The kids had a two and a half week fall break but, unfortunately, Brian had a mandatory business trip to Germany during that same time. How or why they manage to sabotage our fall vacation plans nearly every single year continues to astound me.
Nevertheless, I was not about to give up a trip so easily. Though I didn't feel comfortable towing the Airstream somewhere, I considered taking the kids on a tent camping trip. I was fresh off the heels of that cub scout weekend with Matthew; plus I had been a girl scout leader for five years. It's not like I hadn't responsibly led a camping trip before. I had my sights set on Flagstaff because the first two weeks of October are typically the perfect time to see fall color there. However, I changed my mind on camping when I realized most of the campgrounds were closed for the season as the lows dipped into the thirties. No thank you on the tent camping.
Instead, I reserved a hotel room in Flagstaff, and planned a fun two days for us. As luck would have it, the best time for this trip according to our calendar was Elizabeth's birthday. And seeing as we didn't have any ideas for a birthday gift, this would be it.
We left early on a Tuesday, and we got to the trailhead at Lockett Meadow just before 10 am. But not without a lot of anxiety. The drive to Flagstaff was fine and dandy, but somewhere in my online research and notes from friends who'd been there, I had missed the mark on exactly how treacherous the rough road to the trailhead is. From Highway 89, it's a 3-mile trek on unpaved forest roads. I knew it would be rough, and I knew I could do rough. What I didn't know is that the meadow is at a higher elevation and this one-lane road winds up a mountain. For three miles. With no guard rails. It was slow going around blind corners and giant bumps and lumps. And when the occasional car would approach, whoever had the better position to pull over did so. Going up, I was on the cliff side. Thankfully, it was early and not too many people were driving down yet, but there were five or six cars that allowed me to squeeze through. It was a white-knuckle drive for sure, and if I had understood the road conditions I most definitely would have taken my Highlander. We were in the Sequoia because the bikes were on the roof (rattling like crazy!), and I'm not the best at judging my position in that massive truck yet as I don't drive it all that often. But we did make it up and down and we had fun with the bikes later as you'll see, but it was a pretty nerve-wracking part of the trip.
Lockett Meadow is the holy grail of fall color hiking in Flagstaff. People flock to it from near and far, hoping to be there at the exact height of color. My pal Aimee had been there that previous Friday, and the aspens were shimmering and golden. However, high winds over the weekend caused a rainfall of leaves, so while the color may have still been ripe, the leaves were mostly on the ground. No matter to my desert rats who've never experienced a true fall. They were impressed anyway.
The trail starts out in pines.
Every once in a while, an aspen pops up.
As we climbed, we got into more and more aspen until that's the only tree that was around.
Every though the wind had knocked down many of the leaves, it was still golden in parts of the grove. It was also a really pretty trail no matter what. Forest hiking is so much different than desert hiking. It seems more peaceful, and the shade is so refreshing. Though it was pretty chilly that morning. I think it was in the high forties when we started and low fifties when we finished around noon. We went four miles.
Here's the view from Lockett Meadow as we were leaving to head back down the scary road. You can see the patches of yellow that we walked through. As we drove down back towards the highway, lots of cars were coming up, but I wasn't on the cliff side so it seemed less daunting.
We ate our packed lunch in the car on our way to Fort Tuthill. This is the park where the first mountain biking race was held. We got the bikes down and Elizabeth took Matthew and me on the 5-mile course of her race. I used the loaner bike from the league that another rider was using this season.
The course started out on a fire road and that was so nice. Then we hit the single-track trail and it was all downhill from there. Figuratively. Because it was mostly uphill. Matthew doesn't have the best mountain bike or great skills yet, so he was getting frustrated faster than Elizabeth was going up those hills without us. His frustration quickly turned to anger and I did everything in my power to stay calm and encourage him to get up these hills. We tried to tackle them, we walked some, I kept telling him that the first third of this course is the hardest (or so I'd heard) and the rest is really fun. God, how I hoped that was true! At one point I quietly said to Elizabeth, "Seriously. Are we going to be able to do this?" She said the hard part was almost over, so we kept on. After a mile and a half on the trail, things got way better. It either leveled out or had some fun downhills. He loves those. I walk those. After we got going, the trail really had a good flow and it was an awesome 3.5 miles of fun for all three of us. Elizabeth might have wanted to go faster, but I think she enjoyed serving as the expert on this ride and showing us the ropes. It was good for all of us.
