Travel and the Hoover Dam

We woke up tired and sore today but also sad to be leaving the Grand Canyon. We packed up the little toaster and were on our way. It’s about a 5 hour ride to Las Vegas so we listened to another audio book. This time it was “ The Soloist”. I had some interesting discussions with Rachael about mental illness and poverty, and homelessness. On the way to Vegas we had to pass by the Hoover Dam, so we took a short detour and took a few pictures. I am really curious about how there is so much land out here that is barren and appears unused. I wonder how it could be reclaimed for economic prosperity. Some cities are so crowded, we could solve that problem if we could make these lands useable. In some areas it looks so different that you might be looking at Mars.
 We finally got to our hotel, El Cortez, at around 6pm. The first thing I noticed was that when we walked into the door, there were the gambling machines…. I mean right inside the door… It seemed every available foot of floor or wall space was taken up by slot machines or gaming tables. It was VERY noisy and all the lights and sound made it a bit overwhelming. Instead of the glitzy people you see gambling on TV and in the movies, I saw regular people, mainly between the ages of 35 and 70. What I mean by ‘regular’ people is that they were not all dressed up in evening gowns and tuxedos like they do in the media. They were dressed in clothing appropriate to a shopping trip to Wal-Mart. Some were even what I would call “poorly” dressed yet there they were throwing their money away. It amazed me how they would sit alone, drinking and smoking and stay at the same machine hour after hour. I know this because we went to dinner and were gone about 3 hours and when we returned some of the people were in the same places where we had left them. They weren’t smiling. They weren’t conversing with anyone. They just kept pushing the buttons and putting coins in the slots. It was a sad picture to me.

We left the hotel to have dinner once we settled our things into the room. The hotel had valet parking so I explained to Rachael how it worked. We headed two streets over to what is called ‘The Freemont Experience”. This is an area about 3 blocks by 3 blocks that is completely lit up similar to Times Square in NY. There are restaurants, live music, bars, even zip lining ! We walked around a bit trying to take it all in. We found a restaurant and sat down. There were even slot machines in the restaurant! The food was mediocre at best which surprised me, and somewhat pricey. Well, we are heading to bed for now… Tomorrow the “strip” awaits us !

Today's Pictures are at : https://plus.google.com/photos/104423898538711271791/albums/5763114483046423425?authkey=CPq59M_fsoiU_wE

Hiking up to the Rim

At 4:30am we were woken up by a knock on the dorm door for 5am breakfast.  I felt so bad because Rachael and I were the only ones in the dorm who had 5am breakfast, the others were not hiking up today so they could sleep late.  Breakfast was another amazing meal.  After filling our bellies and getting our gear together we started up the Bright Angel Trail to the rim.  This trail is longer than the one we took down, (9 miles) but was not as steep.  Another good thing was that this trail had built in rest areas with water and bathrooms.  We started on the trail at 7am and made it to the top at 4:30pm.  On the way we had many small adventures !  We saw a RAM, Deer, Elk, and Squirrels.  The squirrels at the rest areas were so fat because they were fed by the hikers.  They were also very bold and would almost sit on your lap and beg or steal your food !  The squirrels were cute, but not such a big deal because well, who hasn’t seen a squirrel ?  We saw a wild ram come right up to the water faucet for a drink and Rachael yelled at me as I got close to get a picture.  We also met other hikers from all over the country and chatted with them.  There was a group of volunteers from other countries who were at the park helping to repair some of the trail.  This was a service learning project from their universities.  By 2pm I was really feeling tired.  We had to constantly refill our water supply at each rest area because the temperature outside was so high.  To keep cool, we took off our outer hiking shirts, dunked them in water and put them back on to keep our core temperatures down.  We were close to the top of the trail now and that was where a lot of people walk down about ½ a mile to take pictutes and then walk back up.  While we were dragging, smelly, and could barely walk, these people were clean and crisp.  As we walked by them so of them cheered us on because it was obvious that we had hiked from the bottom.  At one point I came up to a spot where the whole passage was crowded with people so that I could not get by.  I thought they were watching a ram or deer, but when I saw that they were blocking the path for a freaking SQUIRREL, I wanted to say “Really ? you are all excited about a squirrel ?  get out of my way !”  Well we finally made it up to the rim, high 5 –ed each other, and went to the cabin for a shower after which we had dinner and collapsed in bed.

