Grand Canyon (Day 4)

On the fourth day of my trip to Arizona, I went to the Grand Canyon. Finally, the reason we were there! Some of you might remember that earlier this year, I saw the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. Now, I bring you - The Grand Canyon of Arizona! 


We drove up to the South Rim, which is the usual spot for tourists to take pictures and walk along the rim.  After we got our fill of the view from here, we got on the Grand Canyon Visitor Shuttle. Someone familiar with DC might ask me, why would I willingly take public transportation on vacation? (Sidebar: check out "Metro Rap" to understand my plight.)


I had put my Grand Canyon trip into the trusty hands of Mr. Moon Guidebook, which had told me, for example: "Don't bother with driving, take the shuttle, which is GREAT!" and "The lines at the entrance are SO LONG!"


The shuttle? Now I know where fired Metrobus drivers go to get a job. Our driver was completely out of it, prompting one person in the back to shout, "Snap out of it, Jerry!" which garnered chuckles from everyone else on the bus. 


Luckily, even though the guidebook I had was filled with dumb advice about how to avoid long lines of 2-3 cars,  the park ranger gave us a free guide which told me everything I wanted to know about the park, such as how to identify plants and wildlife in the park. Thumbs up! 


Views at Grand Canyon of PA: One gorge covered in trees. 


Views at Grand Canyon of AZ: 

We went to the Bright Angel trailhead where we did some hiking into the canyon. 

Hike in Grand Canyon of PA: Moderate to Strenous - lots of stairs on the path and a steep climb back up


Hike in Grand Canyon of AZ: Moderate - but with more inclines than stairs, it made it fairly easy to return back to the top


On our way home after our excursion, we stopped in the town of Flagstaff, AZ, which is halfway between Sedona and Grand Canyon. Cool town, with a main street-meets-hippie vibe. We ate sushi for dinner at Karma Sushi, because no road trip is complete without me indulging my love for tuna and salmon rolls. I may travel, but I take no vacation from eating sushi. 

Floating the day away in Phoenix (Day 2)

Today I will tell you about Day 2 of my recent trip to Arizona. On Saturday morning, the first thing we did in Phoenix was to follow the advice of our guidebook and eat brunch at a place called America's Taco Shop where we ate huge bowls of shrimp ceviche. That is the way to start the day off. Tortilla chips and seafood.

For most of the afternoon, we enjoyed life and the heat at the water park at our hotel. Yes, you heard me right. There was a lazy river, a "sports pool," lots of waterfalls, and another big pool at the hotel. We swam around in the lazy river for awhile, and then we played a game of water volleyball with some kids that were in the pool. We sat in lounge chairs that had little flags to flip up whenever we wanted refreshments. Whenever I am stressed out in life, I will think of this perfect moment of floating around in the pool in the sunshine on a hot, hot day. 

In the later part of the day, we drove around Tempe, where my boyfriend used to live for awhile and also where the ASU campus is located. The Phoenix area itself is in a valley surrounded by desert mountains, and at Papago Park in Tempe there are some large rock formations. We climbed to the top of a rock called Hole-in-the-Wall and watched the sun set over the city. The city lights were beautiful. 

Camping Trip, Day 3

On our way in, we had passed signs for the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. By the third day of our trip, we had to see what this was all about. 


We typed in "PA Grand Canyon" in my GPS. My GPS is Australian and her name is Karen. Karen instructed us to go down a hilly gravel road which was most certainly not the tourism-approved route. I bet the locals there on that road really hate Garmin for messing up their peace and quiet just because their road is technically faster. We did eventually get to the Canyon, which is in Leonard Harrison State Park.  The official name of it is "Pine Creek Gorge," but I have a feeling the marketing folks did not like that so much.


Did the PA Grand Canyon live up to my expectations? Well, no. It is a gorge covered in trees. It is not an epic 7th Wonder of the World. I don't know who Pennsylvania is kidding. I suggest "PA Minor Canyon" or "Junior Canyon" or "Canyon in Training." That being said, it is a scenic view that you can get at least 20 minutes "Look, things that are far away" viewing out of, and the hikes around the canyon are worth doing. 


Views from the top: 

From the top, the trailhead for the Turkey Path begins. Spoiler alert: We saw no turkeys. That would have been a trip. Grand Canyon WITH TURKEYS!

