We boarded Qantas airline Saturday evening, June 14th, at 8:00 pm. There was a slight delay, but we were soon in the air. We ended up sitting in the very last row, next to the bathroom. Although we were originally saddened by our seating prospects, things soon looked up when we realized there was an empty seat in our row and that the seats still reclined. We started the flight by reading, watching a movie, and eating (Ed had salmon, Jeanette had chicken). After about three hours, we decided to try to sleep. We took turns lying down across the seats and ended up sleeping on and off for the next seven hours. Therefore, they were fairly well-rested upon arrival. After waking up, we ate breakfast, read, and watched another movie to round out the last three hours. After a thirteen hour flight and a seventeen hour time difference between east coast time and New Zealand time, we arrived at Auckland International Airport. We went through a painless customs interrogation, collected our bags, and headed off to find a rental car.
Because we wanted a one-way rental between Auckland and Rotorua, a small airport, the charge was more than expected. However, by picking up a manual car, we were able to save over half the price of an automatic…in addition, the Avis representative gave us an “accidental” deal and couldn’t take it back once it was given (we didn’t even argue). We lugged our backpacks to our car for the next few days, a Mitsubishi Lancer, and began our journey of driving a manual car on the wrong side of the road. Quite our style (i.e. stupidly), we began driving without consulting a map. After realizing we didn’t know where we were going, we looked at a map, asked a pedestrian who had just moved to the area last week, and finally got to the main road that would take us to the day’s destination, Waitomo Caves. On the way down, we stopped a small rest area, hoping wireless internet would be available as we were unsure if our reservations for the cave tour and the bed and breakfast were confirmed. Fortunately, wireless internet was available with the purchase of a cup of coffee. Unfortunately, we had not received any confirmation e-mails. We continued along the way and hoped for the best.
We arrived at The Legendary Black Water Rafting Company after only one wrong turn and one incorrect stop at a different rafting company. Whoops! We were going to stop for lunch, but decided to stop into the rafting company first to get a reservation for the 2:00 tour, as advertised on their website. Luckily, when we got there, there were only available spots on the 11:00 tour. It was about 10:59. We skipped lunch, changed into our swimming trunks, and hopped on the tour. The water was expected to be 8 degrees Celsius – translation ~48 degrees Fahrenheit. We were told the water gets up to 68 degrees in the summer, but the water is much deeper in the winter, which makes for a much better trip. Because the water was so cold, we put a thermal lined sweater underneath our wetsuits to help keep us warm. We put on booties and rubber boots. We then put on our harnesses and helmets with lights as we would be abseiling (rappelling – going down a rope) first. After putting on our gear, we hopped into a van that would take us to the cave entrance.
Once arriving at the cave, we received a quick lesson in how to use the clip that would control the speed of our descent. We practiced on a hill twice each, which didn’t really do much to calm Jeanette’s nerves. We headed over to the hole in the ground which we would be descending. It was 37-40 meters deep (over 100 feet). Jeanette decided to let the other two couples go first to ensure that they made it down alive. The hole we descended was approximately 3 feet in diameter. When it was our turn to go, the guy hooked us up (individually as only one person abseiled at a time) and we rappelled down. Because the rope was fairly stiff at the top, we descended fairly slowly, even when not using the braking technique. Once getting through the hole, we continued our descent in a larger diameter, but still close to a wall. Ed didn’t have any trouble controlling his speed, but it was not a smooth ride (rather jerky) as he often slowed to look around. You weren’t able to see the bottom of the cave because it was pitch black. After what seemed a shorter than expected time, he reached the bottom, still expecting the worse part to be ahead. Jeanette descended after Ed. She also went down rather slowly and jerkily and reached the bottom sooner than expected…maybe it took a minute or a two. After walking a little bit ahead, we all had to turn off our headlamps as it was time to do zip lining in the dark. It reminded Ed of Space Mountain as you did not know what to expect in the dark. We went last again and heard the others scream in terror and/or delight as they went down. When some reached the end, the tour guide would make loud noises that echoed through the cavern to scare people. We all made it down alive. It was probably a 3 second trip for approximately 100 yards over the stream down below.
After zip lining, we all sat down on a cliff looking over the stream and had a snack. We got to choose coffee or tea and were each given a honey-oat-coconut sort of combination cookie. After eating our snack that helped warm our bodies for the cold water, we were shown how we would be entering the water below. Ed was first this time because the British guy asked Ed why we were always last. Ed took the rubber tube, placed it behind him, and jumped off the cliff into the dark water below. It was an approximately 12-15 foot drop. He landed with no problem. The others followed suit. Surprisingly, we all landed in the tubes. We paddled over to a rope and followed the rope for approximately ten minutes, looking around the cave with our headlights on. The tour guide then told us to turn off our headlamps so we could admire the glow worms inside the glow worm caves. He explained that glow worms were actually a fancy name given to the maggots that had fluorescent poop. It turned out that not many people came to the caves when they thought maggots were inside, so they call it glow worms instead. We then returned, with Ed as the leader, in the dark with our headlamps off so we could admire all the glow worms. Once getting back to the place where we jumped off the cliffs, we got off the floats and threw them up to the tour guide up above. We then started walking, or swimming when it got deeper, for a while. The water was quite cold, but not unbearable. We went down a slide over a little waterfall and continued our journey. Throughout the walk/swim, we had to crawl and squeeze through tiny passages. We saw a bluish/purple eel in the water. After a half an hour of walking around, we drank some warm liquid that tasted a bit like warm Tang and ate a few pieces of chocolate. We then headed to the Twin Falls, where there were actually three waterfalls. We shimmied up them one at a time with the tour guide telling us to where to place our feet. Each waterfall was an approximately ten foot climb up with water pouring down on our faces. The hole we ascended the cave through was smaller than the hole we descended to enter the cave. We caught a ride back to the rafting company, took our equipment off, took a warm shower, and then were given tomato soup and bagels.
While eating, we spoke with our new friends from the tour, one couple from Ireland and one from England. We found out that one couple was traveling for one year and the other was traveling for nine months. Here we thought we had a long vacation! One couple had spent four months in Asia (China, Vietnam, Japan, Thailand, and a few others we can’t remember), three months in Australia, and would be spending three months in New Zealand with a little while longer in Fiji and the United States. The other couple had traveled to South America (Peru, Bolivia, Chile), a few months in Fiji, a few months in Australia, and would be spending a couple months in Asia. We were jealous! After chatting and eating, we drove towards where we thought our bed and breakfast was located. After several kilometers on the road and a few headed through their 1600 acre sheep and beef farm, we arrived. No one was there to greet us, but there was a note on the door telling us to head to our cabin. We carried our luggage in through the drizzle and settled in. At this point, we were both tired, and since it was dark and rainy, we decided not to drive back to town for dinner. We relaxed, read, and started eyeing the breakfast food for dinner. Around 6:00 or so, our host, Rachel stopped by. She said she had sent us a confirmation e-mail telling us to bring food up with us as there was a mini kitchen in our cabin, but we never received it. As she felt sorry for us, she returned with a few kiwis and ramen noodle packages. We ate our makeshift dinner and went to bed around 8:00.
We woke up the next morning at 6:45 because we wanted to get an early start on the day. It was pouring when we woke up. We decided to take a short walk on the property down to see some glow worms. After looking at them, we showered, ate, and packed up our stuff. We were on the road to Rotorua by 8:00, when the sun was just coming up. It rained the entire two and a half hour ride to Rotorua. We drove through many green rolling hills that were often filled with sheep and/or cows.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Los Angeles June 12-14
We checked into the hotel and got all set up. We decided to go to Santa Monica for the evening. We took a wrong turn out of the hotel and went a few miles the wrong way before we got straightened out. Since it was rush hour, we skipped the highway and went down the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) the whole way. It is not too scenic through the city. We found a pretty sweet parking lot and were off. We went to the 3rd Street Promenade and looked around for a place to eat. It was a very nice outdoor mall with dinosaur water statues in the center. No cars were allowed so there were people walking everywhere. Every little bit there were street performers. There were a lot of musicians, a guy that balanced plates and utensils on his head and threw more stuff (candelabras) up there from his foot, and the typical gold or silver painted “statue” people. Jeanette saw a little Greek place, but Ed thought it looked kind of shady. We decided to keep walking towards the beach to see what else was going on. It had been overcast and cool, about 65 degrees. All of a sudden, it got a little sunny, so there was hope of a nice sunset. We looked at the beach area; it was very nice with trees and flowers and bums everywhere. It was really nice, but there are a lot of homeless Americans on benches (Jeanette doesn’t like the word bum). We saw the pier off in the distance with a roller coaster and Ferris wheel. The sunset was nice for a few seconds, and then it got all cloudy again. The boardwalk was getting close to closing so we played two quick games of skeeball and headed back to the town. Ed wanted to try PF Changs so we headed over that way. We got in to the restaurant without a wait since it was pretty late. Jeanette had Chicken Lo Mein and Ed had Lemongrass Prawn with Garlic Noodles. The little sauce they mix for you was really good on the noodles, but much too spicy for poor Jeanette. Just to mention, this was the night of Game 4 of the NBA finals. Since the Lakers were playing the Celtics, we expected bars to be crowded with people watching the game. Most people seemed fairly indifferent. We saw as many Celtics fans as Lakers fans. We always heard LA wasn’t a sports town, but we were shocked. After dinner, tt was late, so we headed back to the hotel.
