Wednesday March 24th, 2010
It was snowing when I went out to load up the car. I was laughing my ass off when I saw a whole pile of cars from California covered in snow and they owners weren’t sure how to take the snow off them. They looked at me funny when I pulled my snow brush out of the car and cleaned my car off. I was asked where did I buy that and answered with Canada.
I spent the day driving around the northwest part of New Mexico. I was totally amazed at how the landscape was always changing in terms of rock formations and plant life. I spent about four hours hiking around the Chaco Culture World Heritage Park. It was pretty amazing to see remnants of Pueblo’s that were built sometime in the 800A.D. I was able to get some great photos of pictographs and rock formations.
After that I drove up to Shiprock to take some photos of Shiprock Peak. I was hoping to get up close but the dirt road leading into it started to get pretty sketchy. It was definitely a beautiful sunset.
After that I headed down to Gallup and grabbed a room for the night.
Thursday March 25th, 2010
I continued my day driving around New Mexico.
My first stop was at the El Malpais National Monument. It was really cool to see sandstone bluffs on one side of you and the left overs of volcanic eruption on the other side of you. I also managed to get some amazing photos of a natural arch bridge.
Next stop was at the Very Large Area (VLA). This place had 27 huge radio astronomy dishes that when place in their largest configuration in the shape of a Y that each leg of the Y would be 13 miles long. They were in their smallest configuration close together which was pretty cool to see. For those of you who have seen the movie Contact with Jodie Foster … this is where part of the movie was filmed.
Next stop was Flagstaff, Arizona. The plan was to meet some boaters from the south east that were just finishing up a 16 day paddling adventure down the Grand Canyon. I missed dinner with them but we were able to hang out next door at the Pub for drinks. It was great to meet Anne, Amanda, and the gang.
Friday March 26th, 2010
Once again I woke up to snow on my car.
Todays plan was to hang out at the Grand Canyon for most of the day. The drive over was interesting. At 8000 feet the winds were blowing with white out conditions. There was a car about 300 meters in front of me and then he disappeared only to re-appear in the ditch. Glad I still had my winter tires on. For the most part my trip has been hovering in the low temps and I was prepared with everything from summer to winter clothes and anything in between.
I spent about four hours hiking along the South Rim trail. The view was amazing. I am totally envious of a few different groups of my paddling friends that have been able to paddle the Grand Canyon over the last few months.
I made the drive up to Page Arizona and camped for the night. Luckily I put all the extra tent pegs in as around midnight a huge windstorm accompanied by rain moved in. I thought I was going to lose my tent fly but everything worked out.
