grand. you know, like the buscuits.

Its official. As of 10:06 am on Friday, May 18th, Holly and I entered the first National Park of the trip. We even have a donkey-shaped stamp to prove it. The day started a bit before dawn, but the early drive was scenic and cool. The Grand Canyon rocks. And I'm not trying to be funny. Just the drive through the canyons and meadows to get there is wonderful. We spotted snow on the ground, a fox crossing the road, and a doe hoping for handouts. And then after getting into the park and hiking just a bit you can peer over the edge and gasp as you first glimpse the *insert poetic language often used to describe the grand canyon*. Its pretty daggum amazing. Holly loves to climb up the rocks. I love to climb out on them until I'm at some narrow point with shear rock face straight down on either side. I think at least 12 or 15 perfect strangers will include photos of me teetering on the edge of some cliff included in their "Our Holiday" slideshows. Check out the photos , because the canyon is certainly photo-worthy. We even went the extra mile and caught both sunrise and sunset and watched as the rock glowed orange. We managed to get a permit for backcountry camping (aka camping in the woods, not at a campsite) despite the fact that the ranger thought our plan to catch sunrise and sunset would make finding our tent dangerous due to the dark. Well, we showed her by not only surviving, but having a good time camping in the quiet of the woods. We got to use my new stove for the first time to make some cheese grits and Ritter veggies. Mmm-mmm good.
After sunrise and packing camp, we stopped by Point Imperial along the North Rim which is the highest vista point at either rim (8,803 ft). Heading out of the park, we took the scenic route to loop towards Vegas which happened to take us through Zion National Park. The driving is so surrounded by huge rock formations - cliffs, mountains, plateaus, canyons - that it seems the entire stretch of highway should be deemed a national park. And then entering Zion park is even crazier. Maybe I've just never been around this kind of terrain before, but I just look around and find it hard to believe that my surroundings are real. On our way into the park we saw a car of four Columbian drug lords - 4 guys, shaved heads and jewelry in a BMW... Of course, closer inspection of their tag revealed that they were from British Columbia. Eh, close enough.
We had such good results with taking that scenic route to I-15 that after leaving Zion we decided to take another 'scenic route' along the Lake Meade Recreation Area. Little did we know we were choosing our own demise. You would think that a gas station would have a sign reading "last gas for 60 miles" if that were indeed the case. Well, apparently we think more than others because we flew right by that last gas station (I remember it so clearly *tear*) with less than a quarter tank. Now, its one thing to run out of gas in shady Georgia. But we were in the stinkin' desert. It was HOT. SCORCHING. OWW! We hadn't been running AC along the way to save gas, but after a while it became apparent that we might actually run out. The light came on and still no gas. Miles pass and Holly starts feeling sick thanks to the heat. Still no gas. Well, God is good to us. We were eaten quickly and mercifully by the buzzards. No, not really. We turned off at one point, thinking there was a town that way only to find that we had taken the wrong turn and had to backtrack on our waning tank. We finally reached civilization of some sort miles later and pulled into a station only to find plastic bags on each pump. Blast! (doors). Praying even more now, we headed down the road and finally found another station. We refused to celebrate this find too quickly and after a scary moment of trying to pump and getting nothing, the gas came. Ohhhh yeah.
We got some Gatorade into Holly and our butts back on the road toward the Hoover Dam. We came, we paid $7 to park... it was impressive. The most exhilarating moment was looking up to see a giant clock over the lake. Finally, at long last, we knew what time it was. We'd been confused on that point for 2 solid days. Seriously. We took a picture. We also took a picture with one foot in Arizona and one in Nevada.
Finally, we headed to Vegas. We stopped upon first entering Nevada and Holly (being a big dweeb, you know) grabbed every brochure and map in the place. Free maps seem like a good deal, but we all know that free maps are free for a reason. We were tired and hot - but it didn't make it any less funny when Holly started yelling in frustration "These maps aren't worth the paper they're printed on! What the crap road this is?!?!" And no, "this is" is not a typo. She claims dehydration.
Check out the next post to hear about our stop over in Vegas!