So much to see and do! You think they’ll let me play some blackjack? I’m a high-rolling kind of bear.
Tag Archives: road trip
Onwards to the Grand Canyon
Goodbye Page, Arizona! We turned our car westward and southwards and headed towards the Grand Canyon.
Originally we had planned to camp overnight at the Grand Canyon, but 22oF / -5oC forecasts and our recent cold experience at White Sands made us rethink that idea pretty quickly.
Both Pokin and Nick had been to the Grand Canyon and both of them were underwhelmed during their last experience. But since I’d never been, they took me just so I could see it with my own eyes even if we weren’t going to camp. We got in from the east entrance and drove westward along the Grand Canyon park road.
I liked it. I could see myself soaring over those canyons.
We started at Dessert View, which was actually the nicest since you could see the river. We then stopped at various other points that we could drive to along the way.
By the time we got to the main Mather Point viewpoint I was already more interested in the wildlife and how they just didn’t give a hoot about the tourists gathered around.
Well I’m glad we got a taste of it. We could have taken the mandatory shuttle bus to see the rest of the viewpoints, but Nicholas had the idea of going straight to Vegas instead. Vegas yeah! Let’s go!
Passing time around Page while Pokin was at Antelope
Pokin’s gone! It’s just me an my bud!
We decided to speed sight-seeing the wonderful attractions of Page, Arizona.
See how busy we were! We saw hanging gardens, a dam, robot fish and so much more!
Not going to Antelope Canyon
I mentioned we’d learned that the Antelope Canyon (which has an upper and lower section) isn’t publicly accessible. It’s on Navajo land and in fact different families have rights to the different canyons. You have to pay a permit fee, a guide fee, a licensing fee if you want to take photos and possibly sell them, and you have to sign up for a tour in order to go.
Well we didn’t know that, so Pokin spent a few hours on the phone calling up tour companies. Most of them were already booked up, but eventually she found a tour with one spot left. A two hour photography tour with Chief Tsosie of the hour Upper Canyon for $80 at the 10:30 time slot. There was also a $43 regular non photography tour too. Upper Canyon is famous for the beams of light that shine into the canyon at certain times, and as a result it’s crazy busy there. Being crammed into small confined spaces with tonnes of other tourists seemed like the last thing my best bear bud wanted to do, so we wished Pokin good luck and headed towards lower canyon where there were rumours that you could go without a guide.
Which turned out not to be true.
Well it’s true that you could go to lower canyon if you were a photographer. With an SLR. And a tripod. No, your fancy Leica won’t work because they don’t accept mirrorless cameras. So not surprisingly they didn’t accept our cell phone camera as sufficient equipment. And unfortunately we missed the guided tour departure by about 5 minutes so seeing the Antelope Canyon just wasn’t happening.
Off to find something else to do!
Visiting Horseshoe Bend in Page Arizona
Today we took a few hour detour to stay in a small town close to the Grand Canyon along the northern border of Arizona. Along the way I got my first real exposure to the territory of the Navajo Indians. They own some cool land! They own a lot of land!
The purpose of our detour was to visit a couple landmarks – Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon. This is where spontaneous travel bit us a bit in the butt. Only once we arrived did we learn that Antelope Canyon isn’t exactly open to public, and that you need a Navajo guide and you need to go on a tour to see the canyon. And of course many of the best tours were already booked up.
Well at least Horseshoe Bend is free to access so we went there first. It’s a short walk up and then down a sandy hill off the highway.
There it is!
We got there just after sunset to see hordes of tourists lined up along the perimeter to snap photos. Oh photographers. I know one too well.
Well I got a look at the bend. It looked good. I had my fill. Unfortunately Pokin didn’t feel the same way so she dragged us all out of bed at 5:15am the next day to this.
It was still so early I actually only woke up when a gust of cold sandy air hit me in the face. You bet we were grumpy.
Unlike yesterday night where there were over 100 people there, this morning there were only 4 people total. And one bear. I wonder why? BECAUSE THE REST OF HUMANITY IS NOT CRAZY. At least we got good front row seats.
My best bear bud and I were good sports. We stayed until the sun came up.
Then we went back to the car to watch bunnies bounce around the hills till Pokin came back. And of course since there were only two other insane people (also photographers, why am I not surprised???) out there, Pokin made friends with them while they were freezing outdoors with mittens, toques, jackets and tripods. What a bunch. Time for some hot cocoa for me back in the hotel!
Instant noodles in the hotel bathroom
They did it. Mr. Noodle Instant noodles out of coffee cups cooked with a coffee maker in the bathroom. I wanted no part of it. Just hot cocoa, which they didn’t offer me.
Quick impressions of Santa Fe
Just about everyone we told about being in New Mexico said we should go to Santa Fe. So the morning after camping at White Sands Nicholas and Pokin packed up the bags while I waited in the back seat, and then we drove on up.
I’m not sure what we were expecting. It seems to be a town geared towards selling junk to tourists.
There’s a church.
And an older one that we didn’t pay to go in.. And lots of souvenirs. Oh and lots of peppers.
We walked to the square.
We walked up some historic hill.
We ate chips and sat in the lobby of a downtown hotel.
Cool we can say we’ve been to Santa Fe.
Random small town, New Mexico
Welcome to one of the many little towns we drove by on this trip.
And it’s railway crossing.
Next.
Camping in gypsum dunes
While visiting the White Sands National Monument to ask about the missile testing, we learned we could back country camp at White Sands.
Camping in the sand dunes overnight? Sign us up!
We went first thing in the morning and had our pick from 10 different camp sites. We picked Campsite #4, one of the outer campsites facing the sunset.
Since the campgrounds were only a little over a mile away, Nicholas promised I didn’t have to go into my backpack. He said he’d carry me.
I didn’t realize this is what he meant.
I made sure to smack him some once I managed to detangle myself from the mesh.
We got to our site and set up tent at about 5:30pm in the afternoon, when it was still bright and pretty warm out. Nicholas suggested maybe we keep the wind flap off so we can see the stars.
We went exploring. White Sands! This stuff is actually made of gypsum, which is water soluble but since it hardly ever rains here it’s not a big deal.
White Sands is the biggest of its kind in the world! It goes on and on.
We scrambled to the top of one of the dunes to watch sunset.
Sunset’s not bad here. Good front row seats.
Then the sun went down. And it got cold. Really cold.
We quickly put the outer tent layer on. It was still cold. We got close to freezing temperatures and we tried to sleep on top of whatever we could to escape the cold of the ground. Luckily I’m small so I just made my bed on top of Nicholas’ backpack. Pokin and Nicholas had to freeze.
At least the night sky was cool. Pokin got to see it as she went running around outside to warm up so she could sleep.
Well after what felt like a long night because everyone kept waking up from the cold, it finally got lighter. Pokin’s crazy. She got up for sunrise. Nicholas and I wisely stayed inside. And we took her sleeping bag.
We finally ventured out only when it was completely light.
My what difference the sun makes.
This I can handle.
Time to pack up. Next stop!
White out conditions at White Sands
Well my hope of relaxing didn’t last long. Shortly after we got to the hotel Pokin wanted to scout out White Sands for potential sunrise pictures.
Denied. That high wind alert in Guadalupe National Park was in effect here too. And with the wind whipping the sand around in a frenzy things looked a little like this:
No sunset photos for Pokin. Let’s go back to the hotel.