Hiking to Phantom Ranch

We started out early this morning because we wanted to get to the bottom with time to explore before dark. We decided to take the South Kaibob trail down because it was shorter, but steeper than the Bright Angel Trail. We thought that it might be cold or rainy as that was what the forecast said yesterday, but we were pleasantly surprised that it was sunny. When I first saw the trailhead I thought that the trail would be easy because it looked more like a series of steep ramps than a hiking trail. Boy was I wrong ! This trail had loose gravel and was sloped so sharply that you had to walk carefully so as not to slide. What was worse is that going down puts all the stress on your ankles and knees… with my flat feet, this made for INTENSE pain by the end of the day. Not only that, but as yet we had had cloudy skies to keep us cool. Today was bright sun and the temperature went up as we descended the canyon. I did manage to take some AWESOME pictures so check out the link at the end of this post! It took us 6.5 hours to get down and to be honest I was hurting pretty bad by the time we made it to the bottom. Rachael seemed fine and full of energy the entire time and kept pushing me to “hurry and get to the bottom”. She was anxious to see the Colorado River. When we finally made it to the bottom of the canyon there was an area of beach called “boat beach” where all the rafting trips depart from. We were so hot and tired we just collapsed on that beach and soaked our feet in the ice cold water ! Lying on that beach was so relaxing that I did not want to get up but I knew we needed to get checked in and I wanted desperately to change my clothes. After lounging for about half an hour, we hiked ½ mile more to Phantom Ranch. We were staying in the dorm/cabins so we checked in and put our stuff away and headed for the Bright Angel Creek which is a tributary of the Colorado River. In the creek we soaked our feet and legs and met other weary travelers. It turns out that what was a “feat” for us was not a big deal to many avid hikers out here. Many hard core hikers go from North to South rim in just a few days. We even met a man who RUNS down and up the canyon in ONE DAY ! Still, I am proud of myself for making it down in one piece ! After relaxing for a couple hours it was dinner time at Phantom Ranch. I must say I was a little wary about what the meals would be like. We had to prepay for them over 2 months in advance and $25 per meal seemed a lot for “Hiker’s Stew”. I was very surprised at the dinner. We had an awesome salad, INCREDIBLE beef stew, corn bread, drinks and dessert ! It really was delicious and I’m not just saying that because we were hungry and tired. What makes it really interesting is that all the supplies have to come in via pack mule. After dinner Rachael and I headed for our dorm. We were able to see the full moon in the canyon at night but the picture didn’t come out too well. As for the canyon itself, I took many, many, pictures but pictures just don’t do it justice. AND, there are no words to really describe how AWESOME, INCREDIBLE, MAGNIFICENT, AMAZING, WONDEROUS, the canyon is… you really do have to see it yourself. BUT, until then you have the pictures I took. When we got to our dorm, we got settled in for the night but chatted with the other 6 woman who shared it with us. Most of them were from the same family and they were taking a family trip together. This was the extended family of mother, adult children and their spouses, and their children. Wow, I wish MY family would get together and do something like this !







