I haven’t been able to upload my
blog for a few days since the WiFi at our campground has been either nonexistent
or not working, so I have a lot to catch up on! The “Coffee Bean Dreams”
project is at an interesting point, anyways, since I’m lucky enough to be
taking this road trip vacation, and my morning coffee reflections are being
done at actual locations of natural beauty rather than just reading about them
online. So here is a quick catch-up on what we’ve been doing. I tried to
shorten it a bit since it’s several days rolled into one blog, but it still
turned out kind of long!
Day 44 (June 21st) – We visited the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. On the first day we did the Rim
Trail. Portions of it are paved so we took Amelie in the stroller so that she
would be nice and shaded, since it was sunny and hot! There are portions of the
path that are not paved and don’t work with the stroller, so we took the free
shuttle between those. I do have some baby carriers that I like to hike with
her in, but it’s so hot right now that having her wrapped up in a carrier and
right against me was just too much heat. It was not as adventurous as some
hikes I’ve done in the past, but it was beautiful nonetheless, and I didn’t
have to worry about Baby Girl getting too much sun or getting too hot. In the evening
the temperatures at the Rim dropped significantly, and I ended up even putting
on a hoodie while we watched the sunset over the canyon, which was one of the
most spectacular sunsets I’ve ever seen! On the second day we were at the Grand
Canyon, we checked out the desert view side, which had some great views as
well. We didn’t spend as much time there, though, because we just drove the
road and stopped at the lookout points instead of hiking- we wanted to get to
our next stop, Monument Valley, before dark!
Enjoying Sunset and cooler temperatures at the Grand Canyon's South Rim
I should mention, since I’ve been
talking about the seven wonders of the natural world, that the Grand Canyon is
on the list! The Grand Canyon, while not the steepest or longest canyon in the
world, is on the list because of its overall size and scale and beautifully
colored landscape. It’s 277 miles long, has widths ranging from 4-18 miles, and
a depth of over one mile. It was formed by erosion from the Colorado river over
millions of years. You can read more about the Grand Canyon here: http://sevennaturalwonders.org/the-original/grand-canyon/
and here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Canyon.
I feel very lucky to have been able to see this beautiful canyon, and have seen
one of the seven wonders of the natural world!
Day 45 (June 22nd) –
Today we explored Monument Valley, which is located in Utah right near the
Arizona/Utah border. Monument Valley is essentially a series of huge rocks
jutting up into the landscape. It’s pretty incredible to see. The rocks are at
various stages of erosion: mesas are the first stage of erosion and are wide,
stable rocks that look like tables; buttes are the second stage of erosion and
are smaller than mesas; and spires are the final stage of erosion and are
narrow, free standing rock formations. Monument Valley has a wide range of
these giant rock formations in all of these stages of erosion. The land these
rocks sit on was at one time underneath the Gulf of Mexico. Through millions of
years of the sea withdrawing and uplift of the Earth’s crust creating the Colorado
plateau, the forces of this uplift and erosion left behind these giant rock
formations and now we have Monument Valley, which, of course, is still eroding
slowly today. (More on Monument Valley: http://www.navajonationparks.org/index.htm).
There is a 17 mile round-trip unpaved
road that takes you right into Monument Valley. You can pay a per-car fee to do
a self-guided drive of this road. The road is a little rough and very dusty.
Thankfully, we had a four-wheel drive vehicle, so it was no problem. In fact,
Baby Girl seemed to love the rough spots in the road, and when we went over a
particularly bouncy spot, she would often laugh, which, of course, made us
laugh as well! The self-guided tour was awesome- you basically travel right
through and around these giant structures. It was nice to be in the air
conditioned car, too, because it was HOT! We only pulled Baby out for a few
quick minutes to snap a photo of her- too much sun and heat for such a little
thing!
The view from our campground at Monument Valley. Not too shabby!
Driving the rough road through Monument Valley. Notice the person and cars in the photo to get a sense of scale.
A quick photo op with Baby Girl at Monument Valley
Day 46 (June 23rd) –
We drove to Canyonlands National Park in Utah and went to the Needles Portion. (The
Park is divided into three areas: Needles, Island in the Sky, and The Maze:
these sections are not directly connected to each other so visiting more than
one in a day is pretty difficult). The Canyonlands are another area of the Colorado plateau where rock deposits and erosion have left behind impressive rocky
cliffs, mesas, canyons, and river gorges. (More on the Canyonlands: http://www.nps.gov/cany/naturescience/index.htm).
There are several challenging
hiking trails, and many very challenging 4x4 trails. We hiked a few easy trails
and just made sure Baby was covered from the sun with her hat and a light
blanket. Although I enjoy challenging hikes, those will have to wait a few
years now! Honestly, though, it was so hot that maybe it was nice to have a
valid “excuse” for not doing the more difficult trails! In any event, the
scenery available from the trails we did and the lookout points on the scenic
drive was still well worth the trip!
Canyonlands. It's hard for a picture to give a true sense of scale here.
Day 47 (June 24th) –
Today we spent the morning seeing a few more scenic outlooks in Canyonlands,
and then drove to Moab, Utah because we are planning to spend some time at
Arches National Park. (We spent a few minutes at Arches watching the sunset,
which was gorgeous!) The Anticline Outlook at Canyonlands was beautiful,
although the bugs today were out in full force. I’m not sure exactly what they
are, but there are all these little gnat-like bugs that were incessantly flying
around every time we got out of the car. So today’s hikes were a little short,
but we did see some beautiful spots in Canyonlands. And, bonus- our new
campground in Moab has working WiFi, so I can upload these updates to my blog!
I must say, however, there is something nice about being completely off the
grid, unconnected to the rest of the world and just enjoying nature! I’m excited
to explore more of Arches tomorrow, but as you can tell, it’s been a great
several days full of many opportunities to take in some truly spectacular
natural beauty!
Baby Girl and I enjoying the sunset at Balanced Rock in Arches National Park
Whew, that was a lot! I hope you enjoyed catching up on the last few days!
Xoxo,
Diana
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