The next morning, we did some laundry to avoid early rush hour traffic and because some of our clothes were caked in red clay dirt from our Grand Canyon trek. We left around 10 to go to the post office and car wash. Then we headed back out around 11. The freeway was still packed, so we got off and went on some side roads to Beverly Hills. The houses on the way were nice enough, but fairly small (there were a few larger ones) and very close together. Beverly Hills was nice, but only a small area. We walked around quickly and took a few pictures. Jeanette got a chocolate shake from Baskin Robbins and we headed out. We stopped at an In n Out burger for lunch. After eating lunch, we continued on to Sony Studios for a tour. We got there and they showed us a movie about the history of Columbia/Sony. It featured clips of all their famous movies like Spiderman and Men In Black. Then they showed a “sneak preview” of Hancock that was the same as the one we just saw in the theaters. We headed into the studio lot and saw Main Street. It was an old fashioned town they use for movies by changing a few things here and there (i.e. change signs in front of stores, etc). All of the buildings had offices behind the facades, which is different from many other sets that don’t have anything behind the facades. Our tour guide took us into the main building where the producers work and showed us the 9 Oscars the studio had won since its inception. They are called Oscars because a lady working in the artist’s office saw the picture of the original design and said that looks like my Uncle Oscar. The name stuck. Then we went to soundstage where they were striking a set from the new Beyonce thriller Obsessed. A sound stage is called a sound stage because the old silent movies used glass stage which couldn’t be made sound proof. They used the term to differentiate between the two types. Then we went past the Happy Madison building (Adam Sandler’s production studio). He was inside and filming a movie Bedtime Stories but we didn’t see him. We saw his Escalade golf cart and a picture of his bulldog. Then we went to another soundstage for Obsessed. This one was a house with props all around. Then we went into the Till Death soundstage. Most of the set was gone since the show is likely to be cancelled. We did walk up the stairs to see that there was no second floor because that would be a separate set. After that we walked past the Angels and Demons set which we couldn’t look at. They were recreating the Sistine Chapel. Then we headed to the building where they made the background scenery paintings. They cost about $40,000 to rent one. To make it, they take a picture of a real location and trace it onto a huge canvas then paint it. It takes 16 years to be a master that is allowed to paint them. Then we headed to Jeopardy! I guess neither off us has watched in a while because the set looked much different then we remembered. Every single show was on hiatus so nothing was being filmed. We learned that there is an online test to see if you are smart enough to get on the show. Only 10% are, and then they are whittled down based on personality at tryouts. So if you tryout, don’t forget to smile. That wrapped up the tour.
We then headed to Hollywood since the studio was in Culver City. People were saying how hot it was, but it was only 70 and sunny. We parked about a mile away and walked down to Hollywood Boulevard. Ed thought it would be a nice walk past Sunset and other famous places, but it wasn’t. It was kind of shady and mostly fast food places. Then you get to the main street which is about 4 blocks long. We saw the famous Chinese Theater, Kodak Theater, and the Walk of Fame. We went through all that quickly and tried to figure out if we should take a bus tour. While deciding, we saw some terrible street performers. A guy from the Jimmy Kimmel Show offered us free tickets so we took them instead of going on the tour. We ran up to California Pizza Kitchen (real California cooking) for some cheesy garlic bread, a Mediterranean salad, and a BBQ chicken salad. On the way out, we caught a glimpse of the Hollywood sign in the distance. We got in line at 6:15 instead of the suggested time of 6:45, but it worked out because when they let people in at 7:30, we were almost the last ones. We waited for the Friday night show to wrap up and then got in our seats. They were taping a show for Sunday before the NBA finals. David Cook, the guy that won American Idol was on, so we were going to a show that we had never seen to watch a guy from another show we had never seen. There was a fat bald guy that warmed the crowd up. The girl sitting next to Jeanette was going crazy and they gave here a free shirt. Jimmy Kimmel came out after a bit and introduced the band and the announcer (Dicky Barrett of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones). He made some jokes, mostly about one unemployed guy in the front row. Then he left and we had to clap for some taped clips. Then the show started and he came back out. They showed a satellite interview with Barack Obama. Jimmy and Barack didn’t seem to be on the same page answering questions, probably because they weren’t in the same place. During the taping, they had to have commercial breaks, not quite sure why. It seems like they could cut them since it isn’t a live show, but they didn’t. Then David Cook came out and answered a few questions. Jeanette wanted him to sing, but Ed was glad he didn’t. That was the end of the show. We had a long walk back to the car and headed home.
In the morning, we had to pack and gather all the information that we needed for New Zealand. We got out of the hotel at noon or so. That didn’t leave us enough time to go to Griffth’s Park, so we went to Venice Beach. Our first impression was some flea market like stores and dirty street performers. We walked for a bit and realized we were headed back to Santa Monica. We went up there for lunch at the Greek place we saw the other day. It wasn’t great, but better than the airplane food we will be enjoying soon. We stopped for a crepe with dark chocolate and strawberries. We walked back to Venice Beach and our second impression was the same as our first. It was cool and cloudy, but the sun came out. That was a nice change. Very cloudy and cool all weekend. We found the outdoor gym and watched kids climb on some gymnastics equipment. We also saw a weight lifting competition. That part was pretty entertaining. We headed back to the car and drove over the airport.
The next morning, we did some laundry to avoid early rush hour traffic and because some of our clothes were caked in red clay dirt from our Grand Canyon trek. We left around 10 to go to the post office and car wash. Then we headed back out around 11. The freeway was still packed, so we got off and went on some side roads to Beverly Hills. The houses on the way were nice enough, but fairly small (there were a few larger ones) and very close together. Beverly Hills was nice, but only a small area. We walked around quickly and took a few pictures. Jeanette got a chocolate shake from Baskin Robbins and we headed out. We stopped at an In n Out burger for lunch. After eating lunch, we continued on to Sony Studios for a tour. We got there and they showed us a movie about the history of Columbia/Sony. It featured clips of all their famous movies like Spiderman and Men In Black. Then they showed a “sneak preview” of Hancock that was the same as the one we just saw in the theaters. We headed into the studio lot and saw Main Street. It was an old fashioned town they use for movies by changing a few things here and there (i.e. change signs in front of stores, etc). All of the buildings had offices behind the facades, which is different from many other sets that don’t have anything behind the facades. Our tour guide took us into the main building where the producers work and showed us the 9 Oscars the studio had won since its inception. They are called Oscars because a lady working in the artist’s office saw the picture of the original design and said that looks like my Uncle Oscar. The name stuck. Then we went to soundstage where they were striking a set from the new Beyonce thriller Obsessed. A sound stage is called a sound stage because the old silent movies used glass stage which couldn’t be made sound proof. They used the term to differentiate between the two types. Then we went past the Happy Madison building (Adam Sandler’s production studio). He was inside and filming a movie Bedtime Stories but we didn’t see him. We saw his Escalade golf cart and a picture of his bulldog. Then we went to another soundstage for Obsessed. This one was a house with props all around. Then we went into the Till Death soundstage. Most of the set was gone since the show is likely to be cancelled. We did walk up the stairs to see that there was no second floor because that would be a separate set. After that we walked past the Angels and Demons set which we couldn’t look at. They were recreating the Sistine Chapel. Then we headed to the building where they made the background scenery paintings. They cost about $40,000 to rent one. To make it, they take a picture of a real location and trace it onto a huge canvas then paint it. It takes 16 years to be a master that is allowed to paint them. Then we headed to Jeopardy! I guess neither off us has watched in a while because the set looked much different then we remembered. Every single show was on hiatus so nothing was being filmed. We learned that there is an online test to see if you are smart enough to get on the show. Only 10% are, and then they are whittled down based on personality at tryouts. So if you tryout, don’t forget to smile. That wrapped up the tour.
