As an international, the images that are conjured when you say Arizona are: orange dust, desert and death valley.. then of course the glowing red and purple rocks of the grand canyon- but it's so much more than that...
On the drive from the Joshua tree up to Arizona, the heat was unbearable. Probably because Rob made us turn the fan off to preserve fuel, I felt every second of the journey. Exceeding 100F, the sun penetrated the van, and I melted. Sweating and drained of energy, we made our way through the desert. After what felt like a lifetime, clouds started to form and the mountains we were passing were no longer baron and red. Shrubs appeared. Followed by grass, followed by forest. The forest wasn't a lush green forest you think of when imagining a forest, more comparable to the shrub forests of Australia. The shrubs grew thicker and finally we passed through Williams gate on route 66 and were greeted by the lush roads to the grand canyon.
Seconds into entering the national park, Rob and I were greeted by moose and elk. We kept driving through the well maintained roads towards the carpark to begin our hiking trail to canyon village. What people don't tell you when entering the grand canyon, is the terrain you see in travel brochures completely contrasts the terrain of the national park and surrounding areas. We walked through the wooded trails and a giant, incomprehensible chasm opens up before your eyes, seemingly a tear in the earth opens; offering cascades of trails, rippling rock formations, dried up rivers, changing hues of red, pink and purple with the sun. We continued to follow the trail around the South rim hitting view point after view point until we finally stopped to watch golden hour illuminate the canyon. I sat on a ledge hanging over the canyon to take it all in. Now, anyone who knows me would tell you that sitting on a ledge steps away from a 3,000 feet drop isn't on the top of my to do list. There was just something about the scene we were treated to which set my mind at ease, it felt calm, spiritual. After dusk, we took the trail back to our van and drove to our campsite, situated in the kaibab national forest. Cooked up some vegetables and passed out. Initially, I worried we wouldn't make the early rises I scheduled in prior to our trip, but sure enough, the first signs of daylight made their way through the windows of our van and we were up before sunrise. 45 minutes later, we were on our way to our morning trail: south kaibab trail stopping at ooh ahh point. Unlike the canyon village, the South kaibab trail was less kept. In place of paved trails, was a gravel dirt road descending down the canyon via multiple switch backs. The trail wasn't steep by any means, the path was wide and I genuinely believe anyone of any age can complete the trail, except me. My acrophobia set in on a thinner part of the trail exposing several thousand feet drop. After attempting to control what was looking like a pretty violent panic attack, I made my way back up the trail. I think if I gave myself more time, I could have continued down the trail, however we were on a schedule and I didn't have time to manage multiple panic attacks, so I made my way back up the trail slowly with robs help and congratulated myself with a peanut butter sandwich and banana. The drive to horseshoe bend from the south kaibab trail was unnecessarily long due to an oversight and over reliance of Google maps. I do, however believe it was for the best.
We took the 64 to the 180 down to flagstaff and up to horse shoe bend. Stunning just doesn't cover the views on the 180 east towards flagstaff. Blue alpines, yellow endless fields of wildflowers with tall warm green trees lining the roads. It looked like something straight out of a national geographic magazine spread. My only regret was not getting rob to stop so we could take photos. As we headed north from flagstaff to horseshoe bend, the alpines, shrubs and mountains were once again replaced by endless red dust, rock and rubble. The day morning crept by and with every passing hour the drive grew hotter and hotter. Waves of heat rippled on the road and the relentless sun beamed on for the rest of the journey. We arrived at horseshoe bend around 14:15, two hours behind schedule. I was very much looking forward to an in out job with horse shoe bend, but the 1k walk in the relentless 101F sun was brutal. Each step was somehow hotter than the last, but alas, we got to the bend, took some photos and continued on to Utah for the next adventure.
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