East to West coast road trip

[Mark Sedenquist]

Thanks for the latest post.

You were lucky that the damage to your car wasn't worse on the road in the Monument Valley Tribal Park.

Mark

[glc]

You would not have had a problem finding food more to your liking if you had stocked up in a grocery store in a large town, even Walmart Supercenters have a decent selection of artisan breads, organic produce, and vegetarian items. Larger towns also have so-called "health food stores" and upscale stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. For the Grand Canyon, you probably would have had to go to Flagstaff to find them.

[LeicesterLuke]

You would not have had a problem finding food more to your liking if you had stocked up in a grocery store in a large town

We left the nearest "large town" 30 hours before we arrived at the Grand Canyon so I didn't really trust the cooler to keep it fresh enough.

We didn't do a lot of food shopping tbh as we ate out a majority of the time. The only time we really bought food was for long journeys, and that's where I was surprised with the lack of quality food from places like Walmart, Walgreens etc. I'm sure there are plenty of places with good choices (although I've heard you can't get decent cheese anywhere), but as we were on a tight schedule, I usually just typed in "supermarket" into Google maps and headed to the closest one.

Next time I'm there I'll make sure I try and find something like Whole Foods to buy stuff.

[Lifemagician]

You can definitely get decent cheese in Whole Foods. Cheeses from all over the world. I often buy Australian cheese there.

Lifey

[LeicesterLuke]

You can definitely get decent cheese in Whole Foods. Cheeses from all over the world. I often buy Australian cheese there.

Lifey

Ah right, I know Stephen Fry went to every state and said he couldn't find any, and that was also my experience, especially after trying their version of cheddar. But I'll take your word for it.

Day 20
I woke early at around 5.30am excited to get to the canyon to start hiking. Rach wasn't quite as enthusiastic, so after deciphering her sleepy mumbling I worked out she wasn't quite ready to face the day so I left without her. There's a few trails around the visitor centre area, with varying difficulties and stopping points. We were given a guide when we arrived, which was incredibly helpful as it tells you how long and difficult each walk is, how long it will take, and where the turn-back points are. We were going to do the Bright Angel trail later on so I went for the Kaibab trail which is slightly further away. There are free shuttle buses that run regularly and take you to any of the trail points, and they started early which was great.

The plan was to go to "Ooh-Aah Point", as with a name like that, it had to be good! The path down was steep but the paths are well maintained, and they slowly descend down the side of the valley until they presumably reach the bottom. On the way I met a father and son who were planning to walk all the way to the bottom, and had their camping gear with them as it's not possible (or at least advised) to hike to the bottom and back in one day. The trail is a great way to see the valley, as each twist and turn reveals a new part that you couldn't see before, and it was especially good seeing the sun rise slowly lighting up the valley and replacing the huge shadows cast by the winding ridge.







I got to "Ooh-Aah Point" and actually said "Ooh Ahh" to myself, before wondering if I'd perhaps not drank enough water and the dehydration was sending me crazy. I had planned to get in shape before our trip, but things had got in the way (mainly laziness) so I hadn't done any sort of strenuous walking for a long time; but despite this, I felt good and it was still not too hot at all so I carried on to the next point; Cedar Ridge. The whole walk was a 3 mile round trip, with a descent of about 1000 feet.





When I got back to the top I saw this little guy, who was just staring out into the canyon, deep in thought.




I think I disturbed him

I made it back to the campsite for a late breakfast, which Rach had decided to get up for; but I wasn't in the mood for hanging around and was eager to get back out, so we hurried up and got away for the second walk of the day. As far as I know, the Bright Angel trail is the most popular, with plenty of stops along it, but also lots of people. Rach was becoming more pregnant by the day, so we weren't sure how far to go and decided to just play it by ear. It was heating up quickly, and we were very aware that going down was the easy part so it was difficult to judge how far to go; but Rach kept assuring me at every point that she was fine to carry on, and she actually looked like she was coping better than I was!






Michael Jackson made an appearance

In the end we stopped at the Indian Garden, which had a toilet and water tap, so we stopped, filled up, emptied out and started the trek back. This was further than we'd planned to come, and was a 9-mile round trip with a 3000 ft decent, but it was worth it to get closer to the canyon floor for a great view. The clouds were coming in quick, and a ranger passed us telling everyone that a big storm was coming, and it'd be wise to head back. The walk back was very tiring and slightly awkward at points, when someone moves over to let you pass, then ends up passing you later on, then you pass them again, and so on until one of you wins and becomes the trail leader. Or something like that. The rain started just as we arrived at the top of the trail, but not before some of the loudest and brightest thunder and lightning I've ever heard. We were nearly 7000ft up, and that meant that we were at one point engulfed by cloud. The rain was absolutely mental, so we took shelter with just about everybody else in a gift shop near the start of the trail and waited for the worst of the storm to pass. I don't think I've ever experienced such a large amount of rain dumped in such a short amount of time.

The shuttles were absolutely packed, and queues to get on them huge, so we walked along to the stop before the start of the trail which was much quieter, and meant we managed to get on the shuttle and get a seat. The shuttle actually had to pass most of the stops, as it was completely full, so we quickly got back to the campsite.

