It's so....grand....

That Grand Canyon...wooo...

And we're off to the last state before our final destination.... California here we come!

Did some camping and hanging out on the beach, where the water was numbing, painfully cold...sad...then started the drive up thru Santa Barbara and up route 1. All the way thru Big Sur and Monterrey.

First little detour, Elephant Seals! The beach was covered with them... when we pulled off, the little squirrel in the picture immediately jumped up into the grill of the car. Why? you might ask... Let's recap... Jack Rabbits.. they are everywhere. Freaky looking creatures..in that cute hoppy kind of way.. well, they aren't that smart.. for some reason, on the drive to Havasupai, the bunnies on that road must have been having a bad day, because one proceeded to throw itself in front of the car, rabbit suicide at its peak. There was simply nothing I could do except laugh and be sad at the same time. Liz insisted I was a horrible person for killing the bunny with the car, and I kept explaining that it just came out of nowhere and there was nothing I could do! Whatever...silly bunny... I do feel bad. ANYHOW...next day, Liz's turn to drive out of Havasupai... oh look! ahhhhh suicide bunny again! Once again it thru itself at the car, and died. Not our fault once again... I proceeded to laugh hysterically at this odd turn of events, while she felt sad for quite a while. Anyhow, Mr. Squirrel found a lot of bunny meat in the grill of the car, and refused to get out until I turned the car on to scare it. Hahahhaha.

After that stop we continued on towards Big Sur....interesting little community.

Little book stores, big trees, great pizza, creepy dancing, amazing tree houses.

Yes, the white mountains meet Zion and it is called Yosemite.

After Yosemite we headed to San Francisco and then drove up the coast, thru the redwoods, into Redding to see Mike and Tracey and then on to BEND... final destination...

That was all a month ago...yes late post. Been rocking it in Bend...maybe sooner then later we will post a Bend blog. Yes, after two weeks I knew..that I could live out of my car and roadtrip forever.

ARIZONA WINS (Las Vegas does not)...

...at containing by far the most beautiful thing seen thus far. However first a stop in Vegas to seem my very hospitable family.

As is our style, dogs...wherever we stay...Tyese LOVED (to squeeze) Bugsy.

Lastly there shall be a little album of Havasu falls. The night before we slept in our sleeping bags in the parking lot on top of a butte (the best sleep I have had all trip)..among many other hikers doing the same. Since we are competitive we managed to get out and down the canyon before anyone else (Tyese and I high five-ing now in remembered success). The hike down was ugly, ugly, ugly, well desert anyway. Then out of no where! Oasis.

The hike out was long and hot and far. This turned out to be about a 30 mile day. Then more driving to the Cali coast where we are now. Finally now that this is done.....we are going to the beach. Catch up later in San Fran if all goes well.

Our Apologies...

..for not posting more. I hope you have all hung in there and not stopped checking. Utah was impossible with cell service or Internet access or even camping sights (Below is Tyese sitting in a bathroom trying to post). Southern Utah is full of nothing in that completely charming way that we can't shake. People now irritate us...large crowds irritate us......back to posting from Utah...and its beauty...

Bryce: Finally a long hiking day. Tyese loved the easy breezy 15 miles to get our car sitting butts a moving. (Yes, for anyone that wondering my cookie habit is continuing strong.)

The chipmunks as seen above were exceedingly friendly...why I am not pictured is because I literally ran away as they (yes about 5 of them) tried to pounce on my cliff bar.

Zion: Huge and as described to me, "The place kinda engulfs you almost like a fish." I was not let down. It is big and right in your face. One of the favorites so far. When you look down or look up it gives you that dizzy feeling. Who is up for coming back? Doing canyoneering with me and the narrows??? (I guess whoever is still watching our blog...hahha...)

Our picture do not do it justice.

Waves: The waves are an interesting story. Contrary to our prior belief we thought we could just role into town and hike it like any other national park...but it isn't a national park, it is a land conservation area.

