4th of July Camping

After our traditional breakfast with the family at Coco's on July 4th, we decided to head up to Sunset Crater with the Jacobses for the weekend. And for any of you who have been camping with us in the past few years, you will be shocked to know that we didn't take the trailer this time. I know! What's that thing called? A tent? Coooool! But seriously, we love tent camping (old habits die hard), it's just easier to bake cookies in an oven than over a fire. Heehee.

Anyway, being that it was a holiday weekend and everybody was dying to get out of the valley and up to cooler country, all the campsites at Sunset Crater were full. Thomas and Candace got up there before we did and after driving around a bit they finally asked the Camp Hosts at the Bonita Campground where they could find a place to camp. Uh, nowhere...was pretty much the reply. Then Thomas asked if we could camp on the Host's site for the night and they said, "Sure". Well that was easy. T and C were a little perplexed because the hosts had just turned some other people away. Guess they didn't ask nice.

The hosts had hummingbird feeders in the trees and many hummingbirds were flying around. In the brief moments that we were allowed a glimpse of them up close, we could see their brilliant colors of green and fuschia. Beautiful! I never realized, though, how noisy they are! They were communicating all the time. Talkative little buggers. Maybe they just weren't happy with us camping under their tree because I got "buzzed" a few times. Feisty littler buggers, too.

Just a few things of note:

*We were invading other creatures' territories too.









*That night, we went to the amphitheater at the campgrounds and learned a little bit about black bears. So here's a quiz. Which is the grizzly and which is the black bear?







(Now wait a minute! Before you get all smug, black bears aren't necessarily black. Some are even white. So, are you sure about your answer?)


*The next morning, we were instructed to move to an available campsite. So we literally picked up camp and moved.















*In honor of Independence Day, Thomas made sure he brought an American flag (and a Swiss flag) to adorn the campsite. Actually, I don't know why he brought the flags. Maybe for the photo ops?



















*In addition to Sunset Crater, we also explored Wupatki National Monument. You can see all the pictures here.

I know I am late in posting this, but I hope you all had a memorable 4th.