CANMT Trip: Sunset Crater and Wupatki

 We woke up the next morning to this:

Looking out from the door

Our van

We threw on some jackets so we could take pictures and look at the snow.

Melodie was very excited about the snow. Rocky and I knew this was a problem though. We were suppose to camp at the Grand Canyon that night. I was not going to camp in the snow. So during breakfast I spent time looking at the weather conditions at the Grand Canyon. After confirming that it was snowing at our campsite I found a cheap hotel to stay in Williams. We were kind of bummed not to be staying the night at the Grand Canyon anymore. Then we started thinking about how we were not dressed for snow. We had our thick jackets and hand warmers (I had prepared for a cold night at the Grand Canyon) soRocky and I would be fine. However, we realized that there was no way we were going to keep Melodie out of the snow. All she wanted to do was walk in the snow, touch the snow and play in the snow. This would make for a very cold and wet (which would then turn into an unhappy) Melodie. So we went to WalMart after checking out (it was just down the street). We all got snow boots for about $20. We knew we were going to be walking on trails and we might need them. Most of their gloves and hats were on sale for $0.25 to $1.00 each. This was good because it was cheap, but bad because there wasn't a huge selection. We found a hat for Melodie and snow gloves that were a little to big. I got a headband thing for my ears and gloves too. Unfortunately, there weren't any gloves for Rocky (I had brought cloth gloves for all of us, but not snow gloves). Then we saw snow pants for Mel were only $7, so we picked up a pair of those for her. We also needed an ice scrapper from the car (we used a cardboard box that morning) so we bought a couple of those. We were now ready for the snow!
 Our original plan was to drive to the 64, stop by Flinstones Bedrock City in Valle, AZ, and go to the Grand Canyon Village. We knew we weren't going to the Flinstones place in the snow, so we decided to go to Sunset Crater Volcano National Park (on the 89) instead. Then we'd go back to the 40 to take the 64 to the Grand Canyon. The drive there was a little scary at first.

But soon it wasn't so bad and was actually very beautiful.

It wasn't a very long drive, only about 30 min.

It was still snowing and windy. When we walked into the Visitor's Center they were very happy to see us. They said they weren't sure anyone was going to show up that day. We talked to them for a while and found out we had to drive further north on the 89 for the trail. So, we asked how long it would take us to drive from there to the Grand Canyon. The time was still a little longer than going back to the 64. Then they mentioned that Wupatki National Monument wasfurther north on the 89. They said if we wanted, Melodie could turn in the packet from here at Wupatiki and get both badges there instead of driving back to the Sunset Crater Visitor Center. Plus, they said it wasn't snowing at Wupatiki. I didn't quite believe them, since I knew it was snowing at the Grand Canyon, but we thought we might as well just drive to the Grand Canyon on the 89 even if it would take a little longer and stop at Wupatiki (this turned out to be the BEST choice we made our whole trip, but more about that later).
 We drove to the 1 mile Lava Flow Trail. This was a nice trail to walk. We were thankful for the snow boots, especially for Melodie who looked for all the snow she could walk in on the trail (since she couldn't walk in the snow off the trail).

Sometimes it was a little cold, but nice

and other times it would start snowing and get really windy

Those times were a little difficult. Melodie would walk backwards with her face in my stomach. Along the trail we saw the volcanic formations (which I think were beautiful with a covering of snow) and we had a great view of the volcano.

Then we drove to Wupatki National Monument. I could barely believe it when, as we were driving, it stopped snowing and then suddenly there wasn't any snow on the ground. It was still cold and windy, but there wasn't any snow.

Since we wanted to have plenty of time at the Grand Canyon, we chose to only see the Wupatki Pueblo Ruins (I think there were five at the monument). It was the closest one to the Visitors Center.

It was only a half mile trail to walk to and around it. This was one of the most informative self guided trails we had been on. Everything was numbered and we had a guide book that told us what was at each number. Melodie's Jr. Ranger packet had things to look for at some of the numbers. We enjoyed this one a lot.

Melodie turned in both of her packets and received both badges. Now we were on our way to the Grand Canyon.