Today’s pictures can be found at :https://plus.google.com/photos/104423898538711271791/albums/5763111844626369121?authkey=CPCC07PY84ysSw

Hiking the Hermit’s Rest (Death) Trail to Dripping Springs

We wanted to hike today so that we would be prepared for our hike to the bottom of the canyon, so we asked one of the rangers if the “Hermit’s Rest” hike is a strenuous hike. He said it was a good hike, so we packed our supplies and headed to the trailhead. In the beginning of this trail I was pretty excited because it had steps and rock crawls and it was pretty difficult. We saw some awesome animals and plants and for the first 2 hours or so we were doing well. After that the trail became REALLY steep and difficult. We saw the cut off for Dripping Springs, so we headed that way rather than doing the complete 14 mile trail. We were pretty tired when we reached the “dripping” springs which was a natural spring that literally “drips” continually from a rock cliff. Had it been warm (cloudy and gray today with cool temperatures), we would have gladly taken a “shower” but it was pretty chilly which in retrospect, was a good thing ! We spent about 15 minutes at the spring resting and then headed back up. Wow, this was a VERY, VERY difficult hike up ! I would put the terrain at about the difficulty of the Inca Trail in PERU ! Thank God we only had about 6 miles up ! While I was able to hike this, the rock “steps” were more than half the height of my legs which made this very hard for me, not so much for Rachael. Also we were going from 4,000 ft to 7000 feet at the rim. The altitude definitely played a part. I was able to hike the trail, but not very quickly. Rachael on the other hand kept getting far ahead of me and I had to keep telling her to slow down or wait for me. She was teasing me, but I kept telling her she is 32 years younger than I am ! At one point she was so far ahead that I couldn’t see her. I started climbing what I thought was the trail, but it wasn’t… How did I know? There were all of a sudden no places to put my hands or feet and I found myself on the side of the cliff. I have to say that I was pretty terrified at this point because if I made any quick move I would have found myself falling off the cliff wall. I called to Rachael, who was able to hear me because of the acoustics in the canyon. She came running and as she could see the trail from above, she was able to guide me back on to the trail. I was SO relieved and couldn’t understand how I took the wrong turn. We kept hiking up, I was very tired and sore, and at this point, so was Rachael. We has started at about 9:30am and now it was 4 ! Finally we made it back to the top and took the shuttle to the Lodge. We were so hungry we went to the restaurant in our hiking gear ! No worries, lots of other people were there dressed similarly. After dinner I went to speak to a ranger to plan for tomorrow’s hike to the canyon bottom. I asked which trail we should take down and which trail we should take up and told him that we had just hiked the Hermit’s Rest trail. He told us that the Hermit’s trail was very difficult and not as popular as the other trails. He assured me that if we had done that trail, we were “good to go” for hiking the South Kabob Trail to the bottom of the canyon. We limped to our cabin, took hot baths, and went to sleep !






Today’s pictures at : https://plus.google.com/photos/104423898538711271791/albums/5763105540652445569?authkey=COzXoYy_3tebcA

Grand Canyon at last !

We finally arrived at the Grand Canyon Park at around noon. It is a 25 mile trip from the park entrance to the rim. Our first view of the Canyon was the Desert View, which was not that impressive after seeing the other sites here out west, so I was a bit discouraged but did not let on to Rachael. We found our Hotel, but it was too early to check in so we began a walk around the rim. There is a trail that has rocks on it that shows how old the rocks are here. I touched a rock that was over 170 million years old ! It was CLOUDY and cold and looked like rain ! It wasn’t long before we headed to the hotel and gift shop to get sweat shirts to get warm ! We checked in at about 4pm and I was VERY impressed. We had a little cabin and it was much nicer than I expected for a mere $117 per night! It turns out that the Park Service controls the rates so that they can be affordable for people. There are pictures of our “little cabin” on today’s picture link. What was better is that we are located a 3 minute walk from the rim ! After we unpacked we headed for dinner. There are several restaurants here on the rim, and thankfully, they are all different price ranges. We ate most of our meals at the Bright Angel Restaurant which has meals equivalent to prices at Chili’s or Denny’s. After dinner we went back out to the Rim, but it began to RAIN which is a big deal here. While I am happy for the residents and wild life, did it have to rain when we are here! By the way, no fire works as the whole area is under a fire alert because of the drought. Well, we are heading to bed, hopefully no rain tomorrow !







Today’s photos can be found at: https://plus.google.com/photos/104423898538711271791/albums/5763106782424674225?authkey=CPCD2ZHd-P-XcQ

Four Corners and Travel....

