Arizona & Utah, May 2004

If ever two people needed a vacation, it was Jean and I. It seems like it’s been forever since we were able to truly get away. Sure, we were in Milan about 7 months ago, and in Utah about 6 months ago, but both of those were work related, and I had the additional stress of school responsibilities.

This time, we were really “on vacation.”

We had originally planned on heading up to Vermont or Maine for some local action, although I use the word “planned,” loosely. Anyway, by the time my finals were over and I had the chance to look around, we realized that black fly season was about to hit its peak. Not wanting to spend the week wearing bug nets, we decided to go where we really wanted to go in the first place—the Southwest.

In a mad rush of Internet searching for plane fare, rental car rates, camping reservations and hotels, we booked a 7 day, 6 night trip to such places as Sedona, Arizona, the Grand Canyon (South and North rim), Springdale, Utah (for Zion), all starting and ending in the armpit of America, Las Vegas.

We hit the ground in Las Vegas, got some supplies, and made out way about 220 miles to Williams, AZ. Six hours on a plane, immediately followed by 4 hours in a car—Yee ha!

The next morning we drove down to Sedona and… wow. This was our first time there, and it was awesome. We hiked around looking for the famed “vortexes,” but instead found a swarm of bees. The bees were a little scary to be honest. We were taking a break on a big open rocky area, on our way to some hidden Indian ruins, when Jean spotted some “bugs” popping up from some small trees a short distance away. I tried to assure her that they were gnats. Okay, really big gnats. Maybe they were just flies. Okay, really big flies. Nope, it was a giant cloud of about 1,000 bees. Had they attacked, we would have been screwed. Jean’s knee couldn’t take even a short run, and besides, there wouldn’t really be anywhere to run. Fortunately, the bees harmlessly flew over us and went on to their next stop.

Anyway, we hiked around some more, soaked in the incredible views, and then went off to do the “tourist thing.” Fortunately, I mean, unfortunately, many of the gift shops were closed.

After Sedona, we went back to our deluxe Motel 6 accommodations to prepare for the following big day… Jean and I were FINALLY going to make to the Grand Canyon. We had always shied away from the big GC because we hate crowds, and we didn’t want to have the experience ruined by 856,774 RVs. We were a little confused when we rolled right up to the park entrance that morning and there was no one else around. Serendipitously we had chosen THE best time to visit, between Spring Break and Memorial Day. The ranger said that in a couple of weeks, it would take more than an hour and a half just to get in the park. Once inside, parking and traffic would drive most normal people insane. Thank God for our timing.

We hit our first overlook and BLAMMO, that’s a big f’ing canyon! It’s so big, it doesn’t look real, and photos could never truly depict the vastness. That doesn’t mean that we didn’t take a couple of hundred photos to try. We did a 7-mile rim hike that took us west to Hermit’s Rest, and then we took the shuttle back to the car, had some lunch, and drove to the rest of the overlooks on the eastern side of the South Rim. It was amazing.

The next day we spent a little bit of time in Flagstaff (great little town) and then hoofed it out about 30 miles east to the meteor crater. I’ve always wanted to see this, and I was psyched to finally get to go. The anticlimactic part is that once you enter the park… there it is, a big hole in the ground. It’s impressive to look at, and the museum was interesting, but really, how long can you look at a hole in the ground? Thankfully, Jean indulged my fascination, but then we were soon on our way to a crater of a different type.

Sunset Crater is a volcano that started spewing molten hot magma about 1,000 years ago. It didn’t erupt while we were there, but we got some cool pics of the lava flow areas. To be honest, though, this was another spot that we thought would be better than it was. The main peak is closed to hiking, but another short, but S-T-E-E-P hike (in what seemed like deep black beach sand) offered a view of volcanic ash that look like a parking lot.

On the flip side, we did get to meet some really cool people from Belgium and have a few international laughs with them.

After the two craters we made our way to the Wupatki and Wukoki Indian ruins. Jean is really into Indian culture and history (no, she doesn’t wear a headdress), so this was a great spot for her. It was very interesting and there were also plenty of pictographs and petroglyphs in the area too.

From there, we drove what seemed like an eternity to Page, Arizona. Page has lots to do and see, but for us, it was just a spot to grab some grub (good Italian meal) and set up tent (in a barren, WIND-SWEPT RV-park). We were in late and out early—to get to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, but we’ll have to spend some more time in Page next time.

The drive the North Rim was an experience in microclimates & differing geology. We started in red rock desert and ended in Pinyon Pine Forests with small spots of snow on the ground. Points on the North Rim are about 1,000 ft higher in elevation than the south Rim, and the temp can be about 10-degrees cooler. We didn’t have camp site reservations, but totally lucked out by getting last minute spot about 20 ft from the rim. It was awesome. We hiked along the Transept Trail (which passed right by our tent), and the North Kaibab Trail, and we drove out to Cape Royal and Point Imperial overlooks. We both liked the North Rim a little better. The views seemed better, the crowds were smaller, and it just had a better vibe. The Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim was incredible too. Imagine a huge rustic room with massive windows looking out into the canyon, with beautiful stone decks that also overlook the canyon. Very cool.

Since we were on such a fast trip, it almost felt like we were on a recon mission to figure out what we wanted to do next time we visited. When I’m out of school, Jean and I will be back to hike rim to rim, via North Kaibab trial to Bright Angel Trail. We can’t wait.

After an incredible sunset (right outside our tent), we got some sleep, got up, packed up, and hit the road north to Utah.

In Utah, we visited our favorite spot, Zion National Park. Smaller, but more intimate than the Grand Canyon, Zion is simply breathtaking. We’ve been there at least four times and we never tire of it.

We normally make it a point to hike up to Angel’s Landing, a 5-mile round trip hike with 1,500 ft of ascent. The last half-mile is very cool as you’re clinging to chains bolted into the rock to keep you from falling 1,000 ft. The “trail” is only a few feet wide in most spots and it’s a straight shot down on either side. I love it. We got a little bit of later start this time though, and by the time we got to the spot (Scout Lookout) where that part of the trail begins, a bottleneck was already starting to form. This time, instead, we continued on for a couple of miles on the West Rim Trail. The West Rim Trail was awesome, and that’s another “we’ll be back,” trail because we’ll do the whole 28-mile round trip/backcountry camping hike next time.

We camped right next to the Virgin River that night, and hiked some other trails the next day, including some that lead to more Indian rock art.

After pumping some money into the local economy, we packed up one final time and started the drive back to Vegas.

As always, our time in the Southwest was awesome, and as always, we said, “we’ll be back.”