The Lee Family: Exploring the Canyon by Horseback

I woke up at 6am so we could get up and watch the sunrise, which we've wanted to do since we arrived but haven't been able to wake up for yet. So, I was able to wake-up and while I was getting ready in the bathroom, I saw my little loud friend...a mouse! I screamed and the mouse ran off. I made a cup of coffee from my newly-purchased Folger's instant that I bought at the Trading Post. It was marginally better than the fancy brand I brought with me. The girls got up and I told them about the mouse. They immediately named it "Ronny Cheesewhiskers Mousington" and soon created an entire story around the silly mouse. We drove to the lookout point near the visitor center and watched the amazing sunrise! It really was breathtaking and was such a dramatic difference between the absolute black of the canyon below the ridge and beautiful sunrise. It changed so quickly and was so amazing. We were all so happy that we actually woke up to watch it. After 20 or so minutes, after the amazing sunrise, we decided to drive around the canyon base and see what wildlife we could find.

As we drove into and around the canyon base, we were literally the only ones out and about. It was spectacular! We saw a bunny by the Trading Post, a turkey couple and the male ruffled up his plumage for us which was pretty cool, a few deer, and we also heard a coyote. It was really cool! Olivia especially loved hearing the coyote and Sofia liked it all. We stopped by the trailhead entrance to the Rock Garden and decided to check out the hike into a new and unusual area of the canyon. The area has a series of large boulders and rocks that really don't feel like they are original to the canyon. The hike was steep and a bit difficult but we took our time and the girls took turns using my camera to take pictures of the landscape, cacti, flowers, etc. There are cacti everywhere and it is all flowering right now and very beautiful. We made it about 3/4 of a mile before we decided to turn back. Olivia was absolutely done since she basically hadn't had any breakfast that morning. She had a snack and felt revived afterward. As we turned back toward the car, I realized how much altitude we'd climbed in a relatively short time. It was pretty impressive that we'd made it up as far as we did.

We drove to the Trading Post and had coffee and egg, cheese and bacon sandwiches, which were absolutely delicious! They were SO good! We relaxed and then headed over to the stables where we planned to go for an hour-long horseback ride down the canyon at 11:30am. We arrived and got fitted with our helmets and were given our horses to ride. Olivia rode Hoots, Sofia rode Justice and I rode Clifford. There were 10 people total on our ride and it was a fun group of people from all over the country. We actually rode up the canyon toward the Visitor Center and our cabin. It was amazing to see from the canyon floor - we couldn't even see our cabin! It's amazing how small the Visitor Center looked too! It's just such an amazing canyon and is so much bigger than it actually looks at times. We actually saw a horned toad while we were riding, which was pretty incredible. We were lead down the canyon by Heather and it felt like everything was worthy of photos. It's so beautiful and the backdrop was so amazing. Olivia and Sofia rode in front of me and I took way too many pictures as we rode. It was so much fun and so beautiful! The ride lasted an hour and halfway through my butt was already very sore! We returned to the stables and Heather took a few photos of the three of us before we got off our horses and headed back to our car. We stopped and visited with the young longhorn, Wildrow. He's very friendly and the girls liked to pet him.

After our ride, we returned to the cabin to refill all of our water bottles. We then went to the Trading Post for cheeseburgers! They are so delicious! The girls read and relaxed while I ate my cheeseburger and hung out. After we were done, the girls wanted to visit the cave again! Their favorite place. We returned once again to the cave and the girls climbed all over it, inside and through the back door, so they could get to the very top of the cave. The really figured out everything about the cave. We drove to another area of the canyon and saw what they call the "spanish skirts" which is a really beautiful area of the canyon wall that really does look like the folds of skirts.

We drove to Paseo del Rio, a hike I've been wanting to go on since we arrived. I finally convinced the girls we had one more hike in us. The hike was actually very beautiful and different than the other hikes we've been on in the canyon. The trail ran near or along the river and was also very well-marked, like all the other trails we've been on. About half a mile into out hike, we came across the river and the girls climbed down the bank to explore. Of course, Sofia was all in and took off her shoes and socks to walk and splash in the water. Olivia stayed dry. I finally convinced Sofia to get her socks and shoes back and she decided to put them on and then get them wet! She walked a few minutes and realized that walking in wet socks and shoes isn't super fun. We made it maybe another ten minutes before we turned back. As we walked, Olivia played "scenarios" with me and chose all natural disasters. It was very interesting to hear how she would deal with different disasters. She was great at developing the story, but also great at coming up with a solution to the situation. It was fun to play along and it made the time pass quickly.

We headed back to the car with Sofia complaining a good amount about her shoes. They convinced me that they needed a bowl of ice cream, so we stopped by the Trading Post. They picked out their favorite: cookies and cream and enjoyed every bite after a light hike. We made it back to our cabin by 5pm and needed to be showered and down at the amphitheater by 6pm for dinner and the musical Texas!

The sunrise! Spectacular!