Wild Wild West - Week 2

... So, Where were we? oh, yes, by the second part of our trip visiting the south west area of the US. By that time, we realized that the chances for the reopening of the government before our flight back home were low. Of course we didn't lose hope completely, so when we were driving in the car, we would always search for NPR (although in the middle of the desert sometimes it was very hard to even find one station), and every hour we would listen and wait for the good news. And despite not getting the news we were waiting for, I can say that since then, we've become addicted to the station :) So this is the itinerary we followed in the second week. You will see that it was not somehow unorganized (catch the irony:)), where we drove one of the roads back and forth like 5 times, as a result of the uncertainty with the reopening of the national parks making us change our minds on the go... But after all, we can say we did the very best out of an unlucky situation, and the trip was, besides long driving, very optimized.

First Station: Mexican Hat and the Monument Valley

One of the days with much driving but also astonishing views was driving from the Escalante Region,  in Utah, to Page, Arizona. The Road 24 is a scenic drive that took us through the Capitol Reef where we could see some more nice petrogryphos. After approximately 2 hours of driving a sudden change in our surroundings took place: we where descending to the Valley of the Gods. This vast desert has numerous beautiful rock formations, some of which don't really seem to follow the laws of gravity, like the one you can see in the picture below, called the Mexican Hat. To me, it really looks like a Mexican Mariachi from the back :)

Driving to the Monument Valley, in Arizona, we cross the Colorado River for the first time, it will not be the last one, though. As we drive though the Valley, we feel  surrounded by these huge so called buttes, these big rock formations with vertical walls and remarkably tall. The most famous panorama is the one shown below, there is millions of pictures in Internet, as a sign of how unbelievable this form of natural art is.

As a proof that we were there, here's a photo of us in the middle of the rocks (they seem small compared to us, but we were far far away :))

Second Station: Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend

We didn't have enough of slots canyons in Utah, so we visited another one in this region. This one was much more prepared for walking in the slots, it even had stairs in it! Despite not being so challenging physically speaking, it was also fascinating, how the morning sunlight colors the walls in intense red and orange tones.

It was hard to get rid of the people for the photos, but with patience, we could take the chance for photos alone... 

In the evening we visited the Horseshoe Bend. It is a one of the most spectacular views of the Colorado River, which makes a wide sweep around a sandstone escarpment, almost a whole circle around it. The views from above are breathtaking. 

We spent there around 2 hours until the sun came down. By that time, Andres had done around 150 photos of the Bend. Lucky for you, we just show you what we consider the best picture :)

The dusk left spectacular cloud colors in the sky. 

Third Station: Santa Fe

The next day, given the circumstance that the government didn't hear our prays yet, we decided to change our route and visit Santa Fe, in New Mexico. Otherwise, it would have been too much time to spend in Arizona. It was a prompt decision and absolutely worth it!

Santa Fe is a small town near Albuquerque, and is one of the oldest cities in the US, with a lot of history inside, melting Hispanic, Anglo and Native American cultures in its architecture, the food they offer, and the art visible along the streets. 

Santa Fe has a distinctive architectural style all its own. The traditional style of the houses is characterized by earth-colored walls made of adobe bricks, which consist of a mixture of sun-dried earth and straw.  They don't have a roof, proof of the many sunny days they get thought the year. Many of them hang big bunches of chiles to dry them with the sun. 

One of the most important things that Santa Fe offers to the public are the many art galleries. There are around 300 galleries along the streets, and you can find everything from painting and photography to pottery, sculpture, textiles and jewelry. In the picture below you see a lovely outdoor sculpture gallery with beautiful wind sculptures.

Fourth Station: Zion National Park

After two nights in Santa Fe we were heading to Sedona, where we planned to stay two nights, until our last night in Vegas. However, on our way there, we heard in the radio that Utah would open their National Parks despite the Government Shutdown. This changed everything! Despite having to drive for more than 12 hours, we decided to change route to visit Zion National Park. And it was worth it!

We did a hike called "Angels Landing", a route that climbs up to one of the high walls that form the Zion Canyon. As you can see in the picture, the way high is a nice walk that takes like an hour. However, the last part is really steep and strenuous. There are chains to help you climb up, but it is very difficult anyways, not to mention how scary it is to see the cliffs at both sides of the path, like as can see in the left picture.

But the views of the canyon once you're up make you forget everything else

Fifth Station: Grand Canyon National Park

On our way back to Utah, we heard that Arizona has followed the lead that Utah started, and had opened the Grand Canyon! This exiting news defined our itinerary, changing all our plans again :) We headed back to Arizona, crossing the Colorado River for the third time, and arrived to the park at night. We couldn't see the canyon yet, we had to wait until the next morning.

Our journey in the Grand Canyon started around 6,30 AM. We had decided to attempt the climb down and up in the day; despite the big effort needed, we wanted to get our feet into the river!!! That means to go down more than 1 km, which of course has to be walked back up... Our way down was the South Kaibab, it is really steep and strenuous to come up, but the views are much more direct to the river.

As we were hiking down, the sun was rising up, giving us the fabulous views of the light reflecting on the canyon walls.

Soon we got to see the river, as we neared to the steep cliffs.

And at 9 in the morning, we got down to our goal! We got our feet in the Colorado waters, it was such a nice feeling, if only we could have stayed there longer...

But we had to come back up again. We decided to take the Bright Angel Trail to come up, it takes longer than the way down and it soon move away from the canyon, but it is not so steep and therefore more bearable. It is important to say that it is not encouraged to do the way down and back up in one day, there are several signs to advise against attempting to do it in one day, and there are campgrounds in the way in order to split the journey in several days. But we just didn't have the time, and besides, it was kind of our challenge of the trip! Also, on our way we saw people doing the same thing, some even run down and back up, there's crazy people everywhere, no question about that!!

