Day 14: Grand Junction, Colorado

Many apologies to anyone who was following this blog and was expecting new entries. We have been going at a grueling pace for the last week and frankly writing in my journal and relaxing and watching movies have been the only activities I have been up to upon arrival at our hotels.

We went from Ridgecrest, California and camped in Death Valley National Park on Monday, May 30. The high temperature the day we arrived there was a relatively low 90 degrees though our skin was clearly not ready for this weather as a result of being in Boston weather for the past 9 months. We set up camp at Furnace Creek campground, at elevation -190 feet. We ate dinner once the sun went down and had a feast of hamburgers, hotdogs, and corn on the cob from a charcoal grill. The temperature overnight was a warm 65 degrees and so we were able to sleep in our cozy 4-person tent without having to worry about being cold overnight. The sleep we got was not particularly good, though the camping experience was a primer for things to come.

The next day (May 31) we drove down to Badwater, the lowest point on the western hemisphere and then drove on the extra-terrestrial highway through Rachel, Nevada, a small town that believes in aliens. Our destination for the night was Las Vegas - we booked a cheap room at Vdara, a 5-star hotel near Las Vegas Boulevard. We got pizza at a secret spot on the 3rd floor of the Cosmopolitan Hotel and we were all asleep by 11pm. We were very exhausted after a few days of getting insufficient sleep and needed some recovery time. Tedd came down with some sort of a bacterial infection overnight and had to seek medical attention and get some antibiotics. He would recover in the coming days.

Following this experience, we drove out of Vegas (June 1) and headed towards Zion National Park in Utah. We stopped at Mesquite, Nevada for a rest break and a few of us gambled. I made $2 by placing a $1 bet on the slot machines. Dumb luck I guess. During the remaining drive to Zion, Tedd and I picked up the states of Arizona and Utah and got to see the dramatic landscapes in southern Utah from the sides of the highway. We stopped at the In-N-Out burger in St. George, Utah, our last In-N-Out for a long time. Unfortunately, we got to Zion too late to camp or hike, so we drove through the park and then proceeded towards Cedar City, Utah, a city that resides in between Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express and got a good deal on Hotwire.

The next day (June 2) would prove to be the first day of hiking at Bryce Canyon National Park: we hiked a total of 5.5 miles on a part of the Under the Rim trail and the Peekaboo Loop. The views of hoodoos were absolutely spectacular and we all took some amazing photos of the Bryce Ampitheater and other sections of hoodoos. Although the scenery at Bryce Canyon is spectacular, you really need to hike into it in order to get the full experience. Unfortunately, Tedd was still sick and was unable to take this particular hike. Following Bryce Canyon, we stayed in Fredonia, Arizona at the Grand Canyon Motel, an interesting place that was run by an old couple that had ran the place for 25 years. We gained an hour by going into Arizona because Arizona does not participate in daylight savings time, so the sunrise and sunset is one hour earlier than surrounding states.

After leaving Fredonia (June 3), we headed to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and immediately decided to hike a portion of the Kaibab Trail, the only maintained trail that runs from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon to the South Rim. Though the hike from the North Rim to the South Rim is only 21 miles, the drive is 200 miles because you have to drive around the canyon and there is no bridge that goes across. The trail was fairly empty and this section of the park was not crowded because only 10% of the park's visitors ever make it to the North Rim. The vast majority visit the south rim which is lower in elevation. We hiked 4 miles down the Kaibab trail, enjoying many of the views and making our way down to the Muav Limestone. The way down was very easy, though the way up was a battle and we were very happy to make it out before darkness fell. Although the high at the bottom of the canyon was 93 degrees, the high at the top was a cool 65 and the low was 38 as a result of the 8000+ feet of elevation. We drove out of the Grand Canyon shortly after darkness and drove slowly through over 100 deer that were grazing near the road. None of us had ever seen this many deer and we were very scared about hitting one of them and damaging the vehicle. I got altitude sickness at one point around 8000 feet and we had to stop for a little bit. The group consensus was that the Grand Canyon trail surpassed the Bryce Canyon hike, despite its difficulty. We stopped in Page, Arizona and stayed at a Travelodge.

Yesterday (June 4), we drove towards the Navajo National Monument and saw some interesting things in the visitor's center. We drove Northeast towards Arches National Park and stopped at an interesting series of Native-American shops. We purchased some souvenirs and ate some delicious Blue Fried Bread. We drove towards Blanding, Utah and stopped at the Four Corners Inn, where we got food from a convenience store 10 minutes before it closed. Every restaurant in town but Subway closed by 9pm. The reason why we made little progress today was because of the fact that we finally decided to do laundry at the Travelodge. It took 3 hours as a result of the fact that the drier was terrible and took nearly 2 hours to dry our clothing.

Finally, today (June 5), we drove from Blanding to Arches National Park and got permits to hike in the fiery furnace. We had to watch a 6 minute video from the 80s about not trampling on the live earth and dunes that reside in the park and then got water and drove towards the parking area. We hiked for about 2 miles in and then discovered that we had drank 2/3 of our water and needed to find a way out. We used our compass to figure out the direction and followed washes and rock faces until we reached the road, where we were about 1/4 mile down from where we had started. We drove into Moab and got dinner at a restaurant there and then headed towards Interstate 70 and Colorado. We took Interstate 70 into Colorado and stopped in Grand Junction, CO at the Holiday Inn. Grand Junction has over 50,000 people and had a Dairy Queen that we stopped at to get Blizzards.

Overall, the group is having a lot of fun on the trip. We are at about 2000 miles of driving and our humor and good spirits has not stopped. The different hikes at National Parks have given us the experience of a lifetime. We are enjoying our time in the Four Corners region and I am really looking forward to spending some time in western Colorado which is beautiful.