We decided to head over to the Grand Canyon and not go back to Mesa Verde today.  I hope at another time I will be able to go back because there are lots of hiking trails.  We did laundry, got gas, ate breakfast, and headed to the Grand Canyon when.... I realized that it is only July 2nd and we aren't due to the Grand Canyon till July 3rd !  Guess that's what happens when you loose track of the day and date !  We decided to just head towards the Grand Canyon and see what we would run into.  We got about 1.5 hours down the road when we saw the sign for Four Corners Monument.  This is a place where four states come together and you can literally be in four states at once !  Today at around 2pm I was simultaneously in Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico ! 

This is located on a reservation so we were able to buy some Native American souveniers.  Once we were through shopping we got back on the road.  This part of the country is desolate... nothing but desert for miles.  This land is practically useless and it angers me that my ancestors took good land from Native Americans and "gave them" this useless land in return.  It is so unfair.  While I am glad that I am a United States citizen, I am ashamed of some of the things our government has done to other ethnic groups in the past.  What makes it worse is that after over 2 centuries our government still has not made things right with the indigenous people of North America.  We have seen lots of Native Americans out here.  Contrary to popular belief, most DO NOT speak Spanish !  Most Native Americans speak English and a native tongue.  Another thing I noticed is that I have not seen any "black" people.  I wonder why 'African Americans' do not seem to live here in the southwest.

After miles of driving through desert we decided to stop in Tuba City, AZ for the night.  We found a little hotel on the reservation which is clean and inexpensive. 

Thus far I have really enjoyed the time I've spent with Rachael.  Short of a few typical teenager arguments, we are doing fine even though we have been together 24/7.  Rachael makes friends with everyone she meets, asks questions, and spontaneously just hugs me and says "I love you".  This has been such a great experience for us both.  Rachael is so cautious with me, always worried that I'm going to get hurt.  I guess since I fell in 2006 and dislocated my elbow, she is afraid I'm going to fall.
Well, I'm going to head to bed for now.  Tomorrow, the Grand Canyon at last !

Today's pictures can be found at:
https://picasaweb.google.com/104423898538711271791/July22012FourCorners?authkey=Gv1sRgCLK63NjYjNfZHQ

Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

After getting an early start today we headed for Mesa Verde National Park.  The drive to the park is VERY steep and the road just zig sags up the rock face.  The park is located 7000 ft above sea level !  I drove up the mountain slowly but it was so steep there were times I didn't know if the "toaster" would make it ! We knew there was so much to see so we didn't plan on doing a hike today, just viewing the museum and ruins.  We drove up to the park and found that there was a $25 fee (per car) to enter the park.  The cute park ranger was flirting with me (Ranger Tim) and gave us the advice to buy the annual pass for all US national parks as it would pay for itself.  Most of the parks outwest have fees that help preserve the parks.  The larger ones like Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore can be up to $35 per carload.  Just those two parks, plus Mesa Verde paid for the $80 annual pass.  If you like National Parks, I would take Ranger Tim's advice and buy the pass.  There are at present 391 National Parks/Monuments/Historical Sites in the US, and this pass will get you into ALL of them.  (this includes the Statue of Liberty in NYC and other well known monuments)  A list can be found at :National Park Service For now on, I'm heading to any National Parks I can access on long weekends and school breaks !  And this does not include STATE PARKS and monuments which are usually free or have a minimal fee! One thing we have learned on our trip is to always go to the visitors center first and plan our day.  When we entered the visitor's center we saw signs for a special event today- A Hopi Indian dance presentation that was to start in just 15 minutes !  What luck !  We headed to the outside auditorium and found a seat.  Most of the people playing the instruments were adults while the dancers were children of all ages.  The costumes were all ornamental and were made by the children's mothers.  The children did the "Corn Dance" which is a prayer to God for a good harvest.  The hand movements of the girls depicted them grinding the corn while the boy's hand movements showed them planting the seed with "planting sticks".  Before they started, they invited us to join them at the end of the dance and honor them with our participation.  Of course I intended to do so !  Towards the end of the dance they called to us to come down and I looked at Rachael and told her, "you can see lots of people want to go, but no one wants to be the first one".  I waited a minute and saw no one was going so I went to dance at the end of the line.  It was like magic !  As soon as I got there children and adults followed suit !  What an awesome opportunity !  I danced with Hopi Indians ! 

