Viva Las Vegas!

As some of you may know already, Sara and I decided to take the western track around the Grand Canyon. My unbelievably gracious aunt Catherine and her husband Todd opened up their beautiful home in Las Vegas for us to relax and regroup. Unfortunately, our hosts are out of town, but nonetheless making us feel at home from afar.

This is my first time visiting Las Vegas, and with the house only miles from the strip, we could see the lights of Sin City glowing. My aunt recommended an amazing sushi restaurant, Xtreme Sushi, upon our arrival (we have been eating hot dogs, mac-n-cheese, cereal, and granola bars for days!) and it was amazing!

We slept hard, weary from the road and camping; a warm bed and accessible restrooms felt like heaven. It certainly heated up quickly and with temperatures in the 110's, Sara and I took advantage of the refreshing, resort-style pool at my aunt's. We spent most of the day lounging and floating around, beating the heat.

Our plans for the evening were to hit the Las Vegas strip. My aunt Catherine Hickland, a comedy hypnotist, actress, author, owner/creator of Cat Cosmetics, you name it, hooked us up with tickets to one of the hottest shows in Vegas, The Mentalist!
Gerry McCambridge, the Mentalist himself, is a personal friend of hers and put on a mind-blowing performance fusing comedy, magic and mind-reading. In fact, the show on ABC is his creation and based on his abilities. We really enjoyed watching him do his thing and were able to speak with him after the show.

Next we headed to Caesar's Palace to try our luck in the casino. It was Saturday night and the strip was electrified! People were milling around everywhere and it was really cool to experience the strip this way. After donating some money to Planet Hollywood, Caesar's and the Flamingo (I feel better using the word donating than losing) we called it a night and headed back to the house. As we drove away, the lights and sounds drifted away behind us.

When we woke up the next day we headed back to the strip to walk around and see the rest of the casinos. Sara had taken a family trip when she was sixteen through the city and was excited to share her experience with me. We walked through New York New York, Paris, The Luxor, The Excalibur, Mandalay Bay, The Bellagio, MGM Grand, Bally's and the Tropicana. This is just scratching the surface. I quickly realized that a couple days is not enough time to experience and explore all that Las Vegas has to offer. Every hotel has numerous shows and exhibits, shops and restaurants.

More important than experiencing the Las Vegas strip was having the opportunity to rest and relax in a comfy home. Sara and I are more than half-way through our summer expedition and this stop happened at just the perfect time. Thank you again Catherine and Todd, your hospitality has been very much appreciated and we can't wait to come back for another visit in the future!

The Grandest Canyon - Part II

Brian was awakened in the middle of the night by footsteps 10 feet from our tent. Then a loud knocking sound commenced and he opened the screened "window" of our tent to reveal the giant elk banging its antlers against a nearby tree. According to him, it was snacking on pine cones as they fell.  He stayed awake for an hour watching the creature (and making sure we were not trampled in our tent) until the elk moved on...

He relayed this story to me when I woke him at 4:30 AM to get to the canyon in time to watch the sunrise. Included in the $25 per vehicle park entrance fee is transportation via a network of shuttle buses powered by natural gas that make it very easy to get around.  We drove to the bus terminal in the dark and hopped on the Orange Line to get to Yaki Point.  

From Yaki Point, we watched in awe as the sun crested over the East Rim of the canyon. It was truly breathtaking to see the orange glow gradually stream its light into the depths of the canyon below. Granted, most of the sunrises I've seen lately were not for pure pleasure, (on the way to the airport to catch an early flight, or competing in a triathlon) but this one was like nothing I've ever witnessed. I am still learning to use my Canon EOS Rebel T3 in unfamiliar lighting/circumstances, and I don't think it is possible to capture the true beauty, but I had fun trying.

We returned to camp to cook some protein for breakfast and prepare for a morning hike.  We took the shuttle west and made our way to the Bright Angel Trailhead to begin our decent.  We had decided to do the 3-mile round trip, a decent of 1,140 feet.  The switch-back trail was gentle for the first 1/2 mile, then became moderately steep.  It was a pleasant journey on the way down, and we stopped to admire the scenery and take pictures along the way.

Being inside the canyon felt like a different world, more up close and personal, even though we could still barely make out the trees at the bottom.

The trail cutting down the right wall of the canyon

Just before we reached our turnaround

We reached the mile-and-a-half rest house, our turnaround point, in about 40 minutes and stopped to eat a protein bar and refill our water bottles.  It was 8:00 AM and only 70 degrees, but the elevation change had us short of breath so we rested a few minutes before beginning our ascent back up to the rim.  We were mentally prepared for a challenge, but in a matter of feet we were breathing hard and sweating profusely.  So we took it slow and rested when we needed to, hydrating along the way.  Step by step, we climbed back out of the canyon.  When we reached the top around 9:40, we were both exhausted and exhilarated!!!

Thanks to my sister Jenna for letting me borrow her boots!

