Day 12...

Today we left the Grand Canyon and stopped along the different points of the South Rim leaving the park for more pictures.   One stop was at the Watchtower...

it was built in the 1930s and was designed to be an observation deck on the top floor and a gift shop on the bottom. It feels and looks like it has always been apart of the park…very cool! The inside...

This had some of my most favorite views of Grand Canyon, all along the tower there are small windows looking out. We could actually see the Colorado River and the views were beautiful. (the windows were dirty... and there are some spots on the picture)

We started toward Zion NP and found ourselves driving right by a National Monument... Pipe Springs.

Of course we had to stop and check it out. We had a tour of Winsor Castle a Mormon owned cattle ranch that provided meat, cheese and butter to the Mormons building a temple. They built a fort around the spring in fear of the Paiute Indians that occupied the current land.

The visitor center had good stories and the history of the people... something that I really look forward to at each stop. We had enough time for the kiddos to earn yet another badge. (Ainsley gets so nervous and is always looking down during the Jr. Ranger oath)

At the hotel we had a room with 2 separate bedrooms... the kiddos thought it was pretty cool that they had their “own room” with their “own tv”. We needed a good and not a quick meal for dinner and headed to a familiar place…Texas Roadhouse and had yummy ribs!