While roaming the desert, the GBA crew discovers petrified wood and a giant gap in the state of Arizona. Actually, it is more fun than it sounds.

 As we were entering the Grand Canyon, I felt like we were heading to an amusement park. The entrance alone is enough to make you feel like you're heading towards a world of roller coasters and funnel cakes. We arrived to the main entrance around 11 AM. There were 5 gates to choose from, and there were cars waiting at each one. Luckily, since we knew ahead of time that we were going to be seeing a ton of national parks on our trip, we had a national parks pass that allows free entrance into all national parks. Otherwise, we would have had to fork over $25 just to get in. Even if we had to pay that, it was worth it.

The journey continued to feel like an amusement park as we drove for miles just to find parking. Most of the roads were two lanes, but it was surrounded by trees. Nothing even resembled what I envisioned the Grand Canyon to be just yet. After driving for maybe 10 minutes, we parked, and started to wonder. There was a massive visitor center, which was next to a separate book store building. That was just next to the shuttle services. There was shuttle services. Most of the parks we had seen so far had a parking lot and a small trail for you to walk on. If this place had friggin buses, it had to be huge.

Everyone has seen photos of the grand canyon. When we saw it in person though, I thought every photo I had ever seen of the grand canyon stunk. There is no way you can capture how crazy this place is on any type of film: still or motion. There were photographer's displayed inside the book store of works of the grand canyon. Even the professionals can't come close to displaying how enormous this natural wonder is. 

When I first pulled out my video camera to tape some of it, I just laughed. I could maybe get .00001% of this place on film when completely zoomed out. Maybe if I stitched 100 photographs together into one 12 foot long photo you might be able to understand how insane it all is. While at the top, you can see miles down, and even more miles out to the horizon. I think my brain had a blue screen of death when my eyes first saw it. No park or anything I have ever seen has come close to seeing this. 

We had to go back a second day, and Kim and I decided that we were going to hike instead of just wondering around the top of the rim like we had the day before. Leaving early, it wasn't cold, but the winds made it cold. Without wind, it was around 45 or so. With the 80 mph winds alongside the path, it felt much colder. We started close to 8000 ft elevation, and hiked about 3.5 miles down to 6000 ft or so. The path was extremely steep, so the way down went fast. Everyone knows that going up would be harder, but this was nuts.

Each step seemed to grow in height, with our legs getting heavier, and the temperature rising. All of which combined to make the hike more difficult. Signs at the top warned to plan your hike; suggesting that it would take twice as long to get up as it did to go down. Kim and I soon realized that it felt so hard going up because we reached the top in the same time it did for us to go down. Not that we're any kind of pro hikers or claim to be, but I suppose hiking 3.5 miles up the grand canyon at a decent elevation is doing pretty good. After realizing that we could easily spend a month at the Grand Canyon and never see it all, we had to move onward.

Joshua Tree National Park was our next stop. It was also a stop that we almost lost Westy. Well, maybe I should start by saying this place was an enormous desert with massive rocks. Even by climbing one of these huge pieces of rock, you could still only see small portions of this place. Luckily, Westy's Border Collie instincts must have kicked in or something, because she circled a rock a couple of times (out of our sight, though) and then went back towards the bus to hang out in the shade. Although losing one passenger could help on our gas mileage, I guess it's a good thing we found her. We are making our way towards L.A. to meet up with Kim's sister, Krissy. Hopefully the smell of pet dander and lack of showers doesn't overwhelm her too much.

 You may have noticed that a couple of days ago we finally added some more photos to our 'Photos' section. We usually aren't too up to date on this section because it takes us quite a while to sort through 100s of photos and then to upload the few that we want. We had the spare time to upload them because we woke up and it felt kinda cold.

I thought I was being a mega wuss. Our usual routine that takes a few minutes to shift everything around inside from sleep ready to drive ready means I have to take stuff in and out from the back. When I stepped outside in pants and a sweatshirt on, I felt so cold. The day before it was extremely bright out and in 70s. Kim went online and checked out the weather. It was a warm 17 degrees in Grants, New Mexico. Apparently we are still bringing the cold with us. After a cold day, we went to see El Morro National Monument the next day.

When we first pulled in, a couple with New Mexico plates asked us where we were from. We told them New York, and they knew that seeing the plates. They were curious where in New York. Telling them Rochester made the woman smile and told us she was from Brockport. Small world. Besides meeting people from Western New York, we also did some hiking.

El Morro had some petroglyphs dating back to the 1600s, and more recent inscriptions from the late 1800s. Some of the markings were incredibly detailed considering it was all done on the side of a mountain wall. The skies were again extremely blue, and it was much warmer than the day before. Despite being warm, part of the trails were blocked off because there was still a lot of ice around the area. Even though we'd like to get a souvenir from each place we visit, it would just cost way too much. As we were leaving, Kim was asked if she wanted to fill out a 7 page survey. For some strange reason, Kim said yes, but was given a free pin when she was done. She was excited like a little kid on Halloween. After receiving free goodies, we made out way west to the next state: Arizona.

It was beginning to get a little late, until we realized Arizona thinks it's cooler than all the other states in the U.S. 2009 marks the year that Arizona doesn't participate in Daylight Saving. The Navajo reservation in the northern part of the state observes it, but the rest of the state doesn't. Very cool, Arizona. Not sure what they're trying to prove, but it did buy us some more time to see Petrified Forest National Park.

This place seems to be a preview for the Grand Canyon. You're driving along a road, and then there's a gigantic gap in the ground for miles and miles. You can drive to other sections where you see huge chunks of petrified wood, which looks way cooler than it sounds. The stuff must be somewhat rare, because a stump of it sells for about 28,000 dollars. I want to know who actually buys that and hauls it away. 

As we drove through the park, we saw that the old route 66 used to run through the park. You can't even tell that there once was a road there, and that it was a major route for so many travelers. It's almost sad, until you realize you're talking about pavement. What would have been sad is if we lost Fink, which almost happened.

For whatever reason, my window was rolled down, and when we came back from a quick mile loop walk through the Crystal Forest section, we found Fink to be gone.  Luckily, we only searched for a few minutes before we found here. She didn't wander too far from the bus, and when I slid the door open and then shut, she must have recognized the sound because she started meowing and Kim heard her. We were then in possession of a cat again. Fun. Finding animals that belong to us is a past time of ours, but we had to call it a day eventually.

We are now camping at Homolovi Ruins State Park. Exploring hasn't been in our agenda today, because winds have been up to 50 MPH. It kinda gives birds a turbo boost. Funny to watch at least. Tomorrow the wind is suppose to die a bit, though. Now playing 52 card pickup will be way easier. 

p.s. Fink now uses me as a place to sleep while I try to sleep. What a good cat.