Day 10

Dan here…

We got up this morning earlier than we have been lately. It was time to head to one of our most anticipated stops. We were headed east before turning north to make it to the entrance to Bryce Canyon. We had heard some wonderful things about the park and were very excited to visit it. It did not disappoint. As we drove into the park, there were many places to stop as you drove. The first view was the Sunrise Point, which offered some beautiful scenery of the canyons.

We stayed there and looked around for quite a while. We were allowed to hike down a ways into the canyon and we walked down a hundred feet or so to give us a different perspective. After we were done, we hopped in the car and drove up to the next point called Sunset Point. Here we spent a lot of time. We got out and looked around and decided it was time for another hike. After our very difficult hike the day before… we couldn’t imagine it being any worse. The hike was the Navajo Loop. It was very much worth it. We pretty much started hiking straight down into the canyons and ended up in an area about 10 feet wide with shear cliffs, a couple hundred feet high on each side. The rocks are an orange color and the sun was shining at this point. The lighting was beautiful.

The second half of the hike was pretty challenging and was straight back up the cliff. The drop offs on our side were pretty much straight down and no guard rail. It just added to the openness and scale of the area. It was quite a beautiful place. Kari and I highly recommend Bryce Canyon. When we come back though, we are going horseback riding through the canyon. We didn’t have time on this trip, but it looks like the best way to experience the park. Next time…

We got back to the car and continued on into the park, stopping by all the viewpoints. We almost got caught by rain. We walked away a couple hundred feet from the car at one point, and we could see the trees in the distance disappearing into a gray cloud. It was only a few seconds later that… drip… drip… We took off running and within about 30 seconds, it was a down poor. The storms sneak up so quickly there. As we continued into the park, we pretty much rode the edge of the storm and didn’t get wet for the rest of the day. Lucky us. It was time to go and we needed to head south into Arizona, where we were going to take the H-89A to the Vermillion Cliffs.

As we drove south, we passed through Kanab, AZ and headed south to the cliffs. We’d seen pictures of these cliffs on the internet and they looked like rolling waves of water. They were supposed to be really smooth and multi shades of reds and yellows. We were really looking forward to it. As we approached the Vermillion Cliffs, they got bigger and bigger. They cliffs are HUGE. Some of the biggest we saw in our entire trip. They were also a very deep red. They’re even redder than Sedona’s cliffs. If someone was ever going to make a movie about Mars, I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t film it here. It reminded me of the surface of Mars in the movie Total Recall. Kari and I didn’t see the rolling cliffs we were looking for though, so we pulled into the only gas station we’d seen for hours. There was an Indian man behind the counter that was incredibly friendly and talked to us for a while. He explained to us that the cliffs we wanted to see are called The Wave. It was a 6 hour hike into the canyons to see them. Damn! We hadn’t done our full research on this, so we had to save The Wave for another trip. We are adamant to see it though, so Kari and I will definitely be back here soon. During our conversation with the man, we told him that we were headed to Page, AZ near Lake Powell and wanted to visit Antelope Canyon. We are lucky we did this, because he told us that Antelope Canyon was closed because of flooding. This was one of the main reasons we were going to Page. After hearing this, we altered our route and headed straight south at the nearby junction to Flagstaff. It was time to call it a night.

A few hours later, we arrived in Flagstaff, and decided to grab a bite to eat before heading to our hotel. We went to a local brewery and restaurant. It was full of people… probably because the weather was around 75 degrees outside. It was a nice evening. We then headed to our hotel and checked into the Courtyard Marriott. When we walked into our room, it sounded like there was a party outside. We called the front desk and they said they’d check it out. Apparently, there was a large concert going on down the road for the college students starting up their semester. The front desk manager apologized and decided to upgrade us to a sweet on the other side of the hotel. It was more room than we needed, but nobody turns down an upgrade, right. Besides, it was quit. It was getting late and we called it an evening. We needed rest, because tomorrow, Kari was going to get to see the Grand Canyon and I couldn’t wait. Goodnight!

