Reflections On My Great Adventure Out West Part 1.
Mind Blowing. Profound. Unexpected. Beautiful. Difficult. Vast. Exhausting. Invigorating. These are only a few of the words that stick out to me when I think about my recent trip out West.
I left my home in Florida on September 26th. Picked up my friend Allie in Georgia and off we went, visiting various other friends and relatives the rest of the way. In total, we went well over 6000 miles. The trip lasted 23 days. We visited 11 main parks/cities. It was a trip of a lifetime and here’s what we did!
Hot Springs National Park
We stopped at HSNP because it was on the way, honestly. One of my biggest bucket list goals is to visit all 62 National Parks in the US. I have a “Passport” book to collect the stamp from each park as I visit and everything! We didn’t have time to go to the famous bathhouses there, but that was okay with us. It was $20 and we knew that the trip would be expensive, and there was plenty of free stuff to do. The town of Hot Springs is quaint and cute with lots of little shops and restaurants on the main drag. We really enjoyed walking along the Main Promenade and up the little trails on the mountain. We started a trail called the “peak trail” but quickly realized how out of shape we were as it was pretty steep and we were tired from driving all day. It was fun to touch the (VERY) hot water coming out of the spring and to fill up our water jugs with both Hot and Cold water. We later found a driving path to the top of the mountain, and that was a beautiful scenic drive, although I feel like I should put “Mountain” in quotes because it was NOTHING compared to what we were about it see!
That night was our first night camping, and what a night it was! Our KOA campground was beautiful, and I would go back to Hot Springs just to stay there again. We got our fancy-shmancy 6 person tent with an screened in “front porch” put up quickly and that evening had a deluxe meal of Manchuran Instant Lunches and Instant Mashed Potatoes. We were thrilled. And then in rained. It started thunder storming around Midnight and continued until about 5AM. Luckily we stayed moooostly dry in our tent. Ish. Allie had to move because she was getting rain drops in her face at one point and I woke up with half my sleeping bag soaking wet. (Let the wetting the bed jokes commence). We also got a good animal scare sometime in the night. We awoke to the sound of two animals hissing and growling at one another, and it sounded like it was RIGHT next to my head. It sounded like big cats. Who knows! We stayed snug in our tent and all was well.
Overall verdict? I probably wouldn’t take a trip just to go to hot springs, but I would for sure stop there again. We stayed one night, which wasn’t quite enough time, but two should do!
Very hot!!
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| One of the few open springs |
Albuquerque
This was a super short stop to see Allie’s cousin. Allie told me how much she thought we would get along, and boy was she right! We went to Green Jeans Farmery, which is an outdoor food market made out of shipping containers.... and i got the best BBQ Nachos of my life! Meeting her cousin was like reconnecting with an old dear friend. I felt instantly bonded! She made me feel so at home and comfortable. I admire her zest for life, her passion for helping others, and her attitude towards overcoming adversity. The three of us had such a great conversation about life, family, Christianity, love, and of course - our dogs. It’s SO refreshing to meet someone you connect with so easily. Thanks for everything!
Petrified Forest National Park
This was not supposed to be one of our stops. Due to COVID regulations, we couldn’t stay the night in New Mexico, but our next destination was too far away for one day’s drive, so we picked the closest town across the Arizona border - not realizing there was even a national park there! Once we realized, we decided on our way to Sedona that morning, we would stop in and check it out. I literally thought it was an old dead forest. Like a little park with some trees. I WAS SO WRONG.
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| My Jr Ranger Pin |
I was immediately smitten from the visitor’s center. I got a Jr Ranger pin (and I wore it PROUDLY) and they had free doggie treats!! It was the only National Park that had those - from what we saw.
The Petrified Forest and Painted Desert are beautiful. There are parts that look like a mini Grand Canyon and there are mounds of layered stone in beautiful grays and blues and orange. There are centuries old petraglifs that remind you how vast time in our universe it.... There’s even a section of Historic Route 66! And, Yes, there are stumps of petrified wood too.
We drove through the entire park and stopped at different locations along the way. My absolute favorite was the Blue Mesa trail. You start at the top of a small canyon and hike a short but steep trail to the bottom, then it loops around giving you a beautiful view of “New Mexico’s Badlands”. It seriously looks like it could be the moon. Gray and dusty with hints of blue. Amazing think layers clearly defined in the rocks. Not only is it a fun hike itself, but the views were unlike anything I had seen.
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| What even is this beauty?? The moon?? |
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| Look at those colors! |
My other favorite part was the Puerto Pueblo - a small set of ruins from an ancient indigenous tribe. Looking at those petroglyphs.... seeing the remains of of the structures.. It makes a person feel so small and yet a part of something so big. It’s a great ego check - humanity has been around for so long! Are we living better than we were back then? What do we need to do to live more authentically human? As a Christian, in what ways did God make himself known to these people, so far away from the areas where the Bible stories were written. What can we learn from them? Were they happy? Did they know how “unadvanced” they were? Is humanity going to be around in thousands of years to ask the same questions about us? 
Sedona
Our first “real” destination! Here we met up with our good friend Devin for two nights and three days of camping and hiking. Or so we thought. We arrived our our campground “Thousand Trails” and picked a great corner camp spot. And then proceeded to fail miserably at putting up the tent. Did ya’ll know that the desert ground is made up of rocks, not dirt? We sure didn’t think of that. Allie was clutch and came through, hammering in our stakes with a rock.. since we didn’t have a hammer.. oops. After that it was too late for hiking so to downtown we went for pizza and shopping! Downtown Sedona has so many cute little shops. It was expensive, but I regret not buying a really cute tank top I saw... That night in our tent we had another “animal right by the tent” encounter, but we awoke safe and sound and ready for our first big hike - Devil’s Bridge.