Turns out...you either reserve 4 to 5 months in advance or win a lottery. Tyese being the hero she is, assumed we would win the lottery. Morning arrives and we drive out to the sight of the drawing. Literally NO ONE was on the road leading to this place (confidently in my head I think, "HA we are the only ones, this is in a bag....). Out of NO WHERE the parking lot is packed and crawling with people in fancy shpancy hiking gear (similar to Tyese's recently purchased $9 sleeping bag). So we fill out the little form...get assigned #42 and wait for the lottery to begin. I immediately decide that we are not going to win so start browsing the brochures to see what else there is to do in town...Tyese announcing to our 72 competitors that WE ARE GOING TO WIN. I try and shush her but before I can....number....42 is drawn....so pretty, exclusive, waves here we come. Yes we are WINNERS not just at lottery's but at life.

Laugh now?.....

Tyese is my favorite.

After this hiking into the back country...our way out was more difficult then anticipated. Everything in the desert looks the same. We got lost and got a healthy respect for the desert and how confusing it can be. A few hours later we made it back to the car with the much missed ac. Now the drive to Las Vegas...woot! city here we come.

In Search Of Beautiful Things......

...and Utah's got it. Arches, Mesa Verde, Four Corners, Lake Powell, Bryce, ZION, and the Wave. 6 days later at present we are in Vegas. Talk about change.

My sunburned face from Denver skiing drove us to Moab Utah. A place were every other building is an outdoor gear store, an outdoor guide, or a cafe. What more can you want? A lack of chains and wallmarts...sigh...yes semi authentic places still exist. This blog is gonna be short and sweet. Full of pictures because we don't have time....Vegas is full of wonderful things: free tire checks, walmarts, my extended family, and cheep shows.

Arches: It's an arch....typical...

Mesa Verde: Palace is pictures on the left, me in balcony room on the right, the older most hilarious guide climbing toward balcony house, and on bottom right balcony house from a distance. There are maybe 12 different cliff dwellings in this area.

Four Corners: Don't waste your time, you pay $3 to go into a sandy, horribly hot, flat little area where the four states meet, no cell phone service, and the snow cones just aren't that good.

Lake Powell: By far the most romantic (which did no good because I was with Tyese) and beautiful camping spot we have had all trip. We took a ferry in the morning across the lake and kayaked all afternoon.

Official: Kayaking is boring unless the water is moving speedily

More on the next blog on Utah...just wanna make sure this gets up..it has been complicated getting our blogs up....

You're Not For Sale

....so don't worry about getting pretty to go out on the town. Don't worry Olesya, I won't.

From the Sand Dunes we headed to Denver, after passing through Colorado Springs and making a quick drive-by of Garden of the Gods, and trying to find some good bouldering only to hang on rocks that didn't quite support(coughfattylizcough) Anyhow, we kept driving to Denver. Saw the city, and ate some awesome hummus/falafel at Jerusalem with our lovely Russian host: Olesya.

After too much Russian chocolate tasting (found about 1 in 8 that I thoroughly enjoy), big full bellies, postcard writing (Mary give me your home address so I can send you some), and a great plan! Glenwood Hot springs with that sweet monkey of a drive! We were off. Sadly by the time we got to Glenwood it was packed and of course, Utah beckoned.

It was a classic drive, one with that detour called: Goodness, I am so weak and can never say no to: Ski mountain! Still open! Oh, the snow was beautiful, heavy, sticky, perfect for snowman making...not so much for boarding. Sadly our GORGEOUS boards had been shipped west ahead of us...so we rented...they sucked...

Double panted, tshirt wearing, goggle-less, sock wearing on hands as make-shift mittens, I had a BaaaRIliant IDEA! Tele-skiing...I know I know...."Lock your heal and ski for real" One little 2 hour excursion was not going to taint my alpine love.....

Notice my lovely form...lunge-ing like a champ...wasn't until hour 2 that a fellow skier told me to drop my butt over my heal. Tyese is modeling the classic pose of....spinning around backwards from turning too deep and belly flopping forward. In her words: "ouchy". That does not even begin to explain how sore I (and we) were from two hours of this. Kudos to my bros for doing this all day. (P.S.- You're right, this is extremely fun. I actually had sunburn smile lines.)