Day 9

Dan here…

Kari and I awoke this morning in the Holiday Inn in Grand Junction Colorado. The hotel was fabulous. It was the best to date on our trip. We both got a good night’s sleep. We grabbed a quick bite for breakfast and off we went. Shortly after leaving Grand Junction, we passed into Utah. We were headed west towards Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. It was really interesting to see the terrain change so dramatically over a short distance. Mountains became canyons. Once we arrived at the entrance to Canyonlands, we stopped at a small information display to get any info we’d missed on the internet. We wanted to make sure that we were as informed as possible. Canyonlands in considered the most remote place in the United States. If you get out to hike and forget where the car is, you can easily walk for a week and not see a road or a person, so it’s really important that you know where you are going.

After gathering all the info, we headed down the road towards Canyonlands. We stopped at many beautiful lookout points along the way. The first two large rock towers we saw are named the Merrimac and the Monitor. They are named after the iron clad ships in which they resemble.

The shear scale of the whole area was amazing. You’d need to spend weeks in this area to really get a feel for its size. Driving is fun, but you’d want to get out and do hikes to really appreciate the park. We stopped into another small park called the Dead Horse Canyon. It was fantastic and offered us the largest scale view thus far of anything in the park. We were able to walk right up the edge of a shear drop of about 2000 ft. It was pretty fantastic. You could see for miles and miles.

After we finished up at Dead Horse Canyon, we decided not to actually enter Canyonlands National Park. It would have taken too long and we still wanted to visit Arches National Park before driving across the entire state to Cedar City, where we were going to stay the night. We plan on visiting this area again and will have to make a bigger trip out of just Canyonlands. So… we headed out of the Dead Horse Canyon towards Arches National Park.

Arches National Park was very cool. We both really enjoyed driving around it. There was plenty to see and lots of opportunities to get out and hike. We took advantage a few times. The first was to walk to the North and South windows. These were massive arches carved into the rock by forms of erosion of a very long time. They were spectacular to see. About 60 ft high in the archway.

Next we decided to get out and hike to the most notable and photographed archway in the park. It is called the Delicate Arch. When we pulled up to the parking lot to start the hike, we both put on sun tan lotion and Kari grabbed a bottle of water. The whole hike was only 3 miles and we didn’t think it was going to be that hard. Wow… big mistake. About 80 percent of the hike was uphill going to the arch. Then to add to the pain, the temperature was around 95 degrees. THEN to make things even worse, we were hiking on rock a lot of the time, which just adds to the temperature… and there was almost no shade the entire trip. By the time we reached the archway, we just wanted to jump in a swimming pool of cool water. We were dying of heat. I was just hoping that the 15 lotion I put on would hold up over this amount of time and exposure to sun. But, the actual archway was amazing. It was the biggest of all the archways we saw that day and by far the most interesting looking. It made it that much sweeter that we had to work that hard just to get to see it. After spending about 20-30 minutes at the arch, Kari and I headed back down. We found the trip to be MUCH easier on the way back down and did it in 2/3 the time it took us to ascend. When we got back to the car, you’d think we just won the lotto because we got to turn air conditioning on. The sun took its toll on us that day. I can’t imagine getting lost in one of these parks. You’d never be able to beat the heat. So… air conditioning on full blast, we headed west towards Cedar City.

We passed a turn off that we’d like to visit when we make our way out here again. We were told about it by a couple we met at Devil’s Tower a few days before. It is called Goblin Valley. Apparently, it is pretty cool to see. It is at the top of our list when we return. The road leading into Goblin Valley isn’t paved though, which means it time to rent a car. Don’t want to put anymore strain on the Nissan.

The drive to Cedar City was interesting. We gained a ton of elevation at times and then would descend for miles at a time. It seemed like a very large scale rollercoaster. The views were spectacular though. The sun went down and we pulled into Cedar City about 11pm. It was a long day and we were beat. That is why you are not getting the blog till a few days later. Its late, and time to crash. Goodnight.

Day 8

Day 8

Dan here…

Kari and I woke up this morning from our hotel in Colorado Springs and had to make the journey up to Denver. We had a few stops to make first in Colorado Springs. We couldn’t help be a bit anxious this morning because we were “supposed” to get the car back today. Fingers were crossed.