If you are in Sedona, Devil’s Bridge is a MUST. This hike was HARD. HARD HARD HARD. It was hot, there was little shade. It’s dusty and rocky (and I have weak ankles but AMAZING hiking boots #merrell). It’s steep, at times needing to scramble and climb rocks (that was the most fun part), and it’s at elevation! All that aside, the view is incredible. The feeling of walking out onto the bridge is exhilarating. The sense of accomplishment from making it to the top, and simply the fun of it all makes it totally worth it.
The climb was a struggle for me though. While I’ve fully recovered from COVID, climbing uphill induced the same sharp chest pains as I had while I was sick and a shortness of breath that was much worse than times I had done similar activities in the past. It was disheartening. I want to be able to be active without pain. It also was scary and forced me to work through some corona-time memories of being ill. Not a fun feeling.
It was a fairly crowded trail and at the top there was a line to walk out to the bridge to take pictures. It was the most encouraging, fun, and nice group of strangers I had been with! It’s a phenomenon that we started dubbing “hiking people.” For once, there was no politics, no COVID, no arguing.. just people encouraging one another to go to the bridge (it really is wider than it looks, but it looks like a sliver from afar), applauding and congratulating people when they face their fears, taking photos for one another, and collective shock and disapproval when people do dangerous stunts on the bridge. Being up at the top is my favorite bit
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Unlike Allie, I discovered the way down from a hike is my least favorite bit. Her philosophy is this “Down is the reward for having gone up!” For me it’s “Down signifies the end of an amazing experience... and it’s harder on my knees.” I have to concentrate so hard not to fall on the way down! And on this hike, once you are down the mountain, that’s not the end of the hike... you have a over a mile to walk down an unshaded path. It was flat, which was nice, but HOT. I had to stop frequently, which angered me. This trip was about hiking and pushing myself and here I was, having to stop every 2 minutes! How was I going to make it through the rest of the trip??? Luckily between my facemask and my sunglasses, I don’t think people could see me cry....
Suffice it to say that Devil’s Bridge was enough hiking for Sedona. Devin is a BEAST and was totally fine, but Allie and I needed a recovery day... or two... so we hung around the tent, drove around town and the sites, and headed off to our next destination!
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| I was so excited at the beginning... |
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| And half dead at the end |
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| Okay, I know this pic is kinda gross... but it was SO HOT that my chapstick melted. And I didn’t realize until i put it on... |
The Grand Canyon
Tourist City!! The Grand Canyon was so crowded! I think that is what is going to stick in my mind clearest about this part of the trip. We arrived at our hotel in mid afternoon and we dropped our stuff in the room and headed to the Canyon. We knew it was going to be a great visit, because just after we entered the park, we saw tons of Elk grazing by the side of the road. It was a good omen! It was Allie's first time there, but Devin and I had been before. We couldn't wait to see her reaction when she saw the canyon! (Which of course was "Wow... just... wow")
The Canyon was a beautiful as ever. We were happy and surprised that, even though there's wasn't a sign about it in sight, most people were wearing masks. Even though it was crowded, we felt super safe from Covid. We walked along the rim a bit and then drove to Yavapai Point for sunset. It was a beautiful spot to watch the sun dissapear beyond the rim.
The next day we arrived early for a good long walk. After driving around for a long while to find a parking place, then having to drive back to a different part of the park to go to the bathroom (my bad...) It was time to walk! We walked from near Yavapai to the Bright Angel Lodge and even part of the way down the Bright Angel Trail. It's a MAJOR bucket list goal of mine to hike that trail, camp at the bottom, and hike back up. I was so glad to get to do even a bit of it. I. Will. Go. Back!
It was interesting to me the difference in behavior and friendliness from Devil's Bridge to the Grand Canyon. Along the rim, people were tourists. They wanted their pictures and to see all the sights, and tended to not care who else was around or if they got in someone’s way. On Devil's Bridge, they were there because they were hikers and wanted to experience the beauty of nature. They were helpful and wanted other to have the same good experience. We found the hikers much more pleasant to be around.
There's just something about the depth of the Grand Canyon that makes one contemplate mortality I think. The number of conversations we overheard about people falling or jumping into the canyon was crazy! (PS. every time I type "Grand Canyon" I have to really concentrate to not write "Grand Cayman".... throwback to ship days!)
It also really made me think. I’ve posted before about the struggles I’ve had over the past months, and I don’t need to rehash it, but being there, looking at basically this gigantic hole in the ground.... it somehow brought up the “holes” I was still feeling in my life and heart. I realized that I’ve been working SO HARD to patch up my “holes” because I thought I needed to in order to be worthwhile, but here I was, at the biggest hole the United States of America has to offer, and instead of people trying to fix it, ignore it, run from it, people flock to it. People travel from all over the world to see it. It’s one of the most beautiful places in the country. And it’s broken. How sad would it be if the Grand Canyon didn’t exist? I remembered broken can be just as beautiful, and not everything has to be patched! There’s my trip wisdom for the day!
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| The beginning of the Bright Angel Trail |
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| A great time with friends :) |
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| Hello World! Broken and Beautiful! |
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| I mean come on.. look at the view! |
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| Treated myself to my first (And probably last) Big Mac after a day of hiking. |
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