July 15, 2006

Before we left Kanab, we checked out the Coral Sand Dunes which were pretty in pink. The sand was just like pink powdered sugar. As we were there pretty early we could still see lots of critter tracks. All sorts; things with tails, squiggly things, things that hopped, things that slithered. Wouldn’t want to sleep outside on a dune overnight. You’d never get any sleep, with the critters bustling around!

We then went to the Best Friend’s Animal Sanctuary for a tour. It’s like a high-class SPCA. It is the largest in North America with 1800 animals and some 20,000 acres of land. Lots of really cute animals, all in need of adoption. We didn’t adopt any…..it was hard though!

We then went to Frontier Movie Town back in Kanab. We walked through the actual set from the movie "The Outlaw Josie Wales" starring Clint Eastwood. We had lunch at an awesome 50’s diner…milkshakes like you remember them!

Then off to Marble Canyon, Arizona. We did see a ghost town on the way which was really cool but we couldn’t walk through it, just look at it from the locked gate. Half a dozen buildings and a gallows at the end of Main Street. Now THAT impressed the kids!

Found a park ranger who said it was OK not to pay the $15 to use Glen Canyon Park. We were only going into it for about an hour so we could dip our feet in the Colorado River. Man, that river is cold!! Might have had something to do with the 107 degree temperatures, but the ranger even said it was cold.

We left there and stopped at some weird rock formations that some people had actually lived in in the 30’s. Of course, Kelsey took off up the mountain like a mountain goat, and before we knew it she was about 150 meters up the cliff!

Had fun though!

We got to our motel, the Cliffdweller’s Lodge. This place

has a red rock cliff rising about 500 meters right behind the motel and the view out the front is just endless desert with a few buttes in the distance….eat your heart out Lynne! Even better, we found a live scorpion in our room! Hotel guy says it’s nothing to worry about, but I did notice he had a weird swelling on one side of his face and walked with a pronounced limp. We heard that the restaurant here was fantastic, so we just finished dinner there. Yup, really good, but $$$$. Kendra picked this place because of the restaurant. Good choice, even though it doesn’t have a pool (sorry kids).

We are off to the Grand Canyon tomorrow for 2 nights at a lodge right near the actual rim (no pool there either, kids).