Our first stop of the day was The Garden of the Gods, at the base of Pike’s Peak. It consisted of a scenic drive through a relatively small park that had very cool rock formations. The rocks reminded me of Sedona because they were incredibly red. The formations started out small, but as the drive continued, the formations became huge. As in, 10 story building, huge. We got out of the car multiple times to take in the view and grab some photos. We didn’t have a lot of time in the morning though, so we didn’t hike.

After leaving The Garden of the Gods, we continued on the interstate towards Denver. We had one more stop to make in Colorado Springs before leaving. I couldn’t visit Colorado Springs without stopping into the Air Force Academy. We could see the stadium with “Air Force” written in the stands from the interstate. I started to get excited. We got off the exit and proceeded to the gate of the Academy. A very nice soldier met us at the gate to check IDs and inspected the car, before telling us to have a good time. We drove around the facility and passed the practice fields for their athletics. They were pristine.

We pulled into the visitor center and got out to take a look around. For me, this was an awesome feeling. The Air Force was always the coolest branch of the military growing up thanks to Tom Cruise and Anthony Edwards. Top Gun was… IS one of the greatest movies EVER! I guess that flying planes always seemed so cool as a kid. Then, after moving to San Francisco for graduate school and watching the planes fly over head during fleet week, it just seemed that much cooler. The Academy was a great visit. Kari and I bought a tshirt from their gift shop and I couldn’t help but grab a beer glass that said Air Force Academy on the side. We continued to drive around the campus and passed the stadium up close. As we left the campus, we passed a B52 bomber that was mounted on the side of the road. It was huge and brought back memories of the toys when I was a kid.

Next we headed north to Denver. We decided to stop in a couple concentrated shopping areas. First was the Cherry Creek Shopping Center. It was essentially a mall, but it had some really nice stores in it. Kari and I both got a new pair of Puma shoes and because of a free promotion that day, also got a free Puma backpack. Winning!

After grabbing some delicious Asian food for lunch we walked into Hugo Boss. I picked up a really nice sweater and turned to ask Kari what she thought. She really liked it. Then she pulled the tag out of the sweater, saw the price, and then rolled her eyes and said “let’s go”. I don’t think I can take her shopping with me anymore if I plan on buying Hugo Boss.

Next, we left the mall and headed downtown to the 16^th St. promenade. It was about 12 blocks of road that are blocked from cars. Lots of bars, shops, and restaurants. I was able to buy a few pieces of camera equipment I needed and we both stopped to get a cold drink at Starbucks. I think it was in the high 90s. At least it wasn’t humid though.

Now came the time that we dreaded. We had to go find out whether the car was ready to go. We headed to the Nissan dealership and talked to the mechanic. He assured us that everything was a good to go and they had already test driven the car since the new transmission was installed. Kari and I had a moment of silence. We both just needed to let out a little tension from the past few days. There’s nothing like car trouble to ruin any day, let alone 2000 miles from home. We gave each other a huge smile and felt like we could finally continue the trip. So we returned the rental SUV and moved luggage into the Nissan and off we went.

We headed west along I-70 through the Rocky Mountains… destination Grand Junction, CO. We only had a few hours of light left during this trip and unfortunately it rained about half the time. But, luckily the I-70 is a huge interstate and it never felt like a treacherous drive. Kari was at the helm while I tried to keep up with this blog. Blogging is time consuming. We passed through Vail, CO before it got dark and we were both really impressed. It looked like a great town in the summer, let alone the winter. We both commented that we’d like to come back to ski one day. Anybody want to join us?!? We talked to a few people one the phone while we drove. We’d like to give a shout out to Bob and Barb as well as Gayle and Frank. We loved the conversation and really appreciate all the suggestions. We passed through Glen Canyon with just enough light left to know we were missing something pretty spectacular. But, with the car getting to us so late, we had no choice. We’ll see Glen Canyon in the light, next time. We stopped in Glenwood Springs, CO to grab a quick bite to eat. Actually, this looked like a really cool town as well. It was very quaint and had that resort feeling as well. It was a decent size place with plenty of options to eat. We got out and walked around for 15 minutes to stretch our legs. We saw a swimming pool attached to a hotel that was HUGE. It was the biggest hotel pool I have ever seen.

