Jul 31, 2013

We didn't have a long drive to the Grand Canyon from our campsite so we got there pretty early. We checked out the visitor center for information on our hike and then went to catch our shuttle bus to the trailhead. There really isn't a place in around the rim of the Grand Canyon with a bad view. As we started to descend we could see deep into the canyon and over to the north rim.

We hiked down the South Kaibab trail, passing teams of mules and slow-moving tourists in flip-flops and Converse. I wouldn't want to climb back up this trail in those. It was a steep descent, at times rocky, and very popular. There were NPS workers clearing loose boulders from a section of the trail so we had to chill and watch them slowly lower them down with ropes so no one got squashed. We got down to Cedar Ridge and walked out to the edge.

The trail was pretty great the whole way. It was well-maintained and easy to follow. There really wasn't any way to get off the trail anyway. The view from Cedar Ridge was gorgeous and sweeping. We stopped here for a snack before we turned around.

The hardest part about taking photos here is decided which direction to point the camera. There is a panoramic view of beauty and no photo could really capture it.

I attempted to shoot interesting photos for a while, and then I gave in and sat there taking in the view and enjoying the sun. The hike back up was not as bad as I thought it might be, but it was certainly steep. We took it at an easy pace, but I find it easier to take some steep sections quickly to get them over with.

We had a nice long drive out of the Grand Canyon area up to Utah. We found a place to camp outside of Zion and set up for sleep after a long day out in the sun.

Jul 30, 2013

We didn't sleep very well in the desert heat once the sun came up. It was hot and sweaty, but we had a nice view. We kept the rain guard on just to keep the direct sunlight off of us, but it was keeping the heat in also.

This was our camping spot. You can't see that there was a parking lot five feet in the other direction. When we got up there were people there selling Native American jewelry next to the sign that says you can't sell anything. There were a few people checking out the view. We didn't even care about being camped out in the open at this point.

We took a little detour to the Hoover Dam. We were going to do a tour, but it cost more than we wanted to spend. We parked in the lot and walked up to the overlook bridge. This was a cool view. As huge as it is, it looked strangely smaller than I had imagined. It was also a little strange seeing something so iconic in person.

The bridge crosses the border between Nevada and Arizona so we were straddling the line. After we had looked down enough we headed back to the car

The drive to Phoenix was long, and when we got there Joanna dropped me off at North Mountain Brews so I could sample while she went to the store. I was the only one in there and the samples were free so that was cool with me. I tried all of the beers on tap, including the Soiled Dove Dirty Blonde which I really liked, and the 3 Strings Porter, another really tasty one. They had two guest brews on, The Lips of Faith by New Belgium, which was pretty good, and the Vernal Minthe Stout by Ska Brewing that was amazing. I wish I could have gotten a bottle of that. We went over to Papago Brewing next, where I only tried a flight of four. The ones I really liked were the Coconut Joe Coffee Stout and the Vanilla Mandarin Wheat Ale.

We went to Green for dinner. The menu looked pretty awesome and I ended up getting the Big WAC burger. It was so messy and hard to eat, but it was pretty good. The food was good, but the Tsoynami milkshake was amaaaaaaazing. I got one with butterfinger-like peanut butter pieces in it and I inhaled it as we checked out the vegan t-shirt store in the same plaza. There was some cool stuff, but the best part was talking to the clerk about Kevin Smith movies.

We made it to Fountain Lakes DGC as the sun was getting ready to dip behind the mountains. It plays around a lake with a fountain in the middle and uses the water frequently as a hazard. A disc or two were almost lost. It is a gorgeous park, with well-manicured grass, a nice walkway, and easy to read tee signs.

The fountain shoots off every fifteen minutes or so into a huge spout of water that is probably fifty feet high. The course was fun and sunset was beautiful, but somehow I lost a disc in an open area of the grass toward the end. It was dusk and harder to see, but we looked around for a long time. The only thing I could think was it rolled down the embankment and into the water. There is no other good explanation.

We headed back out of Phoenix toward the Grand Canyon and found ourselves a nice spot off a dirt road in the Kaibab National Forest. It's great knowing that we can camp anywhere in a National Forest for free unless it's marked.

