Thankfully for us, the stars aligned for Tim and me to take a cross country tip during the summer of 2014. I had my summer off since I was now back in teaching. Tim was headed for law school in the fall, so he could use up all his vacation in one fell swoop. It would be a last hurrah trip before law school began and vacation time would again become rare.
After crossing the George Washington Bridge, we were stuck in stop-and-go traffic. The car stalled. Upon trying to restart it, we found it completely dead - we couldn't even put our flashers on. Tim got out to tell the car behind us to go around, got back in the car, and magically we had power so we continued on our way. This, it turns out, would become a common thread throughout our trip.
CHICAGO
Chicago is a beautiful city; a city I could much more easily live in longterm than New York. They lived outside center city in an area that felt like a thriving small town, complete with a town square (Lincoln Square) area filled with great shops and restaurants. John and Jamie have a beautiful apartment and their neighborhood is a mix of low-rise apartment buildings and single-family homes. It was the perfect blend of city and small-town living - in Chicago you can have the best of both worlds!
Our first evening, we saw a comedy show and drank some good beer. The first full day, Tim and I toured the city ourselves since John and Jamie were working. We took an architecture tour that explained about the origins of the elevated trains and how that affected the architecture - fascinating! We went to a world music/dance event in their Lincoln Square that evening. The second day, John and Jamie joined us and showed us Lincoln Square, their local micro-brewery, and a few highlights of downtown Chicago. We ended our magical day with an impressive fireworks display over the river. On our second day, we visited their church and explored another neighborhood before heading out on our long trek to the La Crosse, WI where we stayed overnight before continuing onto the Badlands.BADLANDS
The Badlands were my first National Park I visited. My first impression was opening the car door at a gas station just at the entrance of the park and thinking I was getting a whiff of my deodorant because the air was so perfumed. The Badlands are covered with wild yellow clover, not native to the area, but beautiful looking and smelling. As we entered the park, we were met with an overwhelming view of red peaks and valleys of eroded stone - it reminded me of a giant drip castle drenched in a red sun.
One of the things I love most about the Badlands is the size. It is a relatively small National Park, so it was a good one to start with. We set-up camp inside the Badlands and explored a bit before going to a schedule stargazing session led by a park ranger. The next day we spent the full day hiking through various areas of the Badlands including a part where we climbed up a ladder that looked as though it were built for a giant - it was terrifying climbing back down it. That evening we drove through the Black Hills and made a quick pitstop at Mount Rushmore (disappointingly kitschy). We spent the night in Twin Falls, SD before heading to Yellowstone National Park.YELLOWSTONE
Yellowstone is enormous. We hit all the highlights over a day and a half, but it was a couple hour drive in between each (with our car giving us trouble the whole time). Our first major destination was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, which Tim was super excited about. It did not disappoint. I would say Yellowstone is more famous for it's geothermal activity, but this was one of the most stunning sights of the trip. On the way there, we made a few stops to see elk and bison and a few geothermal oddities.
From the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, we trekked up to the northern most part of the park, Mammoth Hot Spring. The Roosevelt Arch greets visitors at that entrance and is inscribed with the words, "For the benefit and enjoyment of the people." The Mammoth Hot Springs themselves feel like they belong on another planet with white terraced slopes made of mineral deposits instead of snow, bubbling mud pits, and pools of water beautifully colored by minerals and bacteria.
We continued down the west side of the park toward Old Faithful. The drive toward it has area after area of major geothermal activity and geysers with boardwalks allowing you to explore the area. We stopped at two for a few hours and could have explored them for hours and hours more, but it was getting late and we still had a bit of a drive to make it back to our campground. We showered that evening - the showers were spectacular. It felt good to be clean and warm after a two days without showering. It had rained on and off all day, so the wood we bought (though kept under a roof) was still damp, making it extremely difficult to start a fire. After about 30-40 minutes of trying, we finally got a roaring fire going. We dined on hotdogs and marshmallows again before heading to bed.