The next question was... now what?  We had a reservation to stay at our campsite another night, but the canyon had beat us into submission, so more hiking (or physical activity of any sort) was pretty much out of the question, and it was only 10:00 AM.  We decided it was probably time for us to move on, so we broke camp and much to our surprise, when we checked out they refunded our money for that night!

Now the question was, where do we go now?  The next stop on our itinerary was supposed to be Moab, Utah, but I had not showered in three days and the thought of driving five and half hours and camping again made me want to cry a little.

The Grandest Canyon - Part I

Yesterday we said farewell to Sedona and made our way two hours north to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. We are definitely getting the hang of this camping stuff. When we arrived at the park, we made straight for our site to set up camp. Good thing too, because it was raining when returned for the evening.  It seems the rain has been following us since Santa Fe, and so have the cooler temps, which we are grateful for. The week before we started our journey the Weather Channel was predicting possible record highs in this part of the country so we were preparing ourselves to be sweating in our tents!  Instead, the lows at night have been in the 60's, and with the ground temps even cooler, we've had to bundle up.  Luckily we packed more clothes than we thought we would ever wear... just in case!

After staking our claim, we headed to the Grand Canyon Village and rented bicycles from the Bright Angels Bicycles.  I had read that this was a good way to avoid the crowds in the summer as well as get a variety of vantage points from the canyon's rim. We road the shuttle to Hopi Point and continued west 5.5 miles to Hermit's Rest. The view from our handlebars was truly incredible!  With the wind in our hair, we felt the kind of thrill you'd get as a kid going top speed down hill!  We pulled over at different spots to admire the canyon's magnificent beauty. There was very little traffic and at times we felt like we had the place to ourselves.

At the end of our trek we handed over our bikes and made our way to Mather Point to take pictures as the rain was rolling in over the canyon.

Next, we stopped at the General Store to buy some groceries and postcards.  We returned to our campsite and hid out in the tent waiting for the rain to stop so Brian could grill our burgers.  In the meantime, we noticed two people about 50 yards away hiding behind some trees.  As we tried to figure out who they were playing hide-and-seek with, one of them took several stealthy steps forward and I noticed he was holding a camera.  As we followed his gaze through the woods, we saw an animal the size of a compact car... an elk with gigantic antlers was roaming our campground!

It turns out there we three of them, and they were far less surprised to see us than we were to see them!  I grabbed my zoom lens and played photographer from a safe distance...  So cool!

Check back soon for Part II of The Grandest Canyon adventure...

Red Rockin' in Arizona

As we crossed the state line from New Mexico to Arizona there was an instant shift in scenery. We went from dry deserts, to red cliffs, to wet forest in the matter of 5-1/2 hours. Approaching Flagstaff it was clear that a wild rain storm was battering our path to Sedona as well as our camp site.

Sara, natural innovator that she is, found us a alternative activity just north of the city, out of the storm. We decided that we would wait out the rain and break in our hiking boots at the same time. Sunset Crater National Park lies just 12 miles north of Flagstaff and is home to the remains of a volcano that erupted close to 900 years ago! The trails were easily accessible and not very strenuous, a great practice hike.

It was like nothing either of us had ever seen. The trails weaved through the remains of twisted ponderosa pines and black lava rock that has overtaken the mountainsides.

 

We also got a view of the Painted Desert from afar.

 After the weather radar cleared up and we took tons of pictures of the crater we headed south to our campsite for the next two nights, Pine Flats, nestled in the serene Oak Creek Canyon just north of Sedona.

Our campsite was nice and quiet. This was by far the best night's sleep I have had in a while. We could hear the birds, crickets and wind passing through our tent windows lulling us to sleep. We woke up early and Sara cooked pancakes for breakfast. 

The view waking up this morning

The first hike of the morning was Cathedral Rock. It was only a mile or so long but it went UP. As we made it to the first layer of flat rock, the views were unbelievable. This vantage point allowed us to see most of the amazing red rocks that surround Sedona.

Next up was Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte. The Bell Rock Trail was about 3.4 miles one way and carved in between these monsters. This hike was much more flat and runners and mountain bikers accompanied us along the way.

Bell Rock

Courthouse Butte

We ate lunch on Main Street in Sedona. It was littered with small boutiques, restaurants and breathtaking views. From our rooftop seats at Oaxaca Cantina we could see Snoopy Rock in the distance.

After lunch we decided to tackle Devil's Bridge. With another afternoon thunderstorm approaching, we hurried to the trail head. There were two options to reach the Devil's Bridge, a natural bridge-like formation made of red rock: 

A) Drive off-road down the mountain to shorten the hike, or 

B) Hike the whole way. 

Liking the idea of off-roading a bit, I creeped over the edge with our 4-cylinder RAV4 (yeah... I know) and gave it a shot. Not even 100 yards in I decided that if I wanted to drive out of this canyon, I'd better turn around. 

On to plan B, we took the long hike admiring the burnt orange cliffs off in the distance. In the end, we never made it to the Devil's Bridge. Nature won; the storm moved in and moved us out. While we are excited to continue our trip - the Grand Canyon is tomorrow - I will never forget the landscapes and laughs that I have shared in Sedona with my bride.