July 5 - Meeting the family in Flagstaff and hiking

What fun that the July 4th holiday coincided with our days off.  Christy and family came up to Flagstaff to escape the 113 degree heat in Phoenix, and Susan and I met them there.  Got to see fireworks and then did a couple of interesting hikes.  The first, just south of Flagstaff, is an area called Sandy Canyon and is on the Arizona Trail.  And Cal found a big bug!

Then just Cal, Matthew, and I went to Lava River Cave, a unique area just west of Flagstaff in the Kaibab National Forest.  I had never heard of this place until just the day before.  One of the guests on my tour mentioned Lava River Cave, and said how cold it was.  Since it's been in the 90's here at the Canyon, I was VERY interested.  

Around the mouth of the cave, very hot!  (Air temperature, not because of lava!)  As soon as you start down the jumble of rock into the mouth of the cave, the temperature drops drastically.  And when you get inside the cave itself, it's 40 degrees!  So as crazy as it sounds, we were wearing shorts and short sleeved shirts for the walk from the car to the cave.  Then zipped on the pants legs and put on a long sleeved shirt for the hike into the cave.

There are several sections where it's scrambling over very uneven rock.   Headlamp required!  I did manage to hit my head pretty hard.  Caused bleeding but never saw stars.  But I was looking for a place to sit down quickly and safely when that happened.  Ouch!  

We got about halfway through the lava tube and then headed back.  Very cold and interesting place. Lots of fun with the family.  Next week, headed to Canyon de Chelly in northeastern Arizona.