We woke up early and took the tent down. All night I had visions of taking the tent down in the rain since that is what was predicted. Somehow, we beat the rain. I don't know what we would have done with a wet, soggy, muddy tent. We made our way up to Old Faithful and it began to rain on our drive. Since we were early and the weather was horrible, there weren't many people crowding the area. Old Faithful went off as promised, giving us a nice display. The geysers and geothermal oddities in this area were amazing. The various colors of the pools of water create a painters palette on the landscape. We saw few more areas, including the Grant Prismatic Spring. I was really excited for that, but combination of the cold weather and the heat from the spring made it look like a big steamy pool instead of a colorful wonder - a bit disappointing. From there we made our way to the Grand Tetons via the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway.GRAND TETONS / JACKSON HOLE
Just as it began to rain, we made our way to Jackson Hole, one of Tim's favorite places. We had dinner at the Snake River Brewery, waved to Tim's dad on the webcam in Jackson Hole, and walked around the quaint ski town before driving to our hotel. It was an incredibly relaxing night after living in a tent and eating hot dogs for several days.BODIE
Bodie was absolutely fascinating! It was a mining town during the late 1800s. As the town died off in the early 1900s, a resident thought that there would be another gold strike to bring the town back to life so he bought up people's property as they left and even hired a caretaker who stayed until the 1940s. As a result, the town has been better preserved than most ghost towns. It is now in a state of "arrested decay." Peeping into buildings is eerie. It is as if people just disappeared all at once, leaving everything exactly as it was the second they vanished. There are still drawers open in a house, writing on the chalkboard, drinks on the bar, books on a table, etc. I could have spent an entire day here instead of just a few hours!YOSEMITE
It was just turning dusk when we pulled into Yosemite. The park is so enormous, that until we made our way to the southern portion of the park from the north-east entrance, it was after 8:00. Our first night we stayed in the historic Wawona Hotel.
When we planned the trip we made the decision strictly out of convenience because we knew we would be arriving late and did not want to have to pitch a tent in the dark, but it turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. The Wawona Hotel was built in the Victorian era and has been modernized only to a point. Our room did not have a bathroom. Instead, we used a communal toilet and shower area. Both were immaculately clean and unbelievably charming. We spent some of the evening enjoying the wrap-around porch and were greeted in the morning with a delicious breakfast in the a beautiful glass-walled room.
Our first day in Yosemite began in the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. The trees are stunning. It's hard to wrap your mind around how old they are and how huge they grow.
Next we began making our way up to Yosemite Valley. Alone the way we stopped at Brideveil Falls and bouldered from the bottom to the almost-top. Again, as with so many great moments in our trip, this wasn't a planned stop.
We only had three things planned specifically for Yosemite - Mariposa Grove, Tunnel View Overlook and Glacier Point. Our next stop on the way to Yosemite Valley was Tunnel View Overlook. The road dives into a tunnel and as you emerge you are greeted with a gorgeous view of Yosemite Valley where you can see both Half Dome and El Capitan rising above the valley. As we continued into Yosemite Valley, something struck us about a flat grassy area surrounding the Merced River, so we pulled over and got out. Thinking it might be fun to cool down in the river, we changed into our bathing suits and headed through the meadow toward the river. This was my favorite part of our Yosemite adventure. We spent the entire afternoon enjoying the river, the meadow, and taking in a stunning view of Half Dome.
Before the day ended, we continued through the valley and explored the Yosemite Falls where we did a bit more bouldering. Finally, we found a shower area and cleaned up before making our way to our campsite to set up camp and have some dinner - MREs (meals ready to eat). Since we still had a bit of day light before the sunset, we drove to find a clearing to watch the sun set with a brilliant red and orange farewell.
When we woke up the next morning, we quickly tore down the campsite and made our way over to Glacier Point - a stunning view of Yosemite Valley, Half Dome, and Yosemite Falls. The roads in Yosemite are all treacherous. They are narrow, curvy, steep, and there are no guard rails that I am accustomed to on normal roads, which makes them feel even scarier. The road to Glacier Point was even more narrow, steep, and curvy, so I was absolutely terrified!From Glacier Point, we made our way back to the Eastern entrance/exit to the park and began the long drive to Las Vegas. We mistakenly thought we could grab some fuel just outside the park (there are usually towns around the entrances). We drove through the desolate desert of Nevada watching our gas tank continue to drop, we saw the outside temperature rise to 108, lost cell service, and rarely saw another car. It gave a whole new terror to the idea of breaking down or running out of gas in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully, we stumbled upon a town that is kept alive in this desolation because the government tests bombs and other things nearby - the workers need a place to live. We filled up on gas. During our long drive, we decided we wanted McDonalds and were disappointed to not find a McDonalds since we now had out hearts set on it, so we continued on without eating, thinking we'd come upon one soon. We drove the whole day without finding a single McDonalds until we reached Las Vegas around 7:00, and there we had a McDonalds feast (we hadn't eaten since breakfast)!
Of course, our car that had been acting up since we left New York, began giving us even more difficulties. We made a pit-stop at a Target to stock up on supplies for our Grand Canyon hike and then made our way to our hotel, about an hour east of Vegas.
GRAND CANYON
The morning of our Grand Canyon trip, our car wouldn't start again. After our harrowing drive through absolute deserted wilderness, we decided we needed to get it looked at again. So, that morning, we took it to a dealership in Las Vegas and got a rental car. Unfortunately, that took up a huge chunk of our day and we arrived at the Grand Canyon much later than we had anticipated.