The scenery was gorgeous. The trail was dirt and covered in pine needles. There were some occasional rocky spots, but for the most part it was a dirt path winding through the trees. It was so different from the hard rocks and sand in the desert, so this was my kind of mountain biking. Instead of everything being tan, there were greens and browns and flowers and the blue sky. It was just really, really pretty. Unfortunately it's harder to take photos on a moving bike, so I don't have many. But my memories are pretty cool.
Following proper course etiquette, we stopped so as not to spook the horses. :)
After we explored on the trail ride, the kids played at the bike park there. They have obstacles and a pump track, and they did about another hour of that stuff. I'm not into stunts, so I watched. What I should have done was pull out the camera! Boo.
Once we were finished there, we checked into our hotel which was only about two miles away from that park. We took the bikes in the room with us, and then we got all cleaned up before heading into downtown Flagstaff for some dinner. We picked a cute little Italian place in Heritage Square, and then we walked around and looked in some shops. We each even picked out a candy treat at a chocolate shop downtown to enjoy later when we got back to the hotel.
Before we went "home" for the night though, we visited the Lowell Observatory. We'd been there over spring break and had gotten an annual membership, so we walked around, enjoyed a program, and looked through a few telescopes for free. We even saw Saturn. And it looked like Saturn! I thought it would be just a blob, but you could see the rings and everything! I was really impressed. I think we also saw a nebula and a...I forget. haha
We got back to the hotel and the kids fell asleep almost immediately. I, however, did not sleep very well. I blame the chocolate. :)
We had breakfast at the hotel on Wednesday morning before packing up and checking out. We then drove up to Arizona Snowbowl. I was disappointed in the fall color offering at Lockett Meadow, but I'd read that Snowbowl was still pretty colorful. They were right! The aspens at Aspen Corner were shimmering and golden like Aimee's pictures the week before. We drove through them instead of hiking through them, but I was still satisfied.
I'd also purchased tickets for the scenic chairlift at Snowbowl. I'd heard this is a good time to do this, and seeing as neither I nor the kids had ever been on a ski lift before, I figured it would be a good time. Brian used to ski a lot when his family lived in Utah, so he didn't miss anything new. Besides, there is room for only three so this worked out perfectly.
We were the first people there that day. I don't like crowds, so if I read that it's better to go early, we go early. They shuttle you up to the lift from the parking lot. When we got back to our car around 11:30, that line was three shuttles deep. By contrast, our shuttle had seven people on it.
We were so early that the kids played a giant game of Connect Four and we still didn't have to wait in any line.
Immediately after take off, Matthew said. "Wow. This is awesome." If you impress Matthew, that's one major victory!
It took thirty minutes to get to the top. It's a 5000 ft elevation change. The view wasn't too scary on the way up as you're facing the mountain, but I was already fretting how I'd feel about looking out into the great yonder on the way down.
We spent about 15 minutes at the top. We used the services which are record-breaking as you can see!
We hiked a short trail that literally took our breath away. We struggled to get to the observation point. Slow and steady.
They were doing a prescribed burn in the distance.
I told you we were high!
Then we got cold and decided to head back down. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Besides, there's only one way down so what are you gonna do?
As you approach the resort, the leaves start to glow again.
After Snowbowl, we went back to downtown Flagstaff where Elizabeth picked out a few birthday presents at some shops. Then we headed for home. Though it was a short trip, we really managed to do a lot and have so much fun in just a day and a half. It was an awesome trip with my kids that I hope we'll all remember forever.
