which linked into our radio so we could have commentary.   There were rules about not stopping or getting out of your car; about having your windows up and doors locked.  Seriously why would you want to get out and pat a wolf or a bear? I like living.

It was all good fun and after we had done the drive thru, we headed to the enclosure area for the Raptors bird show.  Julian sat still the whole time loving every minute of the show.  Rohan squirmed and screeched and wriggled all over the place.  They had a few birds, including a HUGE owl, which swooped low over the audience which was fantastic!

After the show we walked around the other enclosures.  Julian liked the Black Bears but he and Rohan loved the River Otters.   It was feeding time and people were throwing in fish to the Otters.  They had a glass screen down to the water level which meant the boys could get close to the Otters.  Both of them were squealing, they were having so much fun!  After that we left via a really terrible gift shop – Julian was more than a bit disappointed. 

We had lunch in the camper and then headed out to Sedona.  I had been playing with the GPS and had picked the shortest route – big mistake!  Jane told us to exit the interstate freeway and then re-enter the freeway on the other side – how could that be shorter?  We quickly re-did the route to fastest route and it was smooth sailing from there. We drove through the outskirts of Flagstaff and it looked like a nice place.

The road to Sedona ran down into a canyon and followed a river for a while before climbing again.  This area is a state park called Red Rocks and it looks a lot like those in Utah and northern Arizona.  However these hills/mountains have trees on them which makes them look quite different.

The plan was to stay in Sedona tonight.  Unfortunately Jane was no use in finding the RV park.  We weren’t too disappointed as Sedona was a lot like Lorne on a hot summers day but 3 times the size – LOTS of people and cars.  Jane found us another RV park about 30km down the road, on the route we were going to take tomorrow, so we decided to go there instead.

Jane was having a bad day as she made us turn into a car dealership and do a blocky around the back before telling us to re-trace our footsteps!  Not a chance were we going to do that, so we continued further on heading back towards the main road to Phoenix.  I scrolled through the campground options in the GPS and found one on the other side of the freeway.  Unfortunately when we got there this one was full, so we continued another 11km further out to another one.  We pulled up only to discover that this one was also full however there was another one about 100m up the road which the guy thought would have space.  And it did!  It is a lovely campground and it has the best looking showers we have seen so far (we haven’t tried them yet).  Crappy wifi of course.

After we had hooked up, we all went for a nature walk in a leafy forest which was part of the campground.  Julian talked the whole time and Rohan was determined to walk unassisted.   We came back to the RV and made the classic Mac and Cheese (with vegetables).  After that Steve and I started cleaning the RV, so that it was one less thing to do tomorrow.  We skipped the shower again and it took the boys a long time to fall asleep.  Fingers crossed for not another early start.

Bearizona was a good find, especially for animal mad Julian.  He “read” the map telling us what animals were coming up next and he loved racing about the camper to get the best views of the animals.  We were surprised when he said that he liked the Otters best but they were the most animated and the ones he got closest to.  For the rest of the day Julian was pretending to be an Otter eating fish and swimming around.  Maybe they will be his next obsession.