14,175.5 Miles

We've been checking off some big time "to-dos" this week!  We made it to the Grand Canyon and spent two days with our jaws hanging open at how ridiculously huge the place is.   I had wanted to hike down to the river to get the full experience, but the chilly temperatures convinced me otherwise.   Instead we walked along the rim and hiked down South Kaibab trail 3 miles to Skeleton Point.  

We were a little disappointed that we didn't do a rim to river hike.  All the signs explicitly said to not even try it because it is such a huge elevation change, but it was totally possible. I guess we'll save that for next time.  

We stayed to watch the sunset from a nice viewpoint on the western side of the park before heading out to find our campsite for the night.

We spent one more day in the park by car (way to cold to bike), stopping at all the viewpoints along the way.  Our favorite was definitely Lipan point:

We drove to Kanab, Utah next to get a permit for "The Wave" and visit Best Friends Animal Sanctuary for the day.  We got a tour of the whole place and played with the cats and checked out the dogs in dog town.  After our tour, we walked over to see the horses and goats and pigs and take a few pictures of the place.  It's about 3800 acres, all for rescued pets that they adopt out or provide a home forever if no one wants them.  I'm hoping to volunteer for a day when we come back through Utah (once it warms up a bit more).

A little glimpse of Best Friends (that's the visitor center on the left)

We got to watch the moonrise over the hillside from our campsite and played with our telephoto lens a little more:

So back to this "Wave" thing.  We had to go to Kanab ahead of schedule in order to apply for a permit to hike into this one area in Arizona.  It's a lottery system, so we showed up at 8:30 to enter our names and then had to wait for the drawing to know if we'd be hiking the next day.  Only 20 people are allowed in each day, and 10 are from online applications months ago.  We lucked out and were the first to be drawn, but our permit was for the next day--hence our trip to Best Friends for the day.

Here are some pictures from our hike into the Wave:

On our way out from the wave, we hiked into Wire Pass and Buckskin Gulch too:

We headed out of Arizona for good the next morning and made a pit stop at Four Corners.  Not what we expected, but we were there so we figured we might as well take some photos

We hit up Shiprock, NM next to see the big ol rock.  I couldn't get the photo from the one angle that it actually looks like a ship, but here it is anyway

Then finally, we moved on to Colorado!  We spent a very chilly night camping out before heading to see Telluride.  We planned on just passing through to check it out, but I liked it so much we stayed for the day.

Our first Colorado views from the campsite

Downtown Telluride

Bridal Veil Falls

We took the free Gondola from downtown Telluride up to Mountain Village where all the skiing is.  Not nearly as cool as Telluride.  We spent the afternoon at the library working on job applications and waiting for a slideshow from a visiting ice climber/author.  When that got out at 7:30, we had a rude awakening walking out into the cold from the cozy library.  I convinced Curtis that we didn't need to go out to dinner (just to have a warm place to be) and we started heading for our campsite, but I was secretly looking up cheap hotel rooms for the night.  We'd made it comfortably down to about 10 or 15 degrees, but 5 degrees with extra windchill was more than I could stand after being warm and toasty all afternoon.  So I found us a cheap hotel about 1.5 hours away that let us cut down on our drive the next day and still be warm.

So we woke up clean and rested and wound our way up to Boulder.  Here are a couple shots from the drive:

So now we're here in Boulder visiting friends and planning to hang out for awhile to get a feel for the place and wait for things to warm up a bit before we finish our tour of the west.  We wandered around downtown today and I think Curtis is hoping to go climbing tomorrow if it's as warm as today was.  We're right near Rocky Mountain park too so we'll be checking that out soon and we'll probably visit Fort Collins and Denver just to really scout out the place.  Lots to see!  Colorado is just as beautiful as I had hoped so we're pretty happy to have our pitstop here :)

Grand Canyon, here we come!

We had a great time in sunny San Diego with Sean and Danielle.  We ate at their favorite restaurants, checked out their favorite bars, and visited Stone Brewery for a free tour and beer tasting.  Maybe the theme of the trip was pizza and beer. . . .

Stone Brewery

We stayed an extra day in San Diego so we could get some biking in (and stay in the warm sun) so we went out to Coronado Island and toured the bikeway.  Unfortunately it was very foggy, so we didn't get the nice views but we still had a great ride.  We stopped at Peet's Coffee and Tea for the best coffee ever (thanks Missy and Tom) and had lunch in Balboa Park again before meeting up with Sean & Danielle for some tasty cupcakes.

We left Wednesday morning, driving over to Mojave National Preserve and camped out near the Kelso Dunes.  We had an awesome campfire thanks to the super dry wood and just before I was crawling into bed, I spotted my first Kangaroo Rat!  He clearly had no fear of me since he was bouncing around my feet and checking out the remains of the campfire.  I snapped a few pictures and then heard a rustling in the bushes nearby which turned out to be a jackrabbit--what luck! 

Kelso Dunes

Sweet campsite and fire ring

Cribbage by the fire

Kangaroo Rat!

On to Sedona from there, stopping to fix lunch at a little place on Route 66.  The drive from Flagstaff to Sedona was absolutely gorgeous, winding through the canyon and the most beautiful rock ever. 

Roadkill Cafe on Route 66

We watched the sunset from Schnebly Hill Rd, listening to someone play the drums down below us right until the moment the sun actually set.

Views from Schnebly Hill Rd.

Not a great picture, but it gives you an idea of the view over town

Sunset!

We camped out in the national forest and got up early to explore the mountain biking.  We got a map at the local bike shop then set out to do a loop.  It was amazing!  Just look at these photos:

We had a great time biking then explored downtown Sedona (ho hum), then up to Flagstaff.  We wandered downtown and then checked out the artwalk scene before meeting up with friends (actually friends of friends) that were nice enough to put us up for the night.

We're loading up the truck now to head up to Grand Canyon to spend a couple days there before continuing on the big adventure.  Keep your fingers crossing for warm weather!

Cribbage Board (as promised)

Isn't it beautiful?

Thanks Dad!