The Turkey Path goes right down the gorge, passing by a series of waterfalls along the way. I bet if water knew how amused people were by it falling down rocks, it would start charging, but luckily water is pretty clueless.

Pine Creek up close: 

Later in the evening, we went to a dark sky (astronomy) park called Cherry Springs. It is at the top of a mountain far from any city and promises spectacular views of the night sky. 


Except for that pesky full moon, they might have been right. 


The lunar timing being not so great, the full moon light up the entire sky and drowned out a lot of the stars we might have seen. Granted, we did get some pretty good looks at the craters and valleys on the moon. I was amazed by just how bright the darned thing is. I really have not seen anything that compares to this view of the moon. It was as though someone had stuck a street lamp in the middle of the woods. I could see my shadow in the middle of the night. 


These photos by Chelsea give you an idea of how bright the moon was out here: 











If it happens again when we want to see the stars, we will go up into space and cover the moon with thick black fur. Problem solved. 


That sums up our camping trip - I hope you enjoyed the recap and the pictures. Stay tuned for tomorrow's bonus camping recipe: Crazy Vegetable Madness! 

Camping Trip, Day 2

The rains continued. The power was out. You would think this would not have affected us... 

But this campground had "environmentally friendly" power-operated sensor faucets and composting toilets. And when the compost ventilation is out...well, the environment is not so friendly.

Cooking being out of the question in this storm, we frantically ran to get in my car so we could go to downtown Galeton. The main event there is a gas station with pet ducks. I took this picture so you could benefit from seeing how cute they are. 

It was in Galeton that we discovered what is our opinion, the best chain-restaurant pizza on the East Coast: Pudgie's Pizza! The sauce, the dough, the cheese, the toppings - there was nothing that we didn't like about this pie. So hats of to you, Mr. Pudgie, you sure do know how to make a pizza that we are not ashamed to eat even though Not Grilling is Against the Rules of Camping According to Somebody. 

Later that day, after the rain decided it had had enough, we took a hike around the campground down to the lake. We stopped once we got to the dock at the lake. We looked at birds through the binoculars and watched the clouds go by. It was just what I needed.


Amazing shots by Chelsea:

Just a Nantahala-back girl

If I haven't posted for awhile, it's because I'm still in a state of bliss from my recent trip to the Nantahala Forest in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. I went for the weekend, and it was nothing but rustic goodness.

First of all...I will never see a plain old hotel room in the same light again. I've been changed. Hotels have nothing on vacation cabins. Since we were in the mountains, we decided that the only way to go was to stay in a cozy pine chalet. This place was unbelievable. Vaulted ceilings, huge windows that lit up the whole place with mountain daylight, this otherworldly smell of pine everywhere, gorgeous views. It was like living inside the brain of a tree. Except with less termites, I suppose.

One of my favorite things was the totally awesome game room. It was however...a game room of awkward proportions. Think pool is easy? Try playing pool with a foosball table up in your grill.

Now as hard as it was to actually leave the cabin and its many amenities, we did manage to make a scenic drive out to Fontana Dam one day. I say drive because on the 3rd day of our vacation, it SNOWED and thus a full-on hike in the cold was not so appealing anymore. No worries, mom, it wasn't snowing that heavily but there were flurries nonetheless. Yes...us DC area residents bring snow with us wherever we go. It turns out that "Snowpocalypse" is a contagious disease. Here's some sights from the trip:

The nicest weather on the trip was on the day we left, so on our 9-hour trip back, we stopped and drove into the Deep Creek entrance to Great Smoky Mountain Park and did some hiking.

Now I have come back, relaxed and ready to enjoy the cherry-blossom love fest that is DC in the springtime. Ahhhhhh :)

Great Falls hike

I had to get out of the city this weekend, so boyfriend and I took a short hike down in Great Falls park, which is just around the Beltway on the MD-VA border, if you're not familiar with it.

It's a fairly easy hike, with the most spectacular lookouts being accessible right from the visitor entrance area. It made the hike a bit anti-climactic, though, since the rest of our hike we were just walking in the woods, not going towards anything in particular. Pretty views though.

Panorama I took of the falls

Downstream from the falls

The gorge