The rain continued for some time, so we headed to the main shop to see if there were any games or something we could buy to keep us occupied, but surprisingly there was nothing but playing cards. The rain was relentless, so we ended up sitting in the tent for a while until the rain subsided enough for us to light a fire, which it eventually did later on. I managed to get the fire lit, and cooked some of the "food" we'd bought the previous day before the rain started again. We didn't mind so much as we were exhausted. I've not slept that well in a good while.

[LeicesterLuke]

Just found some photos I took with my phone:

[LeicesterLuke]

I'm still here! Things getting even busier, but I'll still try and finish this.

Day 21
Today we were driving to Vegas, with the aim of heading off the Interstate and following Route 66 as we had done before. It had stopped raining but was still wet, so not great weather for packing away a tent. Before we left we stopped in the car park near the visitor centre and walked to the edge of the canyon to get one more look of this magnificent view. As I mentioned before, it's something I will never forget, and was still gobsmacked every time I saw it. I vowed that this would not be the last time I see this place.

After taking it all in we headed towards the southern entrance, stopping along the way every so often to get just one more look at the canyon. I was very glad that we entered at the eastern entrance, as the queue to get in was huge! It went back for possibly miles, with lots of RVs in the queue. Getting out was fine, however, and we sped down to Flagstaff to join Route 66.

There were various points along the way that the historic Route 66 separated from the highway, and we followed these as often as we could. This part of it was obviously much more travelled than the dirt road we had gone down when we had followed the old Route 66 before, as there were plenty of novelty bars, restaurants, hotels and gift shops lining the road. We stopped for pizza in a small restaurant in Seligman that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, where we ordered a large pizza. We were warned that they are pretty big, but we didn't realise there was so much that we'd only get half way through! We took the rest of it and carried on.



After Seligman, Route 66 takes quite a detour from the interstate, rather than following it closely as it had been doing; eventually joining back up at Kingman. This is where we left Route 66 and headed up to Vegas. It was about a 3 hour drive from the pizza place to Vegas, and we were glad to finally get there.

We were staying in the Treasure Island hotel, so drove into the car park and eventually found our way to the reception. I've never been to Vegas before, so wasn't expecting the huge queue just to get checked in, so we were waiting quite a while, which wasn't ideal after the loooong drive. At least it was air conditioned! I eventually got to the front of the queue and got checked in fine. I mentioned it was our honeymoon so I was told to call room service and they'd bring up a complimentary bottle of champagne, which was nice. We went up to the room and got settled in. We weren't on the side facing the strip, but that was fine because the room was nice. I left Rach to have a lie down and wait for the champagne whilst I went and got the rest of the bags from the car. Turns out it's California "champagne", which after just doing some research is called so because of a legal loophole from WW1, and Rach got a funny look (a pregnant woman taking delivery of a bottle of champagne). I enjoyed it just the same, and had a few glasses before we went out for a swim (yes I know, not a good idea). The pool was pretty busy, but not crowded, so we enjoyed cooling down.


Classy, I know

We went back up to the room where I finished the rest of the champagne before we went down to the all-you-can-eat buffet that we had been given half price vouchers for. The food was great, and there was such a wide variety of food that I massively over indulged. I paid extra for unlimited alcoholic drinks, but this probably wasn't the best move, as the service was pretty slow, and I was struggling to drink anything anyway with the amount of food I had.

After settling the bill, it was time for a gamble! I'm not a frequent visitor of casinos, but I do like a bit of blackjack, especially at the end of a night out. We started off on the slots, and Rach managed to win $50 from $5 pretty much straight away, so we were off to a good start. We'd set a gambling budget so that if we lost it didn't matter, and we knew where to stop, so we wandered about the seemingly endless slot machines until we got to the tables. Now it was my time to shine! I nearly crashed out at first, but after playing for a while I ended up $100 up! This gambling thing is easy!

After a bit more gambling and a few more drinks, we went outside for a quick wander. It was still very hot, and we discovered that Vegas isn't really built for the pedestrian, as it was quite awkward walking along the strip, with various gangways and steps taking you down to street level, then back up, then back down. It was hard work! We didn't last too long before we headed back to the casino, where I won a bit more to make up for earlier losses and we went to bed $150 up.

[LeicesterLuke]

Day 22
We had a bit of a lie in and enjoyed sleeping in an actual bed; before this we'd slept in a car, then in a tent, and afterwards would be in a tent for another few nights. When we finally got up, we went for another wander around the strip to try and find somewhere for breakfast. Unfortunately, everywhere was absolutely mobbed; Denny's had a queue right out the door, and this turned out to be a recurring theme pretty much everywhere. We kept walking and eventually found a bar that served food, but by this time it was actually lunch rather than breakfast.