We managed to come up to the village around 2,30h, we were very, very tired, and just wanted to go to bed and never come out again. In fact, after having lunch, that is exactly what we did, we went to bed and spend around 15h in there before coming out. Everything was sore and tired! But the feeling of having accomplished such a dream was enough to forget the hardness of the way.

The day after we went back to square 1, Las Vegas. It was a very slow day, just walking around visiting the city. On the afternoon we went to see the Cirque du Soleil and enjoyed it very much. But I must say, compared to the rest of the trip, this was just a city, and of course it has a lot to offer, it is not as astonishing as the beautiful nature we were just leaving. 

That is why I'd like to finish this entry with a view of the canyon while hiking up. This last station was not only unexpected (due to the shutdown) but also far more satisfying than expected. It was the perfect end to a perfect trip. We realized, we will always visit other beautiful places, but this kind of natural scenery is only here. The slots, the vast valleys, canyons, buttes, the sandstone being eroded by wind and water. Really something we will never forget. 

Thanks for reading,

Lita & Andres

Wild Wild West - Week 1

Hello again! We are back from our vacation, sorry we left the blog a little aside, but here we are ready to update you from our beautiful trip!

Probably you read in our previous post how unsure we were about the government shutting down. We were flying on a Tuesday afternoon, and we were listening to the radio until Monday midnight in order to know what to expect, well, actually almost convinced that we would have to change our plans. Indeed, at 12 o'clock AM they informed of the shutdown, meaning that all national monuments, museums, parks etc. would be closed until further notice. Of course, it was too late to change anything, so we flew anyways, and started the "alternative route". I'm going to tell you how we did and accompany the description with beautiful photos from Andres, who did the best job o recording the  beauty of the places we visited. The best thing would be to split it in weeks, that way you don't have to read everything all at once, because at the end we did a whole lot of things :)

First station: Snow Canyon, Zion and Coral Pink Sand Dunes

We arrived to Las Vegas at night, and started our re-planning right away. Our first station was supposed to be California, starting in the Death Valley National Park. However, since the parks were going to be closed, we thought the best idea was to start with Utah, since there is also a lot of state parks as an alternative. We visited the Snow Canyon state park, and the next day drove "around" the Zion National park. It was very beautiful to start seeing this kind of sandstone that characterizes the whole region we visited.

The tree leafs starting to go red were also a delight to watch.

Since there is a state road that crosses Zion, they let us drive though the National Park, however we couldn't stop even to make photos. It was a mixture of fascination with the beauty, and disappointment for not being allowed to visit is more in depth.

After that we stayed the night in the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. As its name indicates, awesome sand dunes raise in the middle of a region as if it were the Sahara desert.

This phenomenon takes place because of the type of stone that surrounds the area, which is easily eroded by the wind. This carries the sand up to a more open area, where the sand is deposited and cumulated. The result is odd and beautiful, mostly at dawn and dusk, when the sun reflects on the dunes.

The bad thing there was the wind. It was a cold, windy night, so in a tent we really felt it (by the way, we were the only tent in the campground, the others had RVs, but also felt it going below 0 degC).


Second Station: Kodachrome Basin and Bryce National Park 

After that we visited the Kodachrome Basin State Park. It is a region with "geysers" similar to the ones found in the Yellowstone area, but dried out. The forms of the sandstone spires are incredible, difficult to believe that such monuments raise naturally.

Also there are some amazing caves hidden behind enormous stone pieces.

In the evening we drove a road to the only possible spot to look into Bryce National Park. It was not a lot, but at least we got a nice view (of what we were missing...).

Third station: Escalante River

Moving on, we spent one day walking at the sides of the Escalante river, which follows the path of a wide canyon. The hike was very enjoyable, since we had to cross the river every once in a while as the path would disappear on the side we were. This meant taking off the shoes, at a certain point we gave up and kept walking barefoot. Some highlights on the way are shown in the photos: some Indian petroglyphs somehow hidden to the public, and an amazing arch.

After this hike we drove up to the falls that gave place to the same river, where we could take beautiful views of the whole valley.

Going down, the stone had amazing shapes, as it had been modeled by gigantic fingers.

Below the falls (not much water in October).

 That night we did free camping, and despite some fears to humans and other animals, it was a great experience to wake up to the views of the valley.

Fourth Station: Peek-a-boo and Spooky Canyons

The next day we experienced a new thing, the so called slot canyons, they are basically narrow canyons made by the water rushing though rock. In contrast to bigger canyons (like for instance the grand canyon), it is not very wide, in fact sometimes the walls are so closed to each other that you can't get through with a backpack. 

Peek-a-boo shows difficulty from the beginning, because we had to climb up about 2 meters to get in, and the eroded walls did not make it easy to crawl in. After that, there numerous ins and outs, you have to jump up and down to make the whole length of it.

It is amazing to see the waves that the water did to make it though the rock, sometimes it just goes straight, sometimes it goes up and down, right and left,... And this rock is just so soft that takes these beautiful forms that water leaves behind.

And the end of doing both slots we were as tired as if we had been working out for hours. It goes without saying that the next day I muscles were so sore I could not move my arms or legs :) 

This ends the story of our first week out west. Next week we'll tell more about nice places we visited in Arizona, New Mexico, and... Utah again. We'll keep you busy!

Lots of love

Lita & Andres