We then headed to Hollywood since the studio was in Culver City. People were saying how hot it was, but it was only 70 and sunny. We parked about a mile away and walked down to Hollywood Boulevard. Ed thought it would be a nice walk past Sunset and other famous places, but it wasn’t. It was kind of shady and mostly fast food places. Then you get to the main street which is about 4 blocks long. We saw the famous Chinese Theater, Kodak Theater, and the Walk of Fame. We went through all that quickly and tried to figure out if we should take a bus tour. While deciding, we saw some terrible street performers. A guy from the Jimmy Kimmel Show offered us free tickets so we took them instead of going on the tour. We ran up to California Pizza Kitchen (real California cooking) for some cheesy garlic bread, a Mediterranean salad, and a BBQ chicken salad. On the way out, we caught a glimpse of the Hollywood sign in the distance. We got in line at 6:15 instead of the suggested time of 6:45, but it worked out because when they let people in at 7:30, we were almost the last ones. We waited for the Friday night show to wrap up and then got in our seats. They were taping a show for Sunday before the NBA finals. David Cook, the guy that won American Idol was on, so we were going to a show that we had never seen to watch a guy from another show we had never seen. There was a fat bald guy that warmed the crowd up. The girl sitting next to Jeanette was going crazy and they gave here a free shirt. Jimmy Kimmel came out after a bit and introduced the band and the announcer (Dicky Barrett of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones). He made some jokes, mostly about one unemployed guy in the front row. Then he left and we had to clap for some taped clips. Then the show started and he came back out. They showed a satellite interview with Barack Obama. Jimmy and Barack didn’t seem to be on the same page answering questions, probably because they weren’t in the same place. During the taping, they had to have commercial breaks, not quite sure why. It seems like they could cut them since it isn’t a live show, but they didn’t. Then David Cook came out and answered a few questions. Jeanette wanted him to sing, but Ed was glad he didn’t. That was the end of the show. We had a long walk back to the car and headed home.
In the morning, we had to pack and gather all the information that we needed for New Zealand. We got out of the hotel at noon or so. That didn’t leave us enough time to go to Griffth’s Park, so we went to Venice Beach. Our first impression was some flea market like stores and dirty street performers. We walked for a bit and realized we were headed back to Santa Monica. We went up there for lunch at the Greek place we saw the other day. It wasn’t great, but better than the airplane food we will be enjoying soon. We stopped for a crepe with dark chocolate and strawberries. We walked back to Venice Beach and our second impression was the same as our first. It was cool and cloudy, but the sun came out. That was a nice change. Very cloudy and cool all weekend. We found the outdoor gym and watched kids climb on some gymnastics equipment. We also saw a weight lifting competition. That part was pretty entertaining. We headed back to the car and drove over the airport.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Grand Canyon - June 8-11 - Very Long Post!
We woke up, finished our last minute packing, ate breakfast, and grabbed a few last minute items from the grocery store for the trek (peanut butter, apples, Gatorade) before beginning the hour and a half drive to the Grand Canyon. In the beginning of our drive, we saw a deer close to the side of the road. While we were able to avoid the deer, the car behind us was not so lucky. While Ed was watching in his rearview mirror instead of paying attention to the windy road in front of us, he saw the car behind us hit the deer as it attempted to cross the road. The speed limit on the road was 55, and hitting the deer was unavoidable. The deer attempted jumping over a fence on the one side of the road, didn’t make it, freaked out, and darted across the road in front of the other car. The car hit the deer and it went tumbling three times, then got up, and ran straight into the woods…probably in rough shape.
From then on, the ride was less eventful. The car ride was beautiful. It very mountainous, with some of the mountain peaks still having snow on them. There were many evergreen trees as we drove through Kaibab National Forest. We could see the ski areas as we drove through. We arrived at the Grand Canyon around 10…a bit later than expected. Fortunately, the Grand Canyon wasn’t as crowded as we expected and we got a close spot to the visitor center. We spoke with a ranger there who gave us directions to the Backcountry Office to attempt obtaining overnight camping permits.
We drove to the Backcountry office with our fingers crossed. We spoke to the ranger who informed us that there was a last minute cancellation for that night and there was room for the following night to camp out at the Bright Angel campground. While we originally wanted to hike rim to rim, we were still happy to have received any campground at all, being that there are very few campsites available. There were 25 campsites at Bright Angel, 10 at Cottonwood (in the North Rim), and 15 at Indian Gardens. The ranger told us we should wait until about 3:30 to begin our hike down as the heat wouldn’t be as bad then. Therefore, we decided to walk around the top of the South Rim for a little while to kill time. We walked around, mesmerized by the ginormity of the canyon. We were surprised that there few guardrails preventing people from going over the side…especially at the top where all the tourists hang out. If you took one step too far, it was conceivable that you may fall over 1000 feet down. We walked two miles up to Yapi Point. We then walked back, getting some lunch at one of the restaurants. We were surprised that the food wasn’t incredibly overpriced…as there isn’t much else to eat in the area unless you bring your own lunch. Ed had beef stew in a bread bowl, while Jeanette opted for chicken fingers. We were sure to eat a hearty lunch as the Grand Canyon brochures warn you countless times that you need to be well hydrated and double your calories during hikes. Otherwise, you risk dehydration, heat stroke, and heat exhaustion. We probably took their advice too seriously, but hey, better safe than sorry. There was one story about a young woman who had completed the Boston Marathon and was in great shape who had died of heat exhaustion while hiking down the canyon with only one bottle of water. That scared us as neither of us has ever run a marathon. We then walked back to the car, made sure we had everything we needed, and began our journey to the start of the South Kaibab trail…that entailed taking two buses and picking up a hiking pole each at the camp rental sections.
While we rode the last bus to the start of the trail, Jeanette became nervous. But, once we got there, there were other people starting day hikes down. We started the trail down around 3:45 and took lots of pictures around every corner. It was amazing to see how much you are unable to see from the top of the canyon. After a few miles, there was another whole layer canyon we saw with different rock formations and colors, vegetation, etc. At the beginning of the hike, we took our time, talking to different people along the trails for ten minutes at a time, took pictures, etc, but towards the end, there were no people. We hiked the last two hours or so completely by ourselves. Jeanette got worried because we were still hiking and the sun was going down. She was scared of hiking in the dark. We found out later that many people hike in the dark and that the moon is extremely bright down there…many people don’t even hike with flashlights in the dark…they only use the moonlight. We finally saw the Colorado River and the bridge we had to cross in order to arrive at our campsite. Before crossing the bridge, there was a short, dark tunnel that we had to go through. We went over the Colorado River, then over a creek, and arrived at our campground after 6.9 miles around 7:30. The campsite was between a huge rock wall and a creek, so it was quite picturesque. There were approximately 25 (maybe 30) campsites. We started to set up our tent, which was on loan from Sarah and Jason. This was our first time setting up a tent by ourselves, and we encountered a couple problems. We were having a hard time getting the poles to hook into the spots that they were supposed to. We asked a guy to help us. We had everything set up pretty much correctly. The guy forced the pole into the hole too forcefully, and the pole wound up splitting a little bit. He realized that the pole was simply caught in the material at the top. Once we rearranged the fabric, the pole slid in easily. The ground was really hard, so we couldn’t get the stakes into the ground. We threw some clothes into the tent to get it to flat. We clipped the tent to the attached clips, but it was a little too tight and caused a little tear in the tent. Besides that, no problems at all. Since we had already hiked 11 miles that day, we went to bed after eating around 9:30. When we were getting ready for bed, we heard four hikers come in. They had come down the South Kaibab trail. Two hikers decided to camp out for the night, and two decided to continue along the trail. They were all wearing head lamps that had soft colored lights. We felt dumb for having a regular flashlight as everyone else had head lamps or soft colored lights. Our food for the entire hike consisted of: beef jerky, dried fruit, cheetos, nuts, pretzels, twizzlers, granola bars, and chocolate pudding. We forgot to make our sandwiches before we left, so we didn’t have any substantial food.