Jul 29, 2013

It was hard getting up from sleep on the nice air mattress, but I could tell the weather was really nice outside. Mary had been up for a while, stepping over us in the living room. I had some cereal for breakfast and we left our stuff there to pick up later so we didn't have to leave it in the car all day.

We took directions from a website to find the Hollywood sign trailhead, but we walked the wrong way at first somehow and got pretty far off before we realized we were off track. We came back and realized the road we were supposed to take was right by the car. I really like this sign though.

After an initially very steep hike up the hill we reached a plateau with a single tree overlooking the city. We hung out there for a minute, taking in the view and writing in the journal that sits under the tree.

The path climbed gently after that, rolling over the spine of the hills. We could see the radio tower that I recognize from so many times I've seen the Hollywood sign in movies and photos. The heat wasn't so overpowering once we got up there and weren't climbing such steep sides anymore.

The city skyline was in view here, but the famous LA smog was obscuring it. I actually like the shot of it like this because it's representative of the culture here.

In other directions there are wide views of the LA basin for miles. We continued along the top of the path for a while before it dropped back down on the other side and ended at the "Hugh Hefner Overlook." That's Hollywood.

We took a short road up along a chain link fence with people scattered around looking at the view. It's amazing that something so out of the way and mundane attracts such a crowd.

 The sign itself was just about exactly as I thought it would be. I knew we couldn't get down to it, but the urge grew in me just by being there. We thought about asking one of the landscapers to let us go down there, but we waited too long. We did some feet shots on the fence and I did the best I could to crop out the unwanted parts. Once Joanna was tired of clinging to metal we headed back up and over the ridge to the car.

We went downtown to a place called Real Food Daily for lunch. We were in sweaty hiking clothes, but we didn't care that everyone else looked pretty nice. Joanna went with the nachos, but I had to try their reuben. It was pretty good, but no Chicago Diner. I was still pretty happy with my meal since I was super hungry. After eating we went back to Mary's to pack up our stuff and headed east toward Las Vegas.

The one place I wanted to go was Tenaya Creek Brewing in North Las Vegas. After searching for vegan pizza and failing miserable several times, ending up walking all the way down Fremont Street through the freaks and performers, then finding the pizza place to only have one slice of expensive vegan pizza, we gave up. I got the really cool flight of beer at Tenaya, which is my favorite part of it. Some of the beers weren't as good as I recall, but the Tandem Double IPA and Old Jackalope Barleywine were both great.

I was checking in on Untappd to all of my beers, prompting one of the guys that work in the brewery to come out and see who was drinking so much. He talked to us for a while, revealing himself as a fellow traveler. After telling him about our trip he offered us a place to stay for the night. We were quick to take him up on the offer, but we later reconsidered and wanted to get out of town instead of staying around drinking until dawn.

 We went back to the strip to get some food at Tropical Smoothie Cafe and then went to take foot photos by Paris and the Bellagio. We got some cool shots. We headed out of town and picked up Route 93 into Arizona. After searching a few places in the National Forest we ended up putting up a tent alongside a rest area parking lot. It was really warm already, but we were so tired we put up the tent on autopilot and passed out.

Jul 4, 2011

We went back into Page in the morning and got our continental breakfast. Mmm waffle and milk. The topping stuff wasn't very good. We went back to Wal*Mart for ice and more things before circling back to the center of town.

I was pretty much out of clean clothes so we went to the laundromat to wash things. There was a parade outside, so I sat facing the other way and read my book while things were in the washer. I had a nice conversation with a guy named John who was part of the local tribe. He was very friendly and we talked about traveling and racism. Good times.

Once clothing finished we tried to get our permits to go hiking but the office was closed. Sad. We almost went without permits until we saw the signs warning us that we could get in big trouble for trespassing on tribal/federal land. Weird. Probably just there to scare people. And we gave in to it. Also, we didn't want to walk 5 miles across desert sand again. We went to Horseshoe Bend instead. It was a quick walk to the overlook and the view was amazing.

Since we couldn't hike we started heading toward our next destination. As we drove north back through Utah, we passed through the famous Monument Valley. We didn't go into the park since we had a nice view from the road outside. There were free range animals crossing the roads all over.

We drove along, passing amazing rock monuments all over the place. There was a turnoff to a dirt road labeled "Valley of the Gods" that made me want to take a detour. We drove down the dirt road stopped at a pull-off to eat lunch. This was the quietest place I have ever been. It was completely silent. No wind, planes, cars or animals. It was eerie but beautiful. I wanted to just sit there. I had a peanut butter and jelly. It was wonderful.

