Weekend Adventures--Hiking

Our new home is located about ten minutes (fifteen?) outside of the Jefferson National Forest. We've already taken advantage of two great hikes! The first was not so much a "hike" as it was a stroll. When my mom was in town we went to Pandapas Pond. This place was great for just a nice little walk, and it seemed like it was stocked with fish, should you be interested in that kind of fishing. 

photo credit Melodee Brady

It was very peaceful. If it weren't for the bugs and the heat, I might want to sit here all day and read a book! 

photo credit Melodee Brady

There were some amazing flowers (thanks mom for the pics!)

and then there was a scary Sith Lord Duck thing. Will someone PLEASE tell me what this is so I can stop worrying about it?

photo credit Melodee Brady

    Most recently Mark and I made our way to Bald Knob. The "mountains" here are so rounded that apparently they get to be called knobs instead of points. I have to say, after hiking to the top of one, while it certainly doesn't lack altitude, knob is a way better term than point. The drive up was pretty windy, but nothing the WRX couldn't handle! I have to say the beautiful country drives are turning out to be a good chunk of the fun for our weekend adventures. 

The trail itself started out at a beautiful resort that also happened to be the location for the film Dirty Dancing! For me, having grown up watching that movie, it felt as if we drove into the movie. 

Sadly we didn't get a lot of very good pictures of the resort. I guess we'll have to go back! This is what the "pond" looks like now though.

The hike itself was amazing. We took the wooded trail up and the service road down, which seems like a common set up for trails around here. The trail was narrow and steep but well kept. 

Near the top was some beautiful rock, which reminded us a little of European ruins, though this was just natural stone. Some of it was however used to make stairs along the trail. 

Finally, we made it to the top! The view was amazing! Can you see our house?

(I couldn't find our house either...)

We make a trip to an alien planet

The next day of our trip was Monday and we headed to the Petrified Forest National Park. We woke up to a little bit of snow and hail in Flagstaff and discovered the crazy winds from the Grand Canyon were determined to accompany us through the next few days of our journey.

Petrified wood is essentially wood that has been turned to rock over a long, long time. That explanation is so boring. If you want the science and supposed "truth" of it all, google is your friend. However visiting the park with an overactive imagination it is easy to see that actually what happened is we shifted to another dimension, possibly another planet when driving through the entrance of the park. Here is a video proving that there is a clear reality shift at the entrance to the park. You can see Stephanie and I are obviously being sucked into the park by inter-dimensional force.

Once inside the park we found other proof of our shift to another planet. Take these rock trees, for example. They are clearly not normal Earth things.

The terrain was also very interesting. We are thinking that America's greatest TV and filmmakers must have visited this planet before because some of our best sci-fi has to have been at least inspired by these landscapes. 

We did find some evidence of Alien Life, but sadly it seems as if the creatures have either migrated or evolved to another place as these ruins are from hundreds of years ago. 

The last vista is apparently known as the painted dessert, and once we found it we knew we were almost back to reality. But surely, surely this kind of place can't be real?

At long last we made it out of the alien planet National Park and back to our trusty I-40. Soon after, we rolled into New Mexico!

The Grand Canyon

When I last left off, we had just checked into a hotel in Williams, AZ after a long day driving on I-40. Later we posted our Mother's Day videos and after that our lack of time and slow internet combined with exhaustion pretty much stopped me from posting. So I'll continue now starting with our day at the Grand Canyon.

Everyone experiences The Canyon differently. For me, it was my third trip there and it happens to be one of my favorite places in the world. It represents much of the Earth to me, as well as some significant personal family memories I cherish. However, the Canyon is big, and can be hard to take in. Looking at it in real life can feel like you're looking at a picture or painting. It almost seems unreal. If you're not careful, the whole thing can turn into a giant existential crisis. 

In fact despite this being my third visit, and even having experienced a trip to the bottom of the canyon and back up again, I still felt as if there was a little shield up between me and the canyon. The hazy day didn't help, and the really strong winds made it feel as if we were fighting a physical force just to be there. 

We decided to hike around some of the rim trail and also down some of the first part of the Bright Angel trail. At times, we felt like the Canyon was trying to swallow us up. Maybe it was. 

You see, the Canyon is not just a big ditch or another National Park or something to take pictures of. Maybe it was the timing, or the pace, or the vast empty space, but once we got to the Canyon we all got hit with our own versions of Crisis. Mark and I were suddenly confronted with our journey, our recent months of grief, the reality of the months and years to come, and we felt the weight of exhaustion and Life being Hard like we've never felt it before. 

The Canyon is beautiful, and Grand, but also fierce. Also it was cold and windy. We made the most of it though, and still stopped to enjoy many of its best views. 

photo credit: Stephanie Lingwood

We left the Canyon that night, tired, quiet with our own thoughts, and fully aware of many miles we had left in our journey. We made it to Flagstaff where we stopped for the night, making Sunday one of only two days in our entire expedition that we woke up and fell asleep in the same state. At the end of the day, the reality of just how far we had left to go started to sink in. But we plowed on!

photo credit: Stephanie Lingwood

A rare image of Mark in his natural habitat,
photo credit Stephanie Lingwood

FYI this is yet another post that I had a hard time picking pictures. Between Mark and Stephanie we got some amazing shots. Be sure to check out the whole album in our picasa web albums!