Installment #3
Here’s the link to the pictures again: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0Aas2Tlq5ZsWLio
Day 6
Our plan was to grab a light breakfast at the motel continental (and I do mean light), grab some coffee at a local coffee shop and then head into the wilderness. I wanted to hit this place called Priest Draw. Within the bouldering community, this place is pretty famous. It’s only about 10 minutes from downtown Flagstaff and you can drive right up to the boulders. And when you get there, it’s this beautiful meadow with hills lining each side (read ‘hollar’ for you folks in NC). The hills are covered with Aspen trees, Ponderosa Pines and among other things, some amazingly horizontal limestone roofs. We started out on an easy warm-up that everyone could do. This was the coolest boulder I’ve ever seen. From there we moved on to some steep stuff. Having never been there and only having very brief ideas of where to go, we just wandered around and looked for stuff that looked cool. We definitely found something cool when we hiked up one of the hills to a limestone cave that had some pretty stout roof problems on it. I tried to get James to give it a whirl, but alas it was too much. And actually it ended up being too much for me too…but fun nevertheless. After completely exhausting all my available energy we headed back to the meadow in front of where we parked for a picnic. There’s really nothing like eating tapenade and drinking wine after some killer climbing. It was pretty ideal, actually. After failing to muster up any more strength to climb (you think it was the wine?), we packed up and headed back to town for a nap. We made plans to hit the town in style and do some serious bar hopping after dinner. Dinner was preceded by a cocktail at the infamous Monte Vista Lounge. After scoping out the best place to eat, we did so. The massive amounts of food we consumed and the bottle of wine we had with dinner put a damper on the rest of the night. We ended up settling for a pitcher of local beer and some ping-pong at the Flagstaff Brewery. Good times!!
Day 7
Besides my obsession with climbing while in Northern Arizona, we all had a similar desire to see the Grand Canyon while were so close. The drive was somewhere around an hour and fifteen minutes from our hotel. Another light breakfast at the motel, a cooler full of food and we were well on our way. Driving over the mountains you could really see how little snow the area had received this winter. Flagstaff usually gets around 200 inches of snow per year. Mt. Humphreys which shadows the town at over 12,000 ft (tallest mountain in Arizona) usually gets around 400 inches per year. Thus far they’ve received only around 20 inches or so. Although this made things ideal for us, you can imagine how this impacts the local environment and economy. Not a lot of skiing happening on a 20 inch base. After arriving at the Grand Canyon (the GC as we called it), we stopped by the Backcountry Office to get information for James and Audrey’s plans to do a two night backpacking trip down into the GC the following day. We also got some good advice as to where we might hike around with Miles (they don’t allow pets below the rim). We drove as far west along the rim as possible and then hiked along the rim trail for a few miles. Man, what an amazing experience. If you’ve never been to this place, you have to see it. Our pictures, and for that matter no other picture I’ve ever seen does this place justice. It’s bigger than your imagination. You just can’t believe how absolutely enormous this hole in the ground is. It’s freakin’ huge!! We spent the afternoon hiking around and then drove to the eastern end of the south rim to watch the sunset. We were hoping to see it from atop the lookout tower there, but for some reason it closes at 5pm, which is retarded if you ask me. So we settled for a pretty stellar view from the cliff instead. In the time we waited for the sun to set (20 minutes I think), the temperature must have dropped 10 degrees. From here, we loaded up and hit the road. The colors in the ski were pretty amazing and I tried to capture that on film, but it’s slightly difficult when you’re in a moving vehicle with waning sunlight and a less than stellar camera. Oh well, I thought the cake reference was pretty funny. After the drive back to Flagstaff, we all were pretty beat and very hungry. We had dinner at the Beaver Street Brewery and boy did it hit the spot. Any place that has a Bratwurst platter as one of their specialties is up there on my list. As we were all pretty tuckered out and had big plans for the following day, we went back to the motel to pack up and go to bed early. Flagstaff treated us real nice and I can’t wait to get back. I want to see some more of the local watering holes and take care of some unfinished business at Priest Draw.
Day 8
Today was our final day of traveling. Neither one of us could really believe we were almost there (I’m sure Miles has a different opinion on that one). It seemed like the time just flew by. So we got on the road around 9 after eating an amazing breakfast in downtown Flagstaff. An authentic Mexican breakfast; make sure you stop by Martans Burrito Palace…it’s tha shnizzal fo shizzal (that means really, really good). So we headed south on Hwy 89 towards Sedona. I figured we can’t just come this far and not see the “Most Beautiful Town in America”. Along the way, we drove through Oak Creek Canyon. I had no idea it was going to be quite as scenic as it was. Before we knew it, we were driving down into this amazing canyon, lined with White and Red Sandstone cliffs. Sedona was pretty cool I guess. We just did a drive by, only stopping to use the restroom. There were a lot of those really cheesy trinket stores and touristy type places everywhere…but who knows, it could be cool. So after a quick detour we were back on course; flying down I-17, heading south out of the mountains towards Phoenix. This was a pretty impressive drive as well; lots of red rock formations and landscapes that were soon to transform into the desert. We navigated ourselves around the horrible midday traffic in Phoenix and were quickly in the middle of nowhere. Only feet from the Mexican border, the rules change pretty substantially. We were heading west on I-8 when you come upon what looks like toll booth, but ends up being a border check. Everyone passes through these gates and is either stopped or motioned to pass through. Man, I had no idea! Not that we had anything to worry about, but it was pretty scary; lots of official looking dudes with assault rifles just waiting to find some illegal contraband or aliens (fortunately Miles doesn’t fall into either of those categories). So on to California. Just after we crossed the state line into California, we came to a point where the desert turned into dunes. It was about a 10 or 20 mile stretch where everything you could see was either freeway or sand dune. We’re pretty sure this is where Napolean’s grandma came to ride ATV’s and inevitably break her leg. Anyway, from here it was only a few more hours to Sunny San Diego. We made arrangements to stay in hotel until we found a permanent place to live. So to the La Quinta we go! Man, it was an amazing journey and I’m sad it went by so quickly but we’ve got a whole new journey ahead of us. It’s time to live it up…we’re Californians now!!