We had a tough time sleeping because it was warm out, the ground was extremely hard and rocky, and there were animals rustling around. We heard a story about a rattlesnake being killed by a couple because it was right outside there tent the night before. We’re not sure why they killed it instead of scaring it away, but they killed it with a rock. The guy’s wife yelled at him because you are technically not allowed to kill rattlesnakes. It seemed like most campers woke up around 5 and went to bed around 9. We woke up around 5 with many other people. We decided that our legs felt good enough to carry us to Ribbon Falls, which was allegedly 6 miles away. Since we didn’t carry around our 30-40 pound packs all day, we decided to pack our little backpack with water and food. We headed out early, which was good, because we had to walk through “the box”, which is a desert area with very little shade. We walked through Phantom Ranch, which is a lodge with air conditioning and a little restaurant down there. We saw where they kept the mules at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. After walking about half a mile, the trail to Ribbon Falls began (therefore .5 miles was added to the initial 6 mile hike each way). We followed a tributary (a creek that feeds into the larger river) towards the North Rim. It was a smaller canyon with walls several hundred feet tall. Most views were blocked by the canyon we were in. We didn’t see anyone for the first two hours as we went down the creek and crossed several bridges. We walked out of the canyon into “the box”, where it was definitely warmer, probably in the mid 90s. We later found out from a park ranger that the temperature in the shade was 107 degrees. We brought eight bottles of water with us and had finished more water than expected before midday. Therefore, when we got close to Ribbon Falls, which was an extra mile than expected as we didn’t take the unmarked short cut, we decided to continue hiking to Cottonwood campground (which is ¾ of the way to the North Rim and has nice views of the North Rim), an extra 1.4 miles each direction, to fill up our water. A passing hiker told us that the campground was only 25 minutes away, so we went. It took us longer to get there as the hike was vertical for part of it. After 45 minutes, we didn’t know how much further away it was, so we stopped, had a snack, and Jeanette put band aids on the blisters on her feet as they were hurting. We then kept walking until we arrived at the campground. We filled our water, ate a little more, and wound up speaking to a couple from Sacramento…the guy was the person who helped set up the tent. They told us that this was their 5th or 6th time hiking the entire canyon and that they’ve done many different trails/routes. We also met some people who had started hiking at 3:20 am to hike rim to rim in one day.
We headed to Ribbon Falls, which people had said were beautiful and a great place to swim for an afternoon. As we got close, there wasn’t a clear path to the falls, so we hiked through the water and brush. When we got to the falls, we though they were nice, but were expecting something much bigger. Ed went right up to the waterfall and found out that the water was cold. The water maybe came up to his knee, definitely not deep enough to go swimming. Ed went behind the falls and looked around. We then found a shady spot to hang out, eat, and relax. It was nice and cool in the shade, and sometimes even chilly when the mist from the waterfalls sprayed us. It was quite windy and the waterfall blew in many different directions. It also changed its’ pattern down the rocks several times. While we were there, a youth group from Mississippi came by. There were nine boys aged 10-13 who had hiked with the one youth group leader from the North Rim down. The other youth group leader and two other boys showed up about an hour later. The group was on vacation for a week and half visiting different national parks. They stayed for a little bit and then hiked back out the North Rim…definitely a long hike for one day, especially when leaving in the middle of the day when the heat was the worse. We walked up the side of the waterfall, took pictures mid way up behind the waterfall, and as we were hiking out, we wound up meeting a family that was camping right beside us at Bright Angel. All the campers were super friendly and very willing to share their hiking adventure stories/advice.
We headed back across the shortcut, which was walking through lots of water and rough, unmarked desert paths. As we headed back through the box, we dipped our hats in the water several times to keep us cool. After about 10-15 minutes, our completely soaked hats were dry. Fortunately for us, there was a breeze while we were hiking, which helped offset some of the heat. Because the breeze was very strong, we started to get worried that our tent had blown away as the ground was too hard to stake it down. We didn’t see anyone during the whole trip back. When we exited the desert section and entered the cavern section, Jeanette saw one deer up the canyon above the path. Ed saw several deer below the path. As we were walking, a buck started running towards us. Ed realized we were blocking their escape route, so we slowly backed up and let the deer pass before continuing on. It was a little scary since the path is very narrow and there were approximately 5 bucks with antlers, 2 babies, and a doe that appeared to be charging us. Luckily, they just wanted to get to the other side of the canyon to climb up with their friend. We arrived back at the campsite around 6:30 to finish our 17 mile hike on our “rest” day. Fortunately, our tent was still there.
We then ate dinner and cooled off in the creek, since our campsite seemed was one of the hottest places in the whole canyon. We headed over to the Phantom Ranch amphitheater to see the ranger show at 7:30, but no one showed up, including the ranger. We heard the canteen at Phantom Ranch had snacks, so we sat on benches outside there until it opened. It was nice and air conditioned inside. We shared a bagel and a snickers. We wound up speaking to two people from Fort Worth, Texas. The one guy had hiked the Grand Canyon many times. He had gone with 72 people on 30-40 trips. People asked him to go there and hike with him. While speaking with them, we found out that they were employees of Lockheed Martin. The experienced hiker told us about his uphill hiking technique, which is similar to the “Indian runs” we ran while playing soccer in high school. Essentially, one person would always be resting, while the others hiked. The lead hiker would rest while the others passed him, then he would start hiking when he got to the end of the line. He said that it worked and that if we saw him while we were hiking, we could definitely join him as the technique works better the more people you have. Around 9:00, we headed back to the campsite to go to bed. While getting ready for bed, Ed saw a rabbit and what he thought was a snake. He later realized it was the tail of a ring tailed fox. We tried to go to sleep, but it was incredibly hot, probably in the 90s, and even the occasional breeze had hot wind. We woke up at 4:00, after a restless night of very little sleep, started packing our things, ate breakfast, and headed out by 5:00. We were quite intimidated by the hike ahead of us as it was a 9.5 vertical hike. Jeanette’s foot was hurting quite badly as she had a blister that became infected on her heel right where it rubs against the shoe every time you take a step. Ed started the hike wearing his sandals to avoid hurting his blisters the entire hike.
We started the first 4.5 miles towards Indian Gardens campground. We had heard that this was the easiest part of the hike, except for Devil’s Corkscrew, which was very steep and windy. We started the hike along the Colorado River, going slightly up at an easy pace. After about a mile, we were very disappointed to find that we had to go down the same amount we had just gone up. As we started ascending again, we followed a creek, which was a different tributary to the Colorado River. We had to cross the creek several times during the trek. The first two and a half miles were fairly easy. Then we hiked Devil’s Corkscrew, which was as hard as the last 4.5 miles. We spoke with many people from Bright Angel campgrounds who were camping at Indian Gardens to break up the hike. Surprisingly, we finished the first half of the hike in 2 hours and fifteen minutes. We refilled our waters, ate some more breakfast, and rested for 45 minutes before heading out again. Although the rest of the hike was steep, there were rest houses every 1.5 miles. We made it to the next rest stop pretty quickly, in 50 minutes. We weren’t messing around with taking too many pictures. Instead, we hiked as fast as we could to avoid hiking the hardest part of the trail in the hottest part of the day. It seemed like this part of the trail was the easiest of the last 4.5 miles, but that may have been because we had the most energy. We refilled our water again and rested 10 minutes or so. We then proceeded to the next rest house. This part of the hike was much harder and we had to move over several times for mules to pass. The path smelled horrendous. It smelled like manure and the worst smell of urine ever! Maybe this is why people like to hike out the north rim…no mule smells!!! We spoke with a crazy, philosophical guy that we didn’t really understand everything he was saying. Pretty much the gist of his talk was to tell us that we would be profoundly changed by our hike in the Grand Canyon and that we should avoid gossip in real life. When Jeanette asked him how much longer to the next rest house, he did not give a straight answer. He just blabbered on about staying in the present moment and not worrying when the arrival would happen. Finally, he said we would be pleasantly surprised soon. We were…the rest house was only two more hills and curves up. We arrived at the next rest house in an hour. We stopped, ate, and drank water. We also spoke with a couple from Chicago who had attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison (they asked us about it as Ed was wearing a Wisconsin Hockey shirt). They had rafted in to Phantom Ranch and were walking the 9.5 miles out. After resting for a little bit, we continued on our journey up.