We followed a sign to Canyonlands, which took us on a long back road where we saw hardly any other vehicles. As we neared the park entrance, the sun was setting behind these guys. We stopped to shoot some photos. It was a great spot.

We drove in and found a campsite and put the stuff up. It was pitch black out there. I sat outside and read for a while by flashlight until that got annoying. And I kept hearing things rustling in the bushes. Probably just little squirrels or lizards, but it's creepy in the dark.

Jul 3, 2011

The morning was breakfast and a shower I'd been wanting for some time. The shower broke while I was in there and the nozzle came off and shot high pressure water on me. It still felt nice to wash myself.

I like this sign. We took our leave of Bryce, heading out through the small towns on the main road. We followed directions to the trailhead for a short hike to a slot canyon.

We weren't sure if we were at the right place first, but we soon found a landmark that confirmed we were there. The trail follows a dry stream bed to a long sandy wash into the canyon.

We arrived at the canyon, where the tall walls rise up along a narrow opening that we walked through Red Hollow.

We climbed through and over several obstacles into the slot canyon. It was beautiful in there though it didn't go very far in.

We spent a lot of time climbing things back and forth and trying to climb other things with less success. It was a lot of fun in there. We finally decided to leave and head to the next one.

We spent a good amount of time trying to navigate the confusing directions to where this hike was supposed to start; basically in someone's driveway. We started in the wrong place once and eventually realized it and got to the right place. Immediately we had to cross a narrow, shallow part of the Virgin River to get on the trail.

The trail wove through someone's property (he was fine with us taking the trail) and past several rundown barns and old vehicles. It headed up a mild grade to a plateau that soon dropped very steeply into the valley and an expansive wash of soft sand that last for at least a mile. In that sand, a mile seems like five. We walked slowly through the soft stuff, wondering if this was really worth it.

As we came upon the entrance to Red Cave and walked in to see this, our question was quickly answered. The sight was unreal and the temperature difference was astounding. It was refreshingly cool inside and we were in awe of the natural formation.

The canyon wound a long stretch, with frequent obstacles we needed to get over. Several made us question if we should try to keep going, but we didn't want to miss any of this amazing place. And we really like climbing over things. We started using the stemming technique to shuffle up the walls and over rocks.

The views kept changing, continuing to be breathtaking around each turn. The canyon must have gone on for a mile at least. We came to some open areas and continued on until we got to what seemed like the end. At that point we headed back.

Climbing down was more difficult, of course. It gave us extra challenges to figure out. We discovered that we were pretty good at stemming up and down so that was nice to know. Once I was more confident in my abilities, I was able to navigate the obstacles much easier.

The walk back in the soft sand was not as bad as the walk there. Maybe it was the excitement from the slot canyon. Whatever it was, our pace was accelerated by the looming storm clouds that threatened us with thunder as they blew in over our heads. We got back to the car just as it started to rain. Good timing. We stopped at a gas station, where I grabbed some hard boiled eggs for lunch and then ate my honeydew at the pump.

The storm cleared quickly and we headed south to Arizona. We got to Page to look for more canyons and stopped at a Wal*Mart for some supplies and an oil change. We found that we needed permits from the tribe because Page is on a reservation. After a Subway sandwich and some research, we headed to our camp for the evening.

On our way, there was an overlook where we stopped to take photos at sunset. The view was pretty nice and the wind was whipping ridiculously. After I got some shots I retreated to the car.

We went down to the Lone Rock area at Wahweap National Recreation Area to set up the tent. Not many tent campers there, but there were tons of RVs along the water. It was like a NASCAR race. The wind hadn't died down at all and there were tons of sharp, annoying little tumbleweeds in the dirt that made walking difficult, let alone setting up a tent. We had to stake it down and hope for the best.

It was still early so we sat in the car and had some food listening to Stuff You Should Know. I wanted to drink my beer that I got at Bryce so I played the SYSK drinking game just to test it out. It works well. And the beers I got were really good. Organic IPA wins.

It was hard getting to sleep at first with the wind, but it died down eventually. Then there were people riding four wheelers around, so there was no winning.