We finally arrived to the Grand Canyon (in a rental car) around 4:30pm. Our initial plan was to hike to the bottom of the canyon, sleep at our registered campsite, and then hike back up early the next morning. We had our headlamps ready, anticipating a lot of hiking in the dark, and our hiking bags were filled mainly with liquids and snacks. For sleeping, we only brought our bedrolls and sleeping bags - no tent.Within 15 minutes of beginning our trek down the mountain, the reality of the ruggedness and the barrenness of the terrain hit me. I was tired just after a few minutes of hiking down the canyon; all I could think of was, "How was I ever going to hike all the way back up." Tim was determined to make it happen, so I put on a good face and tried to stay positive.
About an hour into our hike, we passed a ranger who was coming back up the canyon. She asked what our plans were and we let her know. She was adamant that we not try to make it to the bottom tonight and radioed to the campground half-way down the canyon (Indian Garden campground) to secure us a spot there. I immediately felt relief, but I think Tim felt disappointment.
Shortly after speaking with the ranger, we passed a man and his son. The man looked like he was on the verge of collapsing. He was dragging a bedroll behind him, had his shirt off, and looked horrible! We asked if we could help at all and he explained that he had to spend the night in the clinic at Indian Garden and was given permission to slowly make his way back up, sleeping on the trail along the way if he couldn't make it up in one day. It was a real-life situation that confirmed all the horror stories I had read of people trying to hike down and back without being properly prepared or leaving enough rest time or having enough water/snacks. I think it made Tim feel a little better about not making it to the bottom.
It began getting dark quickly. It was hard to see much of the trail ahead of us with just our headlamps. Just when I was getting truly worried and scared, we heard voices and realized that we had reached Indian Gardens - I have never felt such serious relief. I thought we had another hour of hiking before we made it there. We quickly scouted out a campsite. Of course, everyone else had tents. We arrived just before everyone had completely settled down to sleep, making it easier to set-up camp.We laid ponchos down on the ground and placed our bed mats on them. It was so hot that we definitely didn't need our sleeping bags. Tim fell asleep right away; I had a little more trouble. I think I slept for about 45 minutes or so before waking up to the sound of little animals scurrying everywhere around us. Horrifying!
I tried to ignore it, but after 30 minutes of what I can only describe as psychological torture, I got up on the picnic bench. I still couldn't sleep because I was now worried about Tim on the ground and felt like I had to make sure nothing happened to him. With my headlamp, I discovered that one of the sound I was hearing was little mice scurrying up the tree next to Tim onto the roof of our pavilion and back down. There was also a sound of a much larger animal in the brush to my left, but every time I shined my light there it stopped and I couldn't see what was there. In the brush to my right was another animal that I couldn't make out at first. However, as it began waddling toward our campsite, I realized it was a pair of skunks! I had my light on them, thinking that might keep them away, but they kept coming toward us and I thought that better turn my light off so they didn't get spooked and spray us. I heard them walk right past Tim! Why hadn't we brought a tent!!!
I woke Tim up and made him get up on the picnic bench, which was just too narrow for two people to sleep comfortably. Tim, of course, had no problem. I slept very lightly the rest of the night, waking up periodically. It did, at least, make getting up around 4:30/5:00 easier. When we woke up, the sun was just beginning the rise and throw a dim light in the canyon. We found ourselves surrounded by mule deer grazing and leisurely walking through the campsites - my large animal noise mystery was solved.
After a quick pack-up and bathroom break, we began our trek up the canyon. It was already extremely hot. It hadn't cooled down at all over night, the heat just laid inside the canyon and never left. Within 15 minutes of our hike out of the canyon, I was already feeling light-headed, nauseous, and fatigued. Tim made me force down some food and liquid, and we kept slowly making our way out of the canyon. After pouring water on my head and neck, I began to feel a bit better. Without getting myself wet, I don't think I could have made it out.The heat was oppressive, even though the sun hadn't yet made its way far enough down the canyon to hit us - I was dreading the moment that it did. Each step felt like a small victory. All I could think was that I that I don't know how I would have conquered twice the distance had we hiked to the bottom of the canyon instead of only half-way.
As we neared the "1 mile to the top" marker, we began passing people who were taking a "light hike" down the canyon. They were carrying nothing but a water bottle. While the hike back would be harder than the hike down, their 2-mile jaunt would fail to help them grasp the sheer rawness and "grandness" of the Grand Canyon. They wouldn't worry about not making it back, they wouldn't be miles from civilization and water, and they wouldn't feel the temperature rise as they made their way deeper into the canyon. While we didn't make it to the bottom, I feel like we authentically experienced the Grand Canyon.After making it out, we went to an overlook to take in the view and then jumped in the car to drive back to the dealership. Tim drove the first hour and a half while I slept and then we traded - we were both exhausted. We picked up our car - the dealership found a wire connected to the battery was loose. That was it! All our troubles from a little loose wire - ugh! We returned the rental and then made our way to a hotel where we each enjoyed a long shower, did some laundry, ordered Pizza Hut, and watched TV. It felt so luxurious after the night before!