The last mile and a half was really hard for us. Our feet were aching, the backpacks seemed quite heavy, the trail was quite steep and windy, and it was getting warmer. A few other couples and we took turns passing each other as we took many rests along this part of the trip. Some of the couples were just day hikers while others were making the long hike up. We met two other families that were from Madison, WI along the way. At the campsite, we had met other people from Madison too. So, there were lots of Madison-ites present. We had to move over one more time for the mule pack to pass by. Finally, we saw the end. Once we got up there, we walked another .5 miles back to the car. So, despite a few pesky blisters, we made it out rather unscathed. It was a great feeling to finally take the backpacks off and change our shoes. We unloaded some stuff, got in the car, drove to Market Plaza to return our hiking poles, and headed back towards Flagstaff in search of food. We were starving and Pizza Hut lunch buffet sounded delicious. We looked for nearby restaurants in our handy Tom-Tom (affectionately called Ed-Ed, our GPS system – thank you Ed’s work friends) and found one halfway between the Grand Canyon and Flagstaff. The food tasted delicious! We had breadsticks and half pepperoni-half cheese stuffed crust pizza. After eating, we headed to a different Quality Inn in Flagstaff.
After checking in, we immediately took showers and took an hour long nap. We didn’t want to sleep too long because neither of us are nappers and we didn’t want to throw off our sleep schedule. After waking up, we decided to head to the movies. We went to see Sex and the City (lucky Ed). Although the movies were only .2 miles away, we got lost and it took us about fifteen minutes to find. We got there a little late, but it was okay because we missed most of the previews before the movie started. The movie was okay. Jeanette thought the show was better, but it was definitely watchable…probably better to rent. After the movies, we went to Target to find cleaning supplies for the camera and video camera, which had become quite dusty after the Grand Canyon excursion. We picked up the supplies, got a bite to eat at Wendy’s (yes, we are very healthy eaters), and headed back to the hotel. We watched TV for a little bit (Mets v. Arizona baseball game) and went to sleep.
We woke up the next morning at 6:00. We ate breakfast and headed towards Los Angeles. For the first little bit of the drive between Arizona and California, it was the most desolate strip we’ve been on since western Texas. The drive wasn’t super scenic either as it was all desert and a few mountains, although they looked like big dirt piles…just our opinion of course. We stopped for lunch and ate at a place called Firehouse Italian because it looked better than fast food. After eating a chicken parmesan sub and mozzarella sticks (way healthier than fast food by the way), we filled up with gas that cost $4.99 a gallon, and drove to Los Angeles. We lucked out with the traffic, hitting very little. There was a lot going in the other direction and it was just starting to pile up in our direction…yet we made it to our hotel rather quick.
From then on, the ride was less eventful. The car ride was beautiful. It very mountainous, with some of the mountain peaks still having snow on them. There were many evergreen trees as we drove through Kaibab National Forest. We could see the ski areas as we drove through. We arrived at the Grand Canyon around 10…a bit later than expected. Fortunately, the Grand Canyon wasn’t as crowded as we expected and we got a close spot to the visitor center. We spoke with a ranger there who gave us directions to the Backcountry Office to attempt obtaining overnight camping permits.
We drove to the Backcountry office with our fingers crossed. We spoke to the ranger who informed us that there was a last minute cancellation for that night and there was room for the following night to camp out at the Bright Angel campground. While we originally wanted to hike rim to rim, we were still happy to have received any campground at all, being that there are very few campsites available. There were 25 campsites at Bright Angel, 10 at Cottonwood (in the North Rim), and 15 at Indian Gardens. The ranger told us we should wait until about 3:30 to begin our hike down as the heat wouldn’t be as bad then. Therefore, we decided to walk around the top of the South Rim for a little while to kill time. We walked around, mesmerized by the ginormity of the canyon. We were surprised that there few guardrails preventing people from going over the side…especially at the top where all the tourists hang out. If you took one step too far, it was conceivable that you may fall over 1000 feet down. We walked two miles up to Yapi Point. We then walked back, getting some lunch at one of the restaurants. We were surprised that the food wasn’t incredibly overpriced…as there isn’t much else to eat in the area unless you bring your own lunch. Ed had beef stew in a bread bowl, while Jeanette opted for chicken fingers. We were sure to eat a hearty lunch as the Grand Canyon brochures warn you countless times that you need to be well hydrated and double your calories during hikes. Otherwise, you risk dehydration, heat stroke, and heat exhaustion. We probably took their advice too seriously, but hey, better safe than sorry. There was one story about a young woman who had completed the Boston Marathon and was in great shape who had died of heat exhaustion while hiking down the canyon with only one bottle of water. That scared us as neither of us has ever run a marathon. We then walked back to the car, made sure we had everything we needed, and began our journey to the start of the South Kaibab trail…that entailed taking two buses and picking up a hiking pole each at the camp rental sections.
While we rode the last bus to the start of the trail, Jeanette became nervous. But, once we got there, there were other people starting day hikes down. We started the trail down around 3:45 and took lots of pictures around every corner. It was amazing to see how much you are unable to see from the top of the canyon. After a few miles, there was another whole layer canyon we saw with different rock formations and colors, vegetation, etc. At the beginning of the hike, we took our time, talking to different people along the trails for ten minutes at a time, took pictures, etc, but towards the end, there were no people. We hiked the last two hours or so completely by ourselves. Jeanette got worried because we were still hiking and the sun was going down. She was scared of hiking in the dark. We found out later that many people hike in the dark and that the moon is extremely bright down there…many people don’t even hike with flashlights in the dark…they only use the moonlight. We finally saw the Colorado River and the bridge we had to cross in order to arrive at our campsite. Before crossing the bridge, there was a short, dark tunnel that we had to go through. We went over the Colorado River, then over a creek, and arrived at our campground after 6.9 miles around 7:30. The campsite was between a huge rock wall and a creek, so it was quite picturesque. There were approximately 25 (maybe 30) campsites. We started to set up our tent, which was on loan from Sarah and Jason. This was our first time setting up a tent by ourselves, and we encountered a couple problems. We were having a hard time getting the poles to hook into the spots that they were supposed to. We asked a guy to help us. We had everything set up pretty much correctly. The guy forced the pole into the hole too forcefully, and the pole wound up splitting a little bit. He realized that the pole was simply caught in the material at the top. Once we rearranged the fabric, the pole slid in easily. The ground was really hard, so we couldn’t get the stakes into the ground. We threw some clothes into the tent to get it to flat. We clipped the tent to the attached clips, but it was a little too tight and caused a little tear in the tent. Besides that, no problems at all. Since we had already hiked 11 miles that day, we went to bed after eating around 9:30. When we were getting ready for bed, we heard four hikers come in. They had come down the South Kaibab trail. Two hikers decided to camp out for the night, and two decided to continue along the trail. They were all wearing head lamps that had soft colored lights. We felt dumb for having a regular flashlight as everyone else had head lamps or soft colored lights. Our food for the entire hike consisted of: beef jerky, dried fruit, cheetos, nuts, pretzels, twizzlers, granola bars, and chocolate pudding. We forgot to make our sandwiches before we left, so we didn’t have any substantial food.
