More National Parks!

We have spent the last three days basking in the beauty that surrounds the western United States.  The Grand Canyon was spectacular and unexpected.  I’ve seen pictures of it, and you will see a few from our time there down below, but the pictures just don’t do this beautiful area justice.

For starters, we were pleasantly surprised to arrive in the Grand Canyon on Saturday to a nice, cool 75 degrees.  After nearly suffocating in the heat in Las Vegas, and a very hot, quick visit to the Hoover Dam in 108 degree weather, we were grateful for a breath of fresh air.  Seriously, why would anyone choose to live in these areas?  My question doesn’t include those who are native to the area, but those who are silly enough to bring this type of punishment upon themselves. 

Since the Hoover Dam was on our way to the Grand Canyon, we stopped for a few minutes to check it out.  Upon entering the guard station, we were asked to step out of our vehicle and open up our storage boxes and camper for searching.  After the three men (was three really necessary?) it took to convince each other we were not terrorists disguised as weary travelers from Alaska, they let us through.  We stepped out of the car with Layla, but after only a short walk, Layla and I had had enough.  We headed back to the car, panting, dry-mouthed, and heat exhausted, while Jordan went ahead to take pictures from the top of the dam.  I hope you enjoy these pictures.  They nearly cost him his life (kidding of course, but kinda not really kidding at all).

We stayed at a campground inside the Grand Canyon NP, which was nice as we were so close to everything.  We did five loads of laundry the first night, and enjoyed the luxury of having electricity to use our shop vac and clean out the camper/FJ.  Yes, you read that right. We packed our own shop vac for this trip to minimize dog-hair-induced insanity.

Since we have such a loveable little pup with us on this trip, we have been limited to what we can do inside these parks.  Dogs are not allowed on any of the trails, and the heat makes it too dangerous to leave her in the car, so often we tag-team who gets to go inside visitor centers and down trails while one stays behind.  But in the GC, we were able to take her on a walk with us along the South Rim.  I think both our jaws dropped the first time we saw the canyon.  It’s just simply stunning. 

Yesterday, we packed up again and traveled northeast to Moab, Utah.  Utah is actually a really pretty state, if you like high plateaus and red rock.  Again, I was pleasantly surprised.  But my eyes couldn’t stop wandering to our temperature gauge in the car, praying that 92 would lower the closer we got to Moab.  It happened in the Grand Canyon, so I was hopeful.  Sadly though, the ugly truth of Moab is that it is just. plain. hot. Last night, we had both fans in the camper running, and still slept with wet towels on top of us to cool us off.

We drove around Arches National Park this morning.  It’s a place neither of us had heard of and only chose because when I googled Grand Canyon to Denver, this was the halfway point.  Jordan had to climb nearly everything he saw, or at least attempt to climb.  He was disappointed to discover that most of the rocks were slick and did not welcome tourists wearing Reebok sneakers.  But he did leave Layla and I in the cool AC’d FJ for a few minutes while he traversed a rock tower.  He showed up 20 minutes later, full of red sand, and a video from his iPod on his way down in which he exclaims, “It’s a good thing Amy’s not here to see this!”  Yeah, good thing.

We are almost three weeks into this trip, and by Labor Day weekend, we will be arriving in Hampton, VA. It’s funny, but I haven’t thought much about what life will be like after this trip.  Will I go through withdrawals from not sleeping in my camper?  Will I wish I had to cram all my clothes into a tiny drawer under cushions?  Will I miss the oh-so-pungent smell of my camper fridge?  Or accidently wear my shower shoes in our new shower?  So many questions that will go unanswered. At least for the next couple of weeks.

Tomorrow we head into Colorado and stay just west of Denver in the Rockies.  I look forward to a cooler night’s sleep, and heading to Nebraska on Thursday!

Hoover Dam

Jordan is about one sneeze away from Heaven in this pic.

Grand Canyon

Jordan climbed up in between these two peaks from the backside... yeah, it's a good thing I was completely oblivious as I waited in the AC'd car with Layla.