Last year I read some awesome reviews for a campsite up in Sedona, and we attempted our first two night camping trip as a family. Unfortunately, I found out when we got there that it is almost always full on the weekends, and we didn't get a spot. There are only 11 spots that can be reserved, so I booked one this year, 6 months in advance because that is when they open for reservation and are very quickly booked.
August 17 arrived, I was super prepared with food, the families I was temporarily babysitting for picked their kids up early, Mike got off work early, and we started out for Sedona, a 2-2.5 hour drive. About an hour into the drive Mike said,"Shoot, we're out of gas!" Apparently the needle was very low and neither of us knew how long the gas light had been on. Less than five minutes later, we were on the side of the road, 20 miles from anywhere.
Fortunately, I remembered that our car insurance includes road side assistance, and we had cell phone coverage and GPS so we could give them directions to get to us. It took an hour for them to arrive. In the meantime, this is what we did:
I had removed the captains chairs so that we could have more room in the van and have the option of having the whole back flat if, for some reason, we needed to sleep in the van. I taught Ethan how to play rock paper scissors, we played games, crawled around, etc. Fortunately, the temperatures were only in the 90s, so we were okay without our AC.
Unfortunately, while we were waiting for gas, there was an accident about 10 miles north of us. A semi caught fire and the freeway closed. Notice how there is no access to southbound lanes? Everyone was stuck for several hours.
When the accident was cleared enough for one lane to open, we all slowly funneled through. We arrived at our campsite at 9pm, after 6 hours of travel (we could have been in California!). We were greeted by a few skunks, which were kind of fun to see since they left us alone. Mike did a great job setting the tent up in the dark. We got the boys to bed and then Mike and I had a campfire.
Here are the boys playing in the tent the next morning.
Our campsite was right on Oak Creek, so the boys and I played in it while Mike got the fire going.
In this picture, I am standing in our campsite and Ethan is headed down to the creek. It was awesome having it so close so we could play there while Benton napped.
Last summer I found this idea for tin foil breakfasts, and we really like them. Hasbrowns, scrambled eggs, cheese, and sausage or bacon.
After breakfast I went for a run. I ran down to a trailhead about a mile and a half away just to find out I had to pay to get in. The ranger was nice and said I could pay later, so I got run on a beautiful trail at the base of the red mountains. It crossed a creek several times and was just beautiful. I ran about 6 miles and would have stayed out much longer, but I didn't bring my phone and Mike had specifically asked a time frame so he would know when to get worried.
That afternoon we went over to Slide Rock park, just like last year. It was still beautiful and a lot of fun.
I don't really like this picture of me, but I had to post it because behind me is the swimming hole I braved last May. It was cold in August but freezing in May. I was pregnant with Benton at the time and he really reacted to the cold water. He reacted this year too. :)
See the muddy puddles next to the creek? I wish we had taken a picture, but Ethan found one to sit in that was deep enough that only his head was sticking out. He played in it for quite a while. Gross, but cute. Here you can also see the narrow part of the creek that makes the "slide" in slide rock.
Here Ethan and I are at the top of the slide. He went down with me. He put his toy boat down first. I followed the creek a ways to find it, and when I did, it was in the swimming hole part. I jumped in and my sunglasses ended up at the bottom of the creek. So sad!
As we were playing at slide rock, a storm started coming in. We decided we better get back to the campsite. As we were driving it started pouring rain and HAILING! The camp chairs and my book were out and the tent windows were open...
We all napped in the tent until the rain stopped. We opted out of trying to light a wet fire just to sit on wet chairs. Mike went and got a pizza and turned a movie on for Ethan in the van. The open space in the van ended up being great for when I didn't want to be constantly pulling rocks and sticks out of Benton's mouth.
In the morning Mike got a fire lit (thanks to the advice I heard from the How to Do Everything podcast that Doritos make great kindling).
While Benton slept, we spent a few hours in the creek. I also went running down to the trail head to pay for my admission the previous day).
Ethan stood upstream from Mike and would throw his shoes in for Mike to fetch. Lightning also spent some quality time in the creek.
Splashing.
More eventful and stressful than we would have liked, but it was still a fun trip!
.jpg)
