Day 21: Kingman, Arizona

Well, here is where our trip sort of stalled. All national parks are closed, and as we learned, pretty much anything cool that people know about, is a national park. The only state park around, Valley of Fire State Park, was totally full. We tossed around the idea of just going and trying to sneak into Bryce or Grand Canyon, but didn’t want to drive all that way just to be sneaky and turned around and/or fined.

Sooo, pretty much the only thing around is….Vegas. Not my favorite idea, but Bryan was stoked about it, and hey, may as well experience Sin City for myself as I’d never been there. Turns out its really pricey to stay in Vegas on the weekend, but Sundays and weekdays are reasonable.

Result: Stay in Kingman for another day and head to Vegas on Sunday.  It felt weird, staying in Kingman AZ on what was supposed to be an epically adventurous hiking trip, but there was nothing else really to do. Everyone we met in Kingman had the same story…”Well, Grand Canyon was closed soo…we are here.” Ditto.

At least the KOA we stayed at had a minigolf, pool and hottub J

Day 20: Havasupai Canyon to Kingman, AZ

The trail out of Havasupai is 2 miles of sandy path to the village, 1 mile winding through a forest, 6 miles through a canyon and 1 mile up the side of the canyon on steep gravel switchbacks. Many people leave at 5am or 6am to try to hit the switchbacks in less than the full sun. We decided that we'd payed to be here and would have a relaxing morning instead. 

We waited for the sun to hit Havasu so we could swim without being cold...it was still cold. Then packed up and left at noon, packs resting heavy on our shoulders. This Friday was apparently a 'payday' friday for the natives in Supai so a helicopter buzzed in and out like a giant insect every 10 minutes. What took the copter an average of 15 minutes round trip would take us nearly 5 hours one way. We were pretty tempted to pay the $20 for the chopper to carry our packs, but a lack of cash dashed this idea and saved us the twenty bucks. 

The hike passed pretty quickly and about 50% of the canyon was already in shade due to the October angle of the sun so it wasn't ridiculously hot. I had small blisters on a heel, my shoulder muscles were painful and my back seizing, but by the time we started to climb the final mile, everything had settled into the rhythm so I hardly noticed. A mercifully cool wind kept us from getting too hot, but man that was a climb. It took us about 45 minutes to go the final mile and when we finally took the packs off, stretched, climbed into the car and downed some gatorade, I still felt fairly nauseous for the first while on the drive out. 

We were headed for the nearest town to get some food...unfortunately 'Peach Springs' was little more than a community with nothing commercial or public in sight. 'Kingman' 55 miles. This seemed a long ways, but zipping along route 66 was pretty quick and we entered on a motel strip. Days Inn was the random one we chose and it was much better than expected: comfy, clean, fridge, micro, free breaky, pool, hottub, etc. To be honest, all I really cared about was a shower and a bed. You cannot imagine how dirty Bry and I were by this point after 4 days of camping, swimming in lime-saturated water and having hiked 30 odd miles in the past handful of days. 

As a further treat, we found a steakhouse and got Bry some ribs.

Day 19: Mooney Falls to Beaver Falls, Havasupai Canyon

After a sleepless night for me, but lots of stargazing through the tent, we lazily woke up and began the day. The canyon only gets a few hours of direct sunlight (at the campground anyways) at this time of year so it takes a few hours in the morning before the sun truly hits with all its warmth. Thankfully there are both warm and cool breezes so the temperature is quite nice. 

We decided that rather than doddle around the campground, we'd make our way downstream to Beaver Falls, about 2.5 to 3 miles away. It was WELL worth the hike. Although the way there seemed long and we were tired from hiking the night before, it was amazing! The Havasupai river seemed to get more gorgeous the more we saw, every view picture worthy. Finally at Beaver, the cascading falls and terraces were inviting and perfect to swim in. We jumped off the cliffs near the water fall and swam around, making friends with a single dad from Maine and his 12 year old daughter and her friend who had arrived soon after us. 

The hike back seemed much shorter than the way there and we spent the rest of the day exploring around the campsite and ogling at the beauty of Mooney and Havasu Falls.

The campground was surprisingly deserted on this Thursday afternoon, but soon not to be. We learned that many Grand Canyon expeditions had rerouted to Havasupai after the closure and organized tours as well as jilted sightseers were on their way to fill it up by the next day. Glad we were leaving when the hordes were coming in!

Day 18: Sedona AZ to Havasupai Canyon Campground

We had planned to leave our Sedona campground and perhaps hike in Oak Creek Canyon before going to Flagstaff and figuring out what to do. North of our campsite turned out to just be a viewpoint without any spectacular hikes in sight so we found ourselves at a Mickey D's in Flag at about 11am. A quick call to Havasupai Reservation revealed that we could not delay, they only had reservations available for tonight and tomorrow night...and we were a 3-4 hour drive and a 10 mile hike away from the campground. 

Time to ZOOM! We zipped miles to the west and then 60miles north on an Indian Road up to Hualapai Hilltop parking lot. There we hastily packed our daypacks (bummer didn't bring our multiday packs) and strapped on tents and all sorts of things onto the outsides (ooh, so heavy and awkward). We then joined the mule trains heading down the steep switchbacks leading to the valley floor and began our hike as fast as we could to get to the Supai village office by 6pm and to the campsite before dark. 3 hours and 8 miles later we registered and then hiked the final 2 miles in the dark to find the campground pretty full and spaces limited. A friendly couple called us over and we set up near them and chatted into the night while bugs whapped off of our faces, attracted to the table light, and bats mercifully snapped them up out of the air above our heads. 