ZION
Zion was amazing - a favorite for both of us! We arrived in the morning and set up camp immediately. Our campsite had already been in the sun for a few hours, so the ground was scorching hot. For the first, and only time, we left the rain fly off.Then we jumped on the shuttle that travels through the park. Since the park is small and there is only one road that loops through the park, the only way to get around is to use the shuttle system - which was great. Zion must be a popular spot for Mormon families to have reunions. The place was swarming with groups of people in matching polos.
We made our way to our first hike - up the Virgin River. The hike was absolutely spectacular! It was a beautiful day and the water kept us perfectly cool. The walls of the narrow canyon surrounded us and their varied colors and patterns provided a unique beauty to the experience.
The river creates an oasis experience in the midst of a barren desert landscape. Surrounding the river is lush and green and some cliffs have "hanging gardens" growing on them. However, shortly beyond the river the difference is dramatic. The soil and mountains are a beautiful red color with little to no vegetation growing anywhere. This desert landscape was similar to the Grand Canyon and also to Bryce and Arches which we would visit next. Somehow, though, each location was also unique. Although the basic components, aridness and red rock/soil, were the same, the way they were expressed in nature was completely different in each location. The raw and simple beauty of these landscapes was hard to fully take in for me. I felt like as soon as I left I would forget what they looked like and the impact they had on me.
After our hike up and down the Virgin River, we did a few more mini hikes before heading outside the park to look for a shower. We took quick 5-minute showers since each minute cost $1.00. Then, we had dinner at a local brewery. We sat outside and were basically right on the edge of the park with a great view of the red desert landscape. It was a night that I didn't want to end - so, we basically stayed until the brewery was closing.
As we made our way out of the park, we drove through a one-way tunnel that had been created decades earlier. We were the last car going in our direction, so we were given a baton to hand off to the person at the other end, signifying that cars from the other direction could now come through. The tunnel was just exposed rock - it had been chiseled out and left completely bare. It was a great way to leave Zion National Park.
BRYCE CANYON
We arrived at Bryce Canyon in the late morning and it was definitely threatening rain. This was our one full day at Bryce so I think we both felt a bit down about the weather.We headed to our campsite and began setting up our tent. Almost immediately it began to rain making the set-up extremely difficult. We were old pros at this point, but frustrations boiled over and mistakes were made, making the set-up in the rain even longer. Thankfully that was the worst of it. Shortly after we got the tent set-up, the rain stopped and never started again, giving us a glorious day to enjoy in Bryce Canyon.
I had thought the Badlands looked like giant drip castles, but Bryce Canyon is really the spot that looks even more like that. Between the colors and the geography, it was hard to believe that the landscape was real.
We drove the entire road through the park, stopping at every look-out and tried to soak in the views. We drove to the far end of the park and made our way back to the center.
Our last stop was the major hiking area, where there are trails down into the canyon through the hoodoos. The train was pretty steep and narrow, and as with all National Parks, none of the rails or safety measure we are so used to in this country. It was a great hike! We could have explored the various trails for hours, but daylight was dwindling.
We got showers, stocked up on hotdogs and firewood, and made our way back to camp. We had a great last night camping and stayed up until the last ember of the fire was out. The temperature had dropped dramatically, so without a fire it was definitely time to snuggle into a sleeping bag. And, at this point in the trip, our bodies were accustomed to going to bed shortly after dark and waking up with the morning sun so we were pretty tired.
The next morning, we spent an hour or so taking in a few more views of Bryce Canyon before heading on our long trip back home.Seeing the variety in of landscapes through our trip and the beauty that each held was changing. On other vacations I am usually taking in the sights of man-made cities and pieces of art, which are also beautiful and enriching. This was such a dramatic departure from my typical sight-seeing and is something I will now crave. The trip was truly rejuvenating and energizing for me.
ARCHES
This was a bit of a drive-by stop. I got out for about 15 minutes before getting back in the car. The sun was too intense and I hadn't put on sunblock that day - I didn't want to get burnt. Tim spent a another 15-20 minutes exploring a bit, but then we headed on our way.
The drive home was a bit sad as our trip had come to an end. We changed our route a bit to stop in St. Louis Missouri for some barbecue. The last few days were just long drives and lots of Radiolab. Radiolab really got us through the hours on the road, although, I think we both felt like we didn't want to actually make it home so we didn't really want the time on the road to end. It was a trip of a lifetime - a magical window in time when we could both escape from life for weeks and explore our country.
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