Plateau Point, Grand Canyon National Park - April 2012
Our favorites:
Do: Bright Angel Trail to Plateau Point (12 miles; 3,000′ elevation change – very strenuous and worth every bit!)
Eat: Dinner – El Tovar Dining Room
The craziness of the Grand Canyon can’t really be described in words so I won’t bother trying. You have to go there yourself.
I’ve noticed a phenomenon common to almost all national parks: the more difficult the place is to get to, the cooler the people you’ll meet there. At the rim of the Grand Canyon is the usual assortment of tourists: crabby families from Nebraska, suburban tweens who have no grasp of nature at all and demon children screaming from strollers. Surprisingly, I only heard one parent threaten to throw his child over the edge. We hiked 6 miles and 3,080 vertical feet down into the inner canyon and found well-traveled, hardy souls from all over the country and world. These are the people who understand that you can’t hike into the Canyon wearing flip flops and carrying a can of coke. They’re the people who have interesting stories and are on amazing National Park road trips like us.
A little more information about the hike we did … We started at the Bright Angel Trailhead that leaves the rim just west of the major cluster of lodges in Grand Canyon Village. We did a 12 mile round-trip hike to Plateau Point and back via Bright Angel Trail and Plateau Point Trail. Bright Angel drops 3,080 feet from the rim in a series of twisting switchbacks to Indian Garden, a spring-fed oasis of large, green trees. There are rest houses at mile 1.5 and mile 3 where you can catch your breath. Indian Garden is 4.5 miles from the rim and has a ranger station, water filling station, a campground, toilets and picnic tables. Just past Indian Garden we split off onto the Plateau Point trail that is mostly level for another 1.5 miles to a point of rock that juts out over the inner canyon. The Colorado river is still 1,300 feet below. The view of what you have to climb back up is intimidating to say the least, but 7.5 hours after leaving the rim in the morning, we were standing back at the top. Awesome.
Joshua Tree National Park - March 2012
Our favorites:
Do: Ryan Mountain Trail; 49 Palms Trail
Eat: Brunch – Crossroads Cafe (Joshua Tree, CA)
Stay: Harmony Motel (Twentynine Palms, CA)
We’re currently on Interstate 40 heading toward Arizona after spending about 50 miles on a section of the original Route 66. Yesterday was a busy day of hiking. 6.6 miles total on four separate hikes. The most spectacular one was to the top of Ryan Mountain. It climbed almost 1,000 feet in elevation in a mile and a half. The reward is a 360 degree view of the park. The other hikes were shorter and flatter. Hidden Valley takes you into a dead end canyon where cattle used to graze. We attempted to take another trail to a former mine, but with only a half hour of daylight left and only stacks of rocks to follow, we decided to head back to the car. After viewing the sunset from a rock pile along the main road through the park, we checked into Harmony Motel (who’s most famous guests were the members of U2). We then headed into Twentynine Palms for dinner at Bistro 29. In these remote locations it’s important to find a place that doesn’t close at 8pm.
Three and a half hours until the Grand Canyon! We should be there in time for sunset.
Virgin America may have surpassed JetBlue as my favorite American airline. Our flight was delayed 75 minutes because of storms 12 hours earlier in the day … way to go O’Hare! When we arrived at our gate, the staff announced they were passing out word scrambles, and the first five people to get them all correct would receive a voucher for a free movie, drink or premium tv channels. They didn’t say teamwork was illegal, so we won four of them (there was also a paper airplane contest, but we didn’t participate). On the plane, they don’t do the normal beverage cart thing, you just order what you want on your personal touch screen and a flight attendant brings it to your seat almost immediately. I redeemed my coupon for a whiskey sunrise. Two shots of alcohol go a long way toward making a flight more enjoyable, but the pink and blue mood lighting, radio stations and selection of tv and videos to watch helped as well. Captain Tim even came into the cabin before the flight and introduced himself and the flight attendants, nice touch. Alright Rancho Cucamonga, it’s been real, but we have a National Park to get to.
The day is finally here! Early this evening we’ll be heading off on our great Southwest road trip. Before we go, I’ll take a moment to introduce our co-pilots, husband ad wife duo, Emily and Jake, who arrived in Chicago from Iowa last night. Emily and I go all they way back to 7th grade, when we had adjacent lockers in junior high school. We stayed close over the years and since then, we traveled to Spain in 2004 and Italy in 2007. When an enthusiastic Italian tour guide yelled “Continue traveling to-ge-ther!” from a departing van, we had no option but to follow her advice. A friend you can travel with is the best kind of friend. Last summer, three months into marriage, Emily and Jake were our first friends to share a road trip. We had such an amazing time going from San Francisco to Seattle that all it took to convince then to join us in the Southwest was an email that said “Buy a plane ticket to L.A. for March 30 through April 8. Details to come.”
Hard to believe in 24 hours we’ll be in Joshua Tree National Park!
Emily, Jake, Nick and Neil high on Mt. Lassen. July 2011.
Since 1986, bearers of a National Park Passport have been able to get their passport books stamped at park visitor centers and ranger stations. These cancellation stamps are a great way for NPS enthusiasts to chronicle their experiences…unless you’ve only recently found out about them, as we did in 2010 after having already traveled to a number of National Parks and Monuments!
Thankfully, a new iPhone app has just come out to fulfill the same purpose. Not only does it provide information on all current NPS sites, it lets you know which ones are close to you through GPS, and also allows you to record all your visits, past and present, and shows them all on a map:
Filbert Street, San Francisco - July, 2011
Our favorites:
Do: Alcatraz (book well ahead!)
Do: Bike rental in Golden Gate Park (Wheel Fun Rentals)
See: Coit Tower (view from the top)
Drink: Top of the Mark
Eat: Brunch – Squat & Gobble
Eat: Dinner – L’Ardoise
A couple months ago, we thought it might be a great idea to spend the night at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. You typically have to plan 13 months ahead to stay in the hotel lodge at Phantom Ranch, but rugged types can enter a lottery for a campsite four months ahead of their arrival. We’re not campers in general, but we thought it would be worth it to get to sleep in the Grand Canyon. It is a nine mile hike each way, and not recommended to reach the bottom and return to the top without overnight accommodations. It turns out we didn’t get a campsite, so we’ll be staying in lodges on the South Rim and our hiking will be limited to about halfway down the Bright Angel trail and back up (among other hikes). At first I was really disappointed, but after reading a chapter in the book “Ranger Confidential”, by former park ranger Andrea Lankford, I think I’m ok with it. She describes hiking out of the Grand Canyon from bottom to top “not fun” and “an ordeal”. Also, there is a chance of being stung by a scorpion while you hike, or even while you sleep. As cool as it would be to stay at the bottom, I guess I can live without that.
Here are some other fun facts I learned about the Grand Canyon:
New Orleans - April, 2011
Our favorites:
Do: Voodoo/Cemetery walking tour
(ask for Creole Gwen, and beware of Priestess Miriam!)
Do: Jean Lafitte National Historical Park & Preserve
Drink: Cure
See: Louisiana State Museum – Katrina and Beyond exhibit
Eat: Brunch – The Lucky Ladle
Eat: Dinner – Sylvain
highkicktravel 
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