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Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Tour of the Southwest

Or as I like to call it, dirt roads and desolate freeways. But, the trip was always worth the drive, especially coinciding with Dagny's narration for the 15 hours of cumulative driving.

The trip was awesome. We left OC about 2 p.m. on Friday and arrived in the Grand Canyon at 10 p.m. Our cells were not getting any service and my map decided to update itself going in an opposite direction, but thankfully we made it. The town shuts down at 10 p.m. so we had McDonalds for dinner-not ideal but no other options.

The first day of the trip we did an easy trail with about 150 French people. Not sure if they all traveled together but they loved the squirrels and feeding them as well. Those little buggers were like cats coming up to people. Lunch was awesome-El Tovar Hotel in the park, though we were dusty and in hiking gear, the servers wore bow ties and served $10 sandwiches. I felt very under-dressed and inappropriate, but we were not the only ones there in that manner.

That night, we started our dinner at around 5 p.m. at a cantina, watching futbol and enjoying margaritas, cerveza, and sangria. Truly, beyond the Indian festival there was not much going on if you aren't on a hike in the canyon. So we sat at that bar for about 3 hours...and were the only ones doing so.

Day two we had aspirations of getting up to see the sunrise but that was unsuccessful. We embarked on the epic hike of Bright Angel Trail and some of us barely made it out alive. After a mediocre lunch at a lodge in the park, we were off to Vegas...

Pit stop in Needles.

Filling up the trusty Honda.

I suppose Needles isn't high on the priority list for new branding.

First views...pictures never do it justice.




Rim Trail=easy. Bright Angel Trail=omg I was dying on the way up.



Love the illustrative signs.




I give you, the Grand Canyon.

As Scott would say, cheaters. I would say smart.

Panoramic shot

Elk crossing leaving the park. I was too slow to capture when it was right in front. Crazy. Also please excuse the bug cemetery also knows as my windshield.

1 comment:

Twinkle Toes said...

fun trip! i love all the warnings of possible death.