We had a tough time sleeping because it was warm out, the ground was extremely hard and rocky, and there were animals rustling around. We heard a story about a rattlesnake being killed by a couple because it was right outside there tent the night before. We’re not sure why they killed it instead of scaring it away, but they killed it with a rock. The guy’s wife yelled at him because you are technically not allowed to kill rattlesnakes. It seemed like most campers woke up around 5 and went to bed around 9. We woke up around 5 with many other people. We decided that our legs felt good enough to carry us to Ribbon Falls, which was allegedly 6 miles away. Since we didn’t carry around our 30-40 pound packs all day, we decided to pack our little backpack with water and food. We headed out early, which was good, because we had to walk through “the box”, which is a desert area with very little shade. We walked through Phantom Ranch, which is a lodge with air conditioning and a little restaurant down there. We saw where they kept the mules at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. After walking about half a mile, the trail to Ribbon Falls began (therefore .5 miles was added to the initial 6 mile hike each way). We followed a tributary (a creek that feeds into the larger river) towards the North Rim. It was a smaller canyon with walls several hundred feet tall. Most views were blocked by the canyon we were in. We didn’t see anyone for the first two hours as we went down the creek and crossed several bridges. We walked out of the canyon into “the box”, where it was definitely warmer, probably in the mid 90s. We later found out from a park ranger that the temperature in the shade was 107 degrees. We brought eight bottles of water with us and had finished more water than expected before midday. Therefore, when we got close to Ribbon Falls, which was an extra mile than expected as we didn’t take the unmarked short cut, we decided to continue hiking to Cottonwood campground (which is ¾ of the way to the North Rim and has nice views of the North Rim), an extra 1.4 miles each direction, to fill up our water. A passing hiker told us that the campground was only 25 minutes away, so we went. It took us longer to get there as the hike was vertical for part of it. After 45 minutes, we didn’t know how much further away it was, so we stopped, had a snack, and Jeanette put band aids on the blisters on her feet as they were hurting. We then kept walking until we arrived at the campground. We filled our water, ate a little more, and wound up speaking to a couple from Sacramento…the guy was the person who helped set up the tent. They told us that this was their 5th or 6th time hiking the entire canyon and that they’ve done many different trails/routes. We also met some people who had started hiking at 3:20 am to hike rim to rim in one day.
We headed to Ribbon Falls, which people had said were beautiful and a great place to swim for an afternoon. As we got close, there wasn’t a clear path to the falls, so we hiked through the water and brush. When we got to the falls, we though they were nice, but were expecting something much bigger. Ed went right up to the waterfall and found out that the water was cold. The water maybe came up to his knee, definitely not deep enough to go swimming. Ed went behind the falls and looked around. We then found a shady spot to hang out, eat, and relax. It was nice and cool in the shade, and sometimes even chilly when the mist from the waterfalls sprayed us. It was quite windy and the waterfall blew in many different directions. It also changed its’ pattern down the rocks several times. While we were there, a youth group from Mississippi came by. There were nine boys aged 10-13 who had hiked with the one youth group leader from the North Rim down. The other youth group leader and two other boys showed up about an hour later. The group was on vacation for a week and half visiting different national parks. They stayed for a little bit and then hiked back out the North Rim…definitely a long hike for one day, especially when leaving in the middle of the day when the heat was the worse. We walked up the side of the waterfall, took pictures mid way up behind the waterfall, and as we were hiking out, we wound up meeting a family that was camping right beside us at Bright Angel. All the campers were super friendly and very willing to share their hiking adventure stories/advice.
We headed back across the shortcut, which was walking through lots of water and rough, unmarked desert paths. As we headed back through the box, we dipped our hats in the water several times to keep us cool. After about 10-15 minutes, our completely soaked hats were dry. Fortunately for us, there was a breeze while we were hiking, which helped offset some of the heat. Because the breeze was very strong, we started to get worried that our tent had blown away as the ground was too hard to stake it down. We didn’t see anyone during the whole trip back. When we exited the desert section and entered the cavern section, Jeanette saw one deer up the canyon above the path. Ed saw several deer below the path. As we were walking, a buck started running towards us. Ed realized we were blocking their escape route, so we slowly backed up and let the deer pass before continuing on. It was a little scary since the path is very narrow and there were approximately 5 bucks with antlers, 2 babies, and a doe that appeared to be charging us. Luckily, they just wanted to get to the other side of the canyon to climb up with their friend. We arrived back at the campsite around 6:30 to finish our 17 mile hike on our “rest” day. Fortunately, our tent was still there.
We then ate dinner and cooled off in the creek, since our campsite seemed was one of the hottest places in the whole canyon. We headed over to the Phantom Ranch amphitheater to see the ranger show at 7:30, but no one showed up, including the ranger. We heard the canteen at Phantom Ranch had snacks, so we sat on benches outside there until it opened. It was nice and air conditioned inside. We shared a bagel and a snickers. We wound up speaking to two people from Fort Worth, Texas. The one guy had hiked the Grand Canyon many times. He had gone with 72 people on 30-40 trips. People asked him to go there and hike with him. While speaking with them, we found out that they were employees of Lockheed Martin. The experienced hiker told us about his uphill hiking technique, which is similar to the “Indian runs” we ran while playing soccer in high school. Essentially, one person would always be resting, while the others hiked. The lead hiker would rest while the others passed him, then he would start hiking when he got to the end of the line. He said that it worked and that if we saw him while we were hiking, we could definitely join him as the technique works better the more people you have. Around 9:00, we headed back to the campsite to go to bed. While getting ready for bed, Ed saw a rabbit and what he thought was a snake. He later realized it was the tail of a ring tailed fox. We tried to go to sleep, but it was incredibly hot, probably in the 90s, and even the occasional breeze had hot wind. We woke up at 4:00, after a restless night of very little sleep, started packing our things, ate breakfast, and headed out by 5:00. We were quite intimidated by the hike ahead of us as it was a 9.5 vertical hike. Jeanette’s foot was hurting quite badly as she had a blister that became infected on her heel right where it rubs against the shoe every time you take a step. Ed started the hike wearing his sandals to avoid hurting his blisters the entire hike.
We started the first 4.5 miles towards Indian Gardens campground. We had heard that this was the easiest part of the hike, except for Devil’s Corkscrew, which was very steep and windy. We started the hike along the Colorado River, going slightly up at an easy pace. After about a mile, we were very disappointed to find that we had to go down the same amount we had just gone up. As we started ascending again, we followed a creek, which was a different tributary to the Colorado River. We had to cross the creek several times during the trek. The first two and a half miles were fairly easy. Then we hiked Devil’s Corkscrew, which was as hard as the last 4.5 miles. We spoke with many people from Bright Angel campgrounds who were camping at Indian Gardens to break up the hike. Surprisingly, we finished the first half of the hike in 2 hours and fifteen minutes. We refilled our waters, ate some more breakfast, and rested for 45 minutes before heading out again. Although the rest of the hike was steep, there were rest houses every 1.5 miles. We made it to the next rest stop pretty quickly, in 50 minutes. We weren’t messing around with taking too many pictures. Instead, we hiked as fast as we could to avoid hiking the hardest part of the trail in the hottest part of the day. It seemed like this part of the trail was the easiest of the last 4.5 miles, but that may have been because we had the most energy. We refilled our water again and rested 10 minutes or so. We then proceeded to the next rest house. This part of the hike was much harder and we had to move over several times for mules to pass. The path smelled horrendous. It smelled like manure and the worst smell of urine ever! Maybe this is why people like to hike out the north rim…no mule smells!!! We spoke with a crazy, philosophical guy that we didn’t really understand everything he was saying. Pretty much the gist of his talk was to tell us that we would be profoundly changed by our hike in the Grand Canyon and that we should avoid gossip in real life. When Jeanette asked him how much longer to the next rest house, he did not give a straight answer. He just blabbered on about staying in the present moment and not worrying when the arrival would happen. Finally, he said we would be pleasantly surprised soon. We were…the rest house was only two more hills and curves up. We arrived at the next rest house in an hour. We stopped, ate, and drank water. We also spoke with a couple from Chicago who had attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison (they asked us about it as Ed was wearing a Wisconsin Hockey shirt). They had rafted in to Phantom Ranch and were walking the 9.5 miles out. After resting for a little bit, we continued on our journey up.
The last mile and a half was really hard for us. Our feet were aching, the backpacks seemed quite heavy, the trail was quite steep and windy, and it was getting warmer. A few other couples and we took turns passing each other as we took many rests along this part of the trip. Some of the couples were just day hikers while others were making the long hike up. We met two other families that were from Madison, WI along the way. At the campsite, we had met other people from Madison too. So, there were lots of Madison-ites present. We had to move over one more time for the mule pack to pass by. Finally, we saw the end. Once we got up there, we walked another .5 miles back to the car. So, despite a few pesky blisters, we made it out rather unscathed. It was a great feeling to finally take the backpacks off and change our shoes. We unloaded some stuff, got in the car, drove to Market Plaza to return our hiking poles, and headed back towards Flagstaff in search of food. We were starving and Pizza Hut lunch buffet sounded delicious. We looked for nearby restaurants in our handy Tom-Tom (affectionately called Ed-Ed, our GPS system – thank you Ed’s work friends) and found one halfway between the Grand Canyon and Flagstaff. The food tasted delicious! We had breadsticks and half pepperoni-half cheese stuffed crust pizza. After eating, we headed to a different Quality Inn in Flagstaff.