Back in the car and heading west. We eventually came out of the mountains and into Grand Junction. We stopped into a store to grab a bottle of wine and headed to the hotel. We stayed in a Holiday Inn, and it was by far the best hotel we’ve stayed in on the trip. It was twice as much room as we needed. It felt nice to crash though. We had to go to bed at a decent time, because we had a long day at Canyonlands National Park and Arches National Park in the morning. Heading to bed. Goodnight!

Day 7

Dan here…

DISASTER!!! We were awoken this morning by a phone call from the Nissan dealership. The shop supervisor told me that rather than replace a part to the transmission of the Altima, they were going to have to install a brand new transmission all together. The parts weren’t in house and would have to be shipped from Dallas on a truck overnight. So instead of getting the car back that evening, they were going to need to hold onto it until late the next evening at the earliest. This put a major damper on our schedule, considering we were supposed to be leaving for Utah the next morning. We were sick to our stomachs. So, the next 2 hours consisted of Kari and I canceling hotel reservations and making a complete new schedule for the next few days of our trip. It was a stressful morning to say the least. Luckily for us, we figured out how to make it work and only be a half day behind. So… we showered and headed off south to Colorado Springs. We didn’t have much planned for the day in Colorado Springs, so leaving around lunch time didn’t affect our schedule.

As we made our way out of Boulder, we finally got to see the Denver skyline. We’d missed it the night before, because we arrived in the area so late. It was a pretty cool city. The interstate that takes you south of Denver, hugs the city and allowed us to get a great view. We were excited to get to come back the next day to spend some time downtown. We passed right by the Denver Broncos football stadium. It looked like a pretty cool place to see a game.

After arriving in Colorado Springs an hour and half later, we headed to the base of Pike’s Peak. We’d purchased tickets that morning to ride the Cog Railway up to the summit of Pike’s Peak. We were both wearing short sleeves and shorts when we walked down to the train platform. It was 90 degrees outside. At the last second, Kari decided to head back up to the car and change into pants. In retrospect, I should have done the same. My bone head thought I would just man up and deal with the temperature drop as we reached the summit. Bad idea! We boarded the train and it began its slow accent to the top of Pike’s Peak. We had a young college student as a tour guide. She started out trying to be clever and made the tourists laugh, but then she became Cruella de Vil about halfway up the mountain. You aren’t allowed to step into the isle of the train. This was a major no-no. But as she’d point out something beautiful on one side of the train, everyone on the other side would want to step over to see. When this happened… everyone on the train became a 2^nd grader and had to listen to their teacher scold them by threatening to kick them off the train and force them to hike down. I kid you not, this isn’t an exaggeration.. she was dead serious. A couple of times, the trip became uncomfortable when she would yell at the tourists. I was seriously scared of this little blonde college student. Eventually, we did reach the summit. It was over 14,000 ft tall and gave us incredible views of Colorado Springs below. When Kari and I got off the train, it took us about 10 minutes to get used to the elevation. It was very windy and the chill factor was at 36 degrees. My legs were very cold… luckily I brought my hooded sweatshirt. We stayed at the summit for about 30 minutes. There is a gift shop and restaurant at the top, so we got a souvenir and grabbed a doughnut and headed back down the mountain. I am not sure the experience was worth the $34 per person ride, but it was an experience non the less. They can’t all be good, right? If we learned anything about Pike’s Peak in the total 3 ½ hr train ride up the mountain, it was… don’t step in the isle!!!

After getting down from the mountain, Kari and I drove to our hotel, which was a Fairfield Inn. It was a comfortable stay. We checked in and then headed out to dinner and a movie. After the past few days of stress because of the car, we needed a date night to calm us down. We had Italian food and saw the movie Crazy, Stupid, Love which was very entertaining. I’d recommend seeing it if you get the chance. After the movie, we went back to the hotel and crashed. We were very nervous to find out what was going to happen with the car situation. Would we get it back on time, would they find something else wrong with it, would the truck with the car parts make it from Dallas on time… if you want to find out, tune it tomorrow. Same website, same authors, same crazy trip across this beautiful country. Good night!