The first stop of the day was a shooting range called Battlefield Vegas. We had to take advantage of shooting a gun whilst we were there, and I definitely made the most of it, hiring an AK47, glock, shotgun, and a few other guns. We paid extra for more ammo that we could share so that we only paid for one package. We thought there may be issues with Rach firing some of the bigger guns because of the recoil, but didn't imagine that there'd be any other issues. We found out after we paid that we were quite mistaken; turns out the noise of the guns can damage the baby's ears, so unfortunately Rach had to sit it out. She was devastated as it was something she'd really been looking forward to. It was made worse by the long wait for me to get on the firing range, and this combined with the non-stop morning sickness really got to her. I felt pretty guilty, but once I got hold of the guns this was completely gone; it was a great experience! The AK47 gave me a pretty big bruise on my shoulder from the recoil which shows just how powerful they are.



The gun range had taken a lot longer than we thought, so we went back to the hotel for a quick swim then headed out for dinner. After dinner we went for another walk down the strip, but stopped in more of the hotels, like the Bellagio, Venecian, Caesars Palace etc. and had a quick gamble in each of them. They all had their interesting own themes, and Caesars Palace had a shopping centre in which we did a bit of shopping. We walked back along to our hotel, stopping at the famous water fountain show, then went for another quick gamble and a few drinks in some of the bars. One of the bars we went to had random female punters stripping to their underwear and riding a mechanical bull, making it as "sexy" as they could to progress to the next round until eventually one of them won money or something.

[LeicesterLuke]

Day 23
After a heavy night I couldn't face getting up early, so we wandered around looking for somewhere to get breakfast which was pretty much a repeat of the day before, and ended up leaving Vegas about 1.30pm; not ideal considering the long journey we had ahead. We made the customary stop at the Welcome to Vegas sign which had a large queue of people waiting to get a "selfie" with it, so we took photos from the side as it was far too hot to wait.



Our first stop of the day was Dante's View, a view point 5,476 ft up that's accessible via a winding road up the side of the mountain. It was a bit of a detour, but definitely worth it; it had some spectacular views of Badwater Basin below.



We drove back down the winding road and round the mountain to Badwater Basin. It's 282 ft below sea level and is the lowest point in North America. It's also incredibly hot, with the car telling us it was exceeding 120f! There's a sign and platform that tells you the elevation and allows you to walk out above the salt encrusted ground. There must have been some heavy rainfall at some point because there was still pools of water on the ground. I've been to Abu Dhabi and experienced similar temperatures before, but Rach wasn't used to it at all, so we couldn't stop for long wherever we went. We tried driving with the roof down for a bit, but it felt like the heater was on full blast.



You can just about see the "sea level" sign near the top

On the way back up towards furnace creek we pulled off the main road to follow a looped trail called Artist's Drive, which is a scenic road and a nice drive before rejoining the main road. I stopped at one point to check that the car was ok in this heat and noticed that the tyres seemed to be partially melting, with some of the rubber going very soft and sticky. I'd been pushing the speed a bit as it was the longest straightest road I've ever seen sloping down into the valley, so I decided to take it a bit easier.

We pushed on as it was getting late and unfortunately we had to skip Mosaic Canyon which I'd really been looking forward to. We stopped briefly at Zabriskie Point, and further on to take a walk on the sand dunes before carrying on to Lone Pine where we'd be staying for the night.



As we got towards the edge of Death Valley I started to worry as the fuel gauge was getting very low, and I hadn't seen a petrol station for miles. It was also beginning to get dark, and we had to set up a tent once we got there, so although we were enjoying the amazing view as we ascended and descended around the mountains, it was always playing on my mind that we'd get stuck in the middle of nowhere with no phone signal. We eventually came across a family run petrol station where we refuelled and bought some snacks as we hadn't eaten in a while. The petrol was very expensive, but I was just grateful that we were going to be able to make it to our destination at all.

With fuel in our tank and our spirits renewed, another worry soon started to set in: what if it's completely dark by the time we get there and we can't see to put the tent up. After such a long day, we decided to just stay in a motel, and so after arriving at around 9pm, we drove through the small town looking for the cheapest looking accommodation. We ended up staying at a Best Western which turned out to be the most expensive place we stayed at during the whole trip as it was such short notice. There seemed to be a lot of bugs about, so we opened the door and dived into our room to find quite a few bugs already in there. We still hadn't eaten so we headed to the only place that was open, a Carl Jr's and discovered that we weren't just unlucky having a few bugs in our room, but that the town had been completely infested. The were millions of these flying bugs everywhere, and any light source was covered by a hazy thick cloud of these things. Inside every building they were everywhere! I read in the news when we got back that the infestation just got worse, and there were huge piles of these bugs everywhere.


Taken from a news site

Once back at the room we tried to get some sleep, but one of these bugs flew right into my ear, and I spent the next hour or so convinced that I hadn't got it out and it was going to burst my eardrum. Luckily this wasn't a case, and I think my ear was just tickling inside and I couldn't reach to scratch it. We started to worry that Yosemite, where we were heading the next day would be like this, and thought we wouldn't be able to cope if we had to camp in these kind of conditions.

[Southwest Dave]

Good to see you back. Enjoying your report and photos which also bring back good memories of the area.

Dave.