The stars were awesome! Havasupai canyon is one of the canyons off of the Grand Canyon and if we had it in us, we could have hiked to the Colorado and laughed at the National Park closure cuz we would have still been there!! But, it was 14mi round trip, too long, too tired, too little time. Next time. 

A delicious freeze dried meal for dinner (thanks Grandma!) and we called it a night. Nothing like falling asleep in a tent outside without a rainfly, looking up at the starry night sky, shooting stars every twenty seconds or so. God's creation is amazing! 

Day 17: Sedona AZ

We started off this day in Sedona with a few key sights to see including Chapel of the Holy Cross and Bell Rock. Instead of walking around Bell Rock we tried to get to the top as other folks were doing and made it up one of the pinnacles but the others looked too sketchy. We met some hardcore Vortex seekers up there, explaining how Bell Rock has a masculine energy and how Sedona is a place to 'get your shit out' so if you hear people fighting or issues come up between us, it's probably the energy-whatnot. Well Bry and I were arguing the previous day but our belief is more that this place has a lot of free reign for all sorts of spirits, including demons, and I'm sure they enjoy creating an atmosphere of argumentation under the guise of catharsis. In anycase, they were nice people, and they pointed us towards Cathedral Rock. 

Feeling pretty spry we hiked up Cathedral Rock, not that far but nice and steep. At the top we met a couple who were scared of heights and had made it up there somehow. They asked if Bry would be their guide and company to help them to the top and down. Being the lovely soul that he is, he helped them up to a neat vantage point, I took some photos that they couldn't look at because it showed how high up they were, and then we went a slower pace down keeping them company. 

So I'm hiking along feeling hot cuz it's so sunny and about to step down a natural red rock step when I see a stick, a weird stick, and then leap back shrieking....a rattlesnake right in my path!! We looked at him and he even squiggled (curled, tucked?) himself up into strike pose and rattled his tale! Freaked me right out; heights over snakes any day. 

It was also today that we learned about the National Parks Closure? Umm, what?!! Talk about messing up our vacay plans. Who knew that was even possible?

From there we slid down the rocks at Slide Rock State Park, whee! 

Day 15 and 16 Phoenix AZ to Prescott to Sedona AZ

We lazily left the Millers to head up to Prescott with Nate and Sarah to spend some time with them. Turns out we were all pretty pooped and weddingy details are hard to delegate so we watched football in the Snyder media room, napped for a looong time, watched Yours, Mine and Ours...oh family movies, so clean, so predictable, so...fun, and also short? But yum, popcorn and yay for chilling. Snyders have a full house, despite having a large house so we slept on their corner couch and man was that a good sleep. I think I talk about sleep too much on this blog...but man, somehow my quality of sleep sure seems like a big deal these days. In any case, good sleep, good family, love those Snyders.

Next day we headed off to Sedona to chase the vortexes...just kidding...what a load of weird...anyways, Sedona is gorgeous! So off we went and hiked to a super cool arch called Devil's Bridge. Then grocery shopping and finding a campsite way off in the hinterlands. Cool thing about our campsite wass....resident skunks!! You don't bother them they won't bother you the ranger said. We kept imagining how ruined our trip would be should our tent or car get sprayed. But we saw one! And his fluffy little tail was menacing, but cute, and he scuttled off after we shined a flashlight on him. 

Night of camping 1. 

Day 14: September 28, 2013: Mesa, AZ

Day 14: Bachelorette and Bridal Shower

Next day was complimentary breakfast at the hotel (surprisingly, SO good! We're talking eggs, waffles, sausages, oatmeal, bagels, toast, cream cheese, you name it.), chilling by the pool and spa, and mani/pedis across the street. 

When Bryan hugged me later on I flinched and said “Ah, don’t touch my back; I bruised my spine while getting a pedicure!!!” And this is the truthful truth. While sitting on this crazy massage chair, I was enjoying most of the rolly thingmes in my back, but at one part of the program it felt like someone was punching my spine with brass knuckles on. “Surely this will end soon” I thought to myself, and endured for a few more minutes….it didn’t, so I switched the program…too late for my poor spine, however. Psychotic chair; this was supposed to be relaxing.

Post primping, we headed to Sarah’s Aunt Kelly’s house who was hosting the bridal shower. She had done SO much work and it looked incredible. I was in charge of flowers and made about 10 arrangements of pink, yellow and white. We arranged food on lovely stackers and Aunt Kelly had procured about 30 unique china tea cups, so pretty! Sarah is the most lovely person and I’m so glad it all came together for her. I also got to see my mom, yay! She gave a wonderful little speech about raising Nathanael and how God and had taught her so much through raising him. My mom is the bomb. Such a nice evening and time to shower Sarah with love. 

Spent the night at the Millers, yay back with the hubster. While I was girly-ing around today, he went and hiked the Flatiron in the blazing heat, saw a tarantula in the wild (AH!), ate icecream at an old ghost town, and overall enjoyed his day of 'anything-I-want-ness."