After the presentation we headed to the guided tour of Palace and Balcony Houses.  We had to climb some steep cliffs and ladders but it was worth it to see the excavated ruins.  Even though the trail to the ruins was steep, it was really short, and not a "real" hike.  Even so we brought our camel backs which hold 3 liters of water, by the end of the day we had each consumed 6 liters !  It's really DRY and hot here. How did the Anazai people get water in their mountain face homes?  The homes were located in sandstone which is porous.  Spring thaw and Summer rains soak into the rock and eventually trickle down to "seep springs" that appear at different areas in the rock face.

These people collected this water and built reservoirs to store the water for dry times.  It should also be noted that while this area was still quite dry 1000 years ago, it was much wetter than it is today. 

Next we went to Spruce Tree House ruins.  These ruins are the best preserved and are actually open to where we can walk around the ruins.  We have seen many Kiva's, the spiritual areas for these pueblo people who migrated here from the Chaco Canyon.  Here we saw the first one with the original roof still intact ! -- and the best part?  We got to climb down a wooden ladder that has survived 1000 years and walk around inside the Kiva ! 

 It was a small Kiva, about the size of a small bedroom.  While down there I took a moment to be silent and respect the thousands of years of prayers offered to God here from these people.  This caused me to reflect on my own beliefs... Christianity has it's creation story as written in Genesis in the Bible.  These people believed that the Earth was their Mother and that the Moon  was their Father.  They believed that life came from the earth.  They also honored the Sun and had intricate astronomical awareness of the solstices and incorporated this information into their buildings. This was an Egalitarian Society but it was Matrilineal where family lines and land were passed on through the mother.  In many sects of Christianity, it is taught that "salvation" only comes through belief in Jesus.  What of these people who lived here in Colorado 800 - 1100 AD ?  I choose to believe that throughout the ages of human history people have sought to Worship God as they understood him.  Each culture, including the many cultures and religions today, honor God in their own way based on their culture, technology, and understanding of the world.  In my eyes, there is only one God and the people who prayed in this Kiva prayed to the same God I pray to each day. 

After these ruins we headed to the car to drive over to the Museum.  We found a note on our car that said " Go toaster go, you can do it !" with a smiley face.  We have gotten so many comments about our car and our trip, I'm glad I painted it and wrote what I did on the back ! At the museum we were able to see thousands of artifacts collected at Mesa Verde.  It was amazing how many uses there are for Yuca leaves !  They made fibers out of the leaves and wove them into clothing, mats, shoes, etc.  They discovered how to fire pottery to make it durable.  They figured out how to grow corn, beans, and squash with the little water available to them.  These were not 'savages', but intelligent men and woman who lived a difficult life here in the desert.  They were the ancient relatives of the modern Hopi, Navajo, and Aztec cultures.

We stayed in the museum till it closed, they had to ask us to leave ! LOL and headed back to Cortez, CO where our hotel was located.  On the drive back I let Rachael drive and I must say that I had to hold my tongue several times when I felt she was going to drive us right off the edge !  We chose a place to eat called Nero's Mediterranean Grill.  The food was amazing! I tried a local beer, but was laughing when I found out from Joel via text that New Amsterdam Fat Tire ale is available at Harris Teeter !  We ended the day by watching a couple episodes of Star Trek Enterprise on Netflix... It was a great day!

Today's photos can be seen at : https://plus.google.com/photos/104423898538711271791/albums/5760423711013303617?authkey=CI7Uxb3zsNzBoAE