Made a rockin soup, cocoa and cookie dinner at the lodge....and then the driving began again.

Seeing the Wind

I am not particularly sure how to describe this place. The pictures fall drastically short of the true experience. All I can say is...go there...go there next week..go there next month...or at least go there before you kick the bucket because....this place doesn't really belong...this place may have as well been dreamt up.

As you look at these pictures keep this in mind: Giant mountains are formed by the whole plate tectonic situation...causing the rise of these mountains. Years and years, and YEARS of water erosion...the water that drains into the pictured river....leaves sand and silt (believe it or not of varying colors- green, purple, red, blue) from these very mountains in the river basin. Then strong winds lift and produce these sand dunes. In essence the sand dunes are the dandruff, the dead skin, of the mountains...and the wind shapes and creates these sand dune creatures. The wind expresses itself in sand...IN SAND! Who knew sand could be beautiful and who knew it could be shaped so differently, and who knew it could sit in miles and miles below snow capped mountains. Similar to Carlsbad caverns, all shocking beauty takes thousands of years to perfect.

Going to this place allows you to overturn the stereotype that wind and rain are not powerful tremendous forces. With one 360 degree turn you can see a true natural cycle at its finest. Go there...go there to realize how unique this world is.


And!! More driving....Garden of the Gods...Colorado Springs...some bad but oh-so-good Pizza Hut..to only roll into Denver....

...and we hate New Mexico

Texas, the gateway to New Mexico, was interesting in its new landscape. New Mexico was the same thing but with heat, oh no it wasn't heat it was sweat, or wait nope its my shorts sticking to my butt, or is it just constant dehydration...we hate New Mexico....

Maybe we just hated New Mexico because we left from Texas in the morning, stopped at two national parks, one awkward horrible dinner in Sante Fe at goodness forbid: Dennys (WHYY!!!), and ended in Colorado where the wind almost took my car away.

First stop in New Mexico: Carlsbad Caverns. Who would ever guess that under the ugly shrubs and desert are these amazing caves. An entire city could fit into the big room of the cave. We saw tons of awesome formations, and learned about guano - a.k.a bat poop, which in spots can be upwards of 40 feet deep and used to be mined as fertilizer (hotstuff, you're amazing too)...imagine accidentally falling into the middle of it and having to swim out..

As much as I wanted to touch/climb all these amazing formations, and crawl all over the massive 300,000 ton boulder that fell from the ceiling thousands of years ago (sort of reminds me of a 400 lb, southern speaking, pretty girl, clinging for dear life to some really high monkey bars and finally just letting go) and explore all the cracks and crevices that the walkway did not take you to. I held myself back...If I were to touch the rocks I would leave oil waterproofing them. This means that with each water droplet that makes it through the desert floor flowing down the stalagmite to leave a particle (making the stalagmite grow)..would just fall right off. In essence, you would kill the formation.

We were also told that the Indians did not venture into this lovely cave system. I, however, find this hard to believe. A big hole, right by where I lived, that no one knew where it went, is enough of a tease so that just one adventurous person would break down and go inside.

After we left the damp coolness of the caves we were back in the heat of the desert...gahh...make it end... on to White Sands of New Mexico...

The little Subaru thought it was home and in snow, but nope, just really really really really white sand... actually pretty incredible. Especially when the wind blows and you get covered in sand from head to toe, pretty sure by the end of it, I couldn't see for a few hours due to sand in my eyes, and every time I scratched my head it started "snowing". But nonetheless, a beautiful sight in the middle of an ugly town in New Mexico... (Hotstuff isn't ugly like towns in New Mexico) I am actually led to believe that we were not in New Mexico at all... Ohh and then we saw this scary two headed creature... Still not quite sure what it is or where it came from...It almost attacked Bethy, but I came to her rescue and pushed the two headed monster out of the way, it vanished so quickly in fear that all we got a picture of was its shadow.

Time to drive some more.... onward to Colorado.