Winslow and beyond

These posts are currently all out of order, but we stayed in Winslow, Arizona the last night of our road trip. We tried to stay at the Wigwam Motel but you need to make reservations weeks in advance to stay there. Isabella was tired of staying in dives (which i love!) so she opted for a $80 a night room so we could watch that nights episode of True Blood. When I walked into the room I saw a HUGE cockroach on the floor running away, it was the first bug in a motel I had seen the entire trip. I never told her that lol. Sometimes the saying you get what you pay for isnt always true. I’ll stick to my $30 a night motel rooms thank you very much.   

 

Highway 24 Utah

 

Cortez

Iz and I stopped in Cortez after leaving Mesa Verde National Park late. We stopped in at Dennys Classic restaurant to eat some grub then got a cheap motel to sleep for the night before heading back down to Arizona.

 

Highway 12 Utah

 

Moab

 

Arches National Park

Arches National Park- Eh, Me and Iz stopped at Arches on the way to Colorado, but I didnt really find it fascinating as i thought i would find it. I guess maybe living in the west for the last two years has made me used to rocks jetting out of the air in odd settings, i dont know. I’ll have to give it another go one day and maybe I’ll think its more exciting. I just think maybe we werent feeling it i guess. It was a lot of driving in really hot temperatures for not much to look at.

 

Canyonlands

 

Green River Utah

 

Bryce Canyon

 

Driving to Bryce Canyon

 

Waking up to Zion

Waking up and wandering through Zion National Park is otherworldly. This was mine and Iz’s first time at Zion, and it made us both want to get seasonal jobs so we could live here.. I was so floored by the beauty at Zion i hardly took pictures while we were there so i definitely need to go back and spend more time in this majestic part of the world.We didn’t stay as nearly long as we should have, but i had this whole crazy road trip thing planned and there were sort of time restraints going on.

MSN/Bing recently came out with this article on favorite national parks in the US that i read yesterday. It had listed around 20 national parks and i was surprised to see Zion come in dead last. I mean are you kidding me? that place is awesome! Just do an image search for Zion narrows, or Zion subway. Just because something like the Grand Canyon is most visited and one of the largest doesn’t mean it should always come in first place.

 

Roadtrip August 2011 Day 1

My niece Iz and I went on a road trip for her last 5 days in Arizona and we saw some amazing things. It was a fabulous road trip, with around 3000 photos to show for it. My computer has been transferring the pictures now for an hour and 10 minutes so eventually I’ll get to start posting them…

Road trip 2011 started off by us watching Heroes the night before til the wee hours. I eventually fell asleep, but I’m pretty sure Iz almost finished the first season before she started work at 645am on Sunday. As soon as she got off work she turned in all her employee paperwork and packed a few more things, we were on the road. We left the Canyon around 5pm so not many pictures were taken on Sunday night, but I do have a few. We stopped for gas at the GC Watchtower station, Iz got in her last jewelry buying spree by the stands outside the park, saw a rainbow, went onto the Cameron Trading Post to get some Sacred Tacos of the Navajo to go, and Iz bought some salsa and Fry Bread dough to take home, we saw one heck of a storm around Lee’s Ferry, and drove on through half the night to just outside Zion National Park to spend the night at the Golden Hills Motel.

 

new mini road trip planned!

 

Grand Canyon Death

Lookout Studio on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon

Death becomes almost common in certain parts of the year here at Grand Canyon National Park. We get sent emails from NPS press releases about accidents that happen within the park on a regular basis. Living in such a large national park though, it does come with its consequences. i cant even begin to imagine how the life of a ranger is in this place. It must be a freaking nightmare. One of the worst parts about this is it always happens during the busiest part of the day in the busiest location of the entire south rim. Lots of people see death happen here. If you’re going to end your life please think of the other people on this earth that have to deal with the aftermath. Park Rangers, actual human beings have to go down and retrieve you. They have to risk their own lives on a daily basis. Repelling 200 feet down the side of a cliff might be exciting in some parts of the world, but not when you are going to pick up the aftermath of a death. People have to witness the end of your life, actual children see it happen. When we tell people to come down from the rock wall ledge, or say, hey you really shouldn’t be trying to stand between those two enormous elk to get your picture taken with them, or really please stop feeding the squirrels by hand unless you want rabies. We really do mean it. This is a dangerous park, the signs are all over the place, read them.

A rescue helicopter flies in to locate a person 200 feet below the Grand Canyon

 

Meteor Crater, arizona, usa