Days 4-5 Petrified Forest and Grand Canyon

I forgot to mention in my last post...while we were in Santa Fe, it started to rain.  It was my first time using my wipers since they were changed (while I was gone on my Florida trip)...the drivers side wiper started flopping around and had to be replaced.  Brand new and broken  :(  No worries tho, got a new one and went about our way.

We stayed in Gallup, NM,  on Monday night.  It was very chilly!  The next day we got up and made our way to the Petrified National Forest.

We ate at the Fred Harvey Cafe...both of us had cheeseburgers and they were fantastic.  We drove all the way thru it, stopping every little bit...until we realized there were a million places to pull off to take pictures.

They said not to take petrified wood/rocks/etc from the park, but they didn't mention lizards.... Nah, I've got my "step-son" waiting on me in Little Rock.

At one particular stop, there were petroglyphs (rock engravings).  I probably wouldn't have been able to see them if it wasn't for another tourist pointing them out.  Okay, maybe I would've, but it would've taken a while.

I love the clouds.

We ended up staying the night in Flagstaff.  When we got to the hotel, there was a newspaper for sale mentioning storms that had passing thru the area and hail was involved.  The next day, we got to experience that weather.  When we left Flagstaff to go to the Grand Canyon (South Rim), it was about 70 degrees and it dropped to 40 degrees on the 80 mile trip!  There was even ice on the side of the road (that I'm guessing was from the hail).  It started raining for real once we got to the Grand Canyon unfortunately.  Around the time I took the picture below, lightning must have struck or something because both my mom and me got a static charge in our hair.  It took forever for the weird static-feeling to go away.  It was....shocking.  Hah.

It was cold and wet! 

We left the South Rim and headed to the North Rim.  We stopped at different "scenic view" stops along the way.

I watched this guy leap from the bigger rock to the one he is on now...I was glad to see him when he finally got back up the the Watch Tower!

I thought Mom looked pretty  :)

I love these trees...and this view.

Doesn't this look like it's part of a castle?

Cliff dwellings...

There's a rainbow on the right side...

We made it to the North Rim...entirely too late.  I don't know why we went ahead and made the long drive to the Visitor's Center since it was dark, but we did and turned right back around.  I figured if we were only 3 hours away from Las Vegas we might as well keep going.

So sparkly!

We are staying in Las Vegas till Saturday morning, then we'll be heading to San Diego.  We've cut out a few places I had planned for us to visit, but no worries.  We're having a good time not rushing...which we would've been doing if we stuck to the itinerary.  Anyway, be looking for the next post of debauchery in Las Vegas.