After checking in, we immediately took showers and took an hour long nap. We didn’t want to sleep too long because neither of us are nappers and we didn’t want to throw off our sleep schedule. After waking up, we decided to head to the movies. We went to see Sex and the City (lucky Ed). Although the movies were only .2 miles away, we got lost and it took us about fifteen minutes to find. We got there a little late, but it was okay because we missed most of the previews before the movie started. The movie was okay. Jeanette thought the show was better, but it was definitely watchable…probably better to rent. After the movies, we went to Target to find cleaning supplies for the camera and video camera, which had become quite dusty after the Grand Canyon excursion. We picked up the supplies, got a bite to eat at Wendy’s (yes, we are very healthy eaters), and headed back to the hotel. We watched TV for a little bit (Mets v. Arizona baseball game) and went to sleep.
We woke up the next morning at 6:00. We ate breakfast and headed towards Los Angeles. For the first little bit of the drive between Arizona and California, it was the most desolate strip we’ve been on since western Texas. The drive wasn’t super scenic either as it was all desert and a few mountains, although they looked like big dirt piles…just our opinion of course. We stopped for lunch and ate at a place called Firehouse Italian because it looked better than fast food. After eating a chicken parmesan sub and mozzarella sticks (way healthier than fast food by the way), we filled up with gas that cost $4.99 a gallon, and drove to Los Angeles. We lucked out with the traffic, hitting very little. There was a lot going in the other direction and it was just starting to pile up in our direction…yet we made it to our hotel rather quick.
Sedona - Detailed - June 7
We got a bit delayed leaving the hotel because there was a detour. We ended up going through downtown Tucson. It seemed nice enough, but we didn’t stop or anything. We drove up towards Sedona through Phoenix. This was the most traffic we had seen on our trip. In Phoenix, Ed saw a billboard for In ‘n Out Burger. We used the handy GPS to track one down. They don’t have anything but burgers (really good ones) so Jeanette got a chicken sandwich from McDonalds. The drive from Phoenix to Sedona had tons of mountains and evergreens. We were not expecting that at all. After about 5 hours, we got up to Sedona. We stopped at Chapel Rock on the way. It is a church up on a hill with great views. Then we stopped at the Gap for Jeanette to get a new tank top. We didn’t have too many directions, but we thought we could figure out how to get to the nice section of town. We thought wrong. The first problem was that the whole town is under construction. The second problem is that we went towards downtown. It was all fast food and banks and whatnot. We ended up turning around and heading to our hotel. We figured out we had to go uptown and that is where we headed. We parked in a lot and headed to a few stores. There was live music playing out in front of them. We looked at some jewelry and T-shirts and a place called the Jerky Hut. Then we got sucked in by someone trying to sell us a time share. When we got out of there, we went to a few more local stores. We met a guy from Cazenovia who owned one of them. Another lady seemed very pretentious when we tried to make small talk with her. It seemed like Main Street was very touristy. Most of the people loved their little town and took any chance to tell you how great it was. We headed to some little shop village we had seen earlier. It was getting late, like 6pm, so most of the stores were closing. The village was very nice and was hosting a wedding when we were there. At that point, we decided to get some food. We looked around at a ton of restaurants because they were all very much overpriced. We ended up at an Italian place that was pretty good. You could tell it was fancy because it had Astroturf out in front. We sat on the patio that had some good smelling flowers and a little traffic noise. Jeanette had Fettuccini Alfredo with spinach, grilled chicken, and mushrooms. Ed had tortellini with Portobello mushrooms. Both of us liked our meal. Then we ran to the grocery store to get some supplies for the Grand Canyon. The town seemed to close down pretty early expect for a few bars. It wasn’t a bar night, so we went back and watched some TV.
We got up and ate some breakfast at the hotel. Jeanette’s legs were very tired from her early morning workout the day before. We headed down to Red Rock State Park for a hike. We went on a few trails and saw some gorgeous scenery. There were many lizards around ever corner. Then we saw a rattlesnake moving away from us. After that, we saw a few deer and a rabbit. It was a very nice park with great views. Then we headed up to Slide Rock Park. There are natural “waterslides” in the river. The lot was full so we went up the road a mile and parked on the side of the road. We went down a very steep path to the creek. We were attempting to walk down to the park. Ed went right in the water while Jeanette stayed up on the rocks. About half way there, Jeanette reluctantly got in the water up to her knees. We made it to the park and it was worth the trip. Although aimed at smaller kids, Ed went down the natural red rock slide. He also jumped from a red rock ledge that was about 15 feet up. Then we headed back up. There were a lot of people out, enjoying the nice day and great views. We got back in the car and drove towards Oak Creek Park. The drive was through the woods, not deserts at all. It was also very mountainous. When we got to the “park”, we realized it was just a scenic overlook. We got to see the road we drove up on and the creek. After that, we drove to Flagstaff. It has a nice downtown area with a bunch of stores, little plazas, and restaurants. Some of the plazas and restaurants had live music outside on this gorgeous afternoon. Most of the store were closing soon, so we saw a few and then headed to the hotel. There was an Outback nearby, so we got a quick bite and went back to the room to sort out things to take to the Grand Canyon. We had to make a quick trip to Target for a few last minute things. We came home and watched part of the movie, “Natural Lampoon’s Vacation”. It seemed like we were following their itinerary pretty closely…at least from the part we saw. They drove from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon, then out to Los Angeles. We didn’t watch the ending, which Ed has seen, but went to bed to wake up early for our drive to the Grand Canyon.
We got up and ate some breakfast at the hotel. Jeanette’s legs were very tired from her early morning workout the day before. We headed down to Red Rock State Park for a hike. We went on a few trails and saw some gorgeous scenery. There were many lizards around ever corner. Then we saw a rattlesnake moving away from us. After that, we saw a few deer and a rabbit. It was a very nice park with great views. Then we headed up to Slide Rock Park. There are natural “waterslides” in the river. The lot was full so we went up the road a mile and parked on the side of the road. We went down a very steep path to the creek. We were attempting to walk down to the park. Ed went right in the water while Jeanette stayed up on the rocks. About half way there, Jeanette reluctantly got in the water up to her knees. We made it to the park and it was worth the trip. Although aimed at smaller kids, Ed went down the natural red rock slide. He also jumped from a red rock ledge that was about 15 feet up. Then we headed back up. There were a lot of people out, enjoying the nice day and great views. We got back in the car and drove towards Oak Creek Park. The drive was through the woods, not deserts at all. It was also very mountainous. When we got to the “park”, we realized it was just a scenic overlook. We got to see the road we drove up on and the creek. After that, we drove to Flagstaff. It has a nice downtown area with a bunch of stores, little plazas, and restaurants. Some of the plazas and restaurants had live music outside on this gorgeous afternoon. Most of the store were closing soon, so we saw a few and then headed to the hotel. There was an Outback nearby, so we got a quick bite and went back to the room to sort out things to take to the Grand Canyon. We had to make a quick trip to Target for a few last minute things. We came home and watched part of the movie, “Natural Lampoon’s Vacation”. It seemed like we were following their itinerary pretty closely…at least from the part we saw. They drove from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon, then out to Los Angeles. We didn’t watch the ending, which Ed has seen, but went to bed to wake up early for our drive to the Grand Canyon.
We made it out
We were able to get walk-in backcountry permits that allowed us to hike all the way down the canyon, camp out at the bottom, and then hike out. It was a great experience, but very exhausting. We took the South Kaibab trail seven miles down to get in, camped at Bright Angels campground, walked 17 miles to the north rim (not all the way out) on our "rest" day, and then hiked nine miles up the Bright Angels trail yesterday. We were hurting! We're now back on the road, headed to LA. We will write in the car and hopefully post something tomorrow. A few facts to keep you busy.
FACT: The best kind of turf is smurf turf.
FACT: Snakes can't drill holes in rocks.
