Me: "Umm. What is today's date?"
Gabe: "Wednesday." Pause. "Maybe."
Slowly realized we had completely lost track of time and were one day ahead of ourselves... I have a set "check-in date" at UC Irvine. For some reason, we had thought that date was on a Thursday. About 30 minutes into our drive to Vegas, we realized, oops - nope, it's actually on a Friday. So -- wow. EXTRA DAY!
What to do, what to do... Pulled over, consulted the map (THANKS RICK) and each other, and.... Grand Canyon it is! Turned the car around and chug, chug, chug.... to Arizona!
Except... we did not quiiiiite make it to the Grand Canyon that evening. We called the park ranger station from the road, and it seemed that the North Rim camping sites were full; we decided, then, to camp in the Kaibab National Forest, just outside the Grand Canyon Park. (Kaibab means "Mountain Lying Down," by the way...)
We met this dude along the way. We noticed him at Zion - saw him again on the road to the Kaibabs. We pulled over to offer him a couple of beers and see where he was truckin to -- Gabe tried to chat him up a bit, but then, Highway Patrol came with their rude sirens and broke the party up - "You CANNOT park along this road. GET back in your car and GET out of here!" Stern, chubby, sun-burnt man.
Be still my heart... Also, there is a special squirrel, called "The Silver Ghost of the Northern Rim" (hehe, ok, no - that is his nickname. His real name is the Kaibab Squirrel) and he only lives on the northern rim of the Grand Canyon -- no other place in the world does it for him. :)
The Kaibab National Forest allows camping at large. We found a logging trail into the forest, drove my poor lil Hyundai in, and found a nice spot to pitch camp. What a beautiful night of stars!
In the morning, we got up, packed the tent away, and headed to the Grand Canyon! Took a short hike along the Widforss Trail (named for an artist, Gunnar Widforss, who did landscapes of the Canyon in the '20s, I believe) and then took off.... for Vegas ! (for real this time....)
Gabriel, shooting wildlife (har har har...)
1 comment:
Wow, Gabe and dude look so happy talking with each other :) And the Grand Canyon looks GRAND.
...I need to come up with better comments :/
Post a Comment