FACT: Southerners don't plan on doing things, they fix on doing things.
FACT: The only thing worse than another ice age would be a heat age. (It was 107 in the Grand Caynon in the shade and not much cooler at night. We couldn't sleep too well and I might have been a bit crazy. I couldn't help but picture a saber tooth tiger crossed with Mr. Bigglesworth running around in 120 degree heat.)
FACT: The best kind of turf is smurf turf.
FACT: Snakes can't drill holes in rocks.
FACT: Southerners don't plan on doing things, they fix on doing things.
FACT: The only thing worse than another ice age would be a heat age. (It was 107 in the Grand Caynon in the shade and not much cooler at night. We couldn't sleep too well and I might have been a bit crazy. I couldn't help but picture a saber tooth tiger crossed with Mr. Bigglesworth running around in 120 degree heat.)
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Grand Canyon
We are headed up to the Grand Canyon tomorrow. We will update the blog when we get back to civilization. Sedona and Flagstaff were both fun, but the best time was at Slide Rock State Park.
We also saw our first rattlesnake at Red Rock State Park. Ed didn't freak too much!
We also saw our first rattlesnake at Red Rock State Park. Ed didn't freak too much!
White Sands June 6, 2008
We pulled into the visitor center first. There wasn’t much going on inside the visitor center, although it was really cool looking. It was an adobe style building with flowering cacti outside. We proceeded to drive back towards the trails. We paid our small entrance fee of $3 each, which would last six days. We arrived at the first trail, a nature trail, which covered 1 mile. As we started walking, Ed spotted a camouflaged lizard, but Jeanette did not. We hiked up the sand dune and followed the markers for our one mile loop. Along the way, there were several bugs, lizards, and cacti. We took several pictures. We had a hard time following the path at the beginning because we couldn’t easily locate the markers. As we finished the nature trail, Ed got the bright idea to go sledding down the hill as that’s what many people do here. Since we didn’t have sleds, he attempted using the lid of the cooler, which did not work at all!
We then headed back towards Akali Flat trail, which is a 4.6 mile hike in the dunes or as Ed calls it the “idiot trail”…more about that in a minute. Along the way, we stopped at one of the restrooms. Ed gagged in there as it was a glorified port-a-potty that stunk!
Anyway, we arrived at the trail at 12:20 and started our hike. It is affectionately called the “idiot trail” by Ed because we always seem to start our activity in the hottest part of the day. We began our hike with two bottles of water in hand (we both drank one bottle of water before starting the hike). We followed the trail markers out…although we lost sight of some of them. There was a sign telling us that if a windstorm should occur, do not move from the nearest trail marker. Instead, you should wait until the storm is over, and then try to locate the next trail marker. Luckily, we did not have this problem. The only things we saw out in the dunes were a few reddish colored ants, lizards, and grasshoppers. The dunes seemed to go on for a long time. Some of the low areas consisted of hard, dried up gypsum that was easy to walk on. However, some of the higher parts of the dune were made up of softer sand that was harder to walk on and got in your shoes as you hiked up and down the dunes. We drank a little bit of water every 10 minutes, even if we weren’t thirsty, to enjoy we were staying fairly hydrated. We made it to the half way point in the flats and looked around for a little bit before moving on. Truthfully, it didn’t look that different than anything else. Apparently, the flats mean the area in which the white sand is produced. It is a disappearing lake basin that produces the white sand. The wind carries the white sand from this basin to other parts of the park to give the whole area white sand. We continued on to the second half of the hike. It was a bit hotter at this point and we were definitely thirstier. It felt like there was a lot of going up and down the dunes on this portion of the hike…it may have been because we were tired…but we had to empty our shoes of sand more frequently. We got back to the car, drank some cold water, and Ed ate a quick snack…a granola bar with peanut butter. We then drove to the one last trail in the park. It was only .3 miles, so we quickly finished it. We stopped at the gift shop on the way out. We bought some post cards and then headed out. We started our drive towards Tucson. We noticed that there were two new fires in the mountains closer to Las Cruces that hadn’t been there, or at least not as big, in the morning. We drove to Las Cruces and stopped at a local, hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant. We don’t remember the name of it, but it was super cheap and pretty good. It cost $7 for a huge plate of food consisting of refried beans, rice, enchiladas, deep fried cheese stuffed pepper, a taco, and some flautas. Jeanette ate refried beans, rice, and a chicken burrito. After eating, we drove to Tucson, Arizona.
While driving, there were some small hills along the way, but overall, it was pretty flat. The land was pretty open, with a few farms here and there. Before entering Arizona, we went through a border patrol station that was not on the border at all. It claimed that it was responsible for finding 20,000 pounds of drugs in people’s cars. Just to make sure that we weren’t going into Mexico, Ed asked the border patrolman, who laughed at us, and sent us on our way.
We arrived in Tucson, checked in to the Quality Inn motel. The time changed again as Arizona does not recognize daylight savings time. The hotel was really nice and was built in adobe style architecture. There were many large cacti outside and a covered wagon. The motel had wireless internet, a decent breakfast, and laundry. We did some laundry and headed out to Dairy Queen for some ice cream between loads of laundry. We came back and fell fast asleep.
We then headed back towards Akali Flat trail, which is a 4.6 mile hike in the dunes or as Ed calls it the “idiot trail”…more about that in a minute. Along the way, we stopped at one of the restrooms. Ed gagged in there as it was a glorified port-a-potty that stunk!
Anyway, we arrived at the trail at 12:20 and started our hike. It is affectionately called the “idiot trail” by Ed because we always seem to start our activity in the hottest part of the day. We began our hike with two bottles of water in hand (we both drank one bottle of water before starting the hike). We followed the trail markers out…although we lost sight of some of them. There was a sign telling us that if a windstorm should occur, do not move from the nearest trail marker. Instead, you should wait until the storm is over, and then try to locate the next trail marker. Luckily, we did not have this problem. The only things we saw out in the dunes were a few reddish colored ants, lizards, and grasshoppers. The dunes seemed to go on for a long time. Some of the low areas consisted of hard, dried up gypsum that was easy to walk on. However, some of the higher parts of the dune were made up of softer sand that was harder to walk on and got in your shoes as you hiked up and down the dunes. We drank a little bit of water every 10 minutes, even if we weren’t thirsty, to enjoy we were staying fairly hydrated. We made it to the half way point in the flats and looked around for a little bit before moving on. Truthfully, it didn’t look that different than anything else. Apparently, the flats mean the area in which the white sand is produced. It is a disappearing lake basin that produces the white sand. The wind carries the white sand from this basin to other parts of the park to give the whole area white sand. We continued on to the second half of the hike. It was a bit hotter at this point and we were definitely thirstier. It felt like there was a lot of going up and down the dunes on this portion of the hike…it may have been because we were tired…but we had to empty our shoes of sand more frequently. We got back to the car, drank some cold water, and Ed ate a quick snack…a granola bar with peanut butter. We then drove to the one last trail in the park. It was only .3 miles, so we quickly finished it. We stopped at the gift shop on the way out. We bought some post cards and then headed out. We started our drive towards Tucson. We noticed that there were two new fires in the mountains closer to Las Cruces that hadn’t been there, or at least not as big, in the morning. We drove to Las Cruces and stopped at a local, hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant. We don’t remember the name of it, but it was super cheap and pretty good. It cost $7 for a huge plate of food consisting of refried beans, rice, enchiladas, deep fried cheese stuffed pepper, a taco, and some flautas. Jeanette ate refried beans, rice, and a chicken burrito. After eating, we drove to Tucson, Arizona.
While driving, there were some small hills along the way, but overall, it was pretty flat. The land was pretty open, with a few farms here and there. Before entering Arizona, we went through a border patrol station that was not on the border at all. It claimed that it was responsible for finding 20,000 pounds of drugs in people’s cars. Just to make sure that we weren’t going into Mexico, Ed asked the border patrolman, who laughed at us, and sent us on our way.
We arrived in Tucson, checked in to the Quality Inn motel. The time changed again as Arizona does not recognize daylight savings time. The hotel was really nice and was built in adobe style architecture. There were many large cacti outside and a covered wagon. The motel had wireless internet, a decent breakfast, and laundry. We did some laundry and headed out to Dairy Queen for some ice cream between loads of laundry. We came back and fell fast asleep.
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