Gigantic Canyon

Ben has been wanting to see the Grand Canyon for quite some time now. We figured since we're moving soon, we should take advantage of the opportunity to see it while we live so close. So Friday, we packed up the car with all of our camping gear and a ton of food and headed for Arizona.

About 20 minutes into our drive, we took an impromptu stop near Santaquin for a place called Red Barn. We saw a billboard that claimed amazing ice cream, so we immediately pulled over and got some. It lived up to the advertisements.



We drove down to Mt. Carmel, right outside Orderville (the combined population of which is probably less than 600), where we camped for the night. We were both a bit surprised when we got there to realize the camping ground we had made our reservations at was little more than a parking lot. Apparently this is common for southern Utah, because those are the only types of camping sites we saw along the way.

We had a nice evening there, with tasty tin foil dinners and peach cobbler. Ben also became friendly with the Australian-German man camping next to us.

Saturday morning, we drove down to Kanab, where we had breakfast, and then continued on to Grand Canyon National Park. We had heard about all of the wildlife in the park, but were pleasantly surprised to find this road block right after we entered the park boundaries.



We went to the North Rim, which is less crowded than the South Rim--not to mention 2 hours closer. It was a beautiful day and did not feel crowded at all. We first went on the Bright Angel Point hike, which is really more of a walk, that juts out into the canyon, with steep drops on both sides. I had to struggle a bit with my intense fear of heights, but the view was beautiful.

I know it looks like I'm ignoring the canyon, but the view extended on both sides of the trail.



We then picnicked at a spot with a great view of the canyon. Ben, of course, took a nap.

The next, and last, hike that we did was the North Kaibab Trail, which took us into the canyon. This is probably the most popular, or at least most famous trail. It goes all the way down into the canyon, and a lot of people hike down on donkeys (I was often quite jealous of those people).

We just did the first leg of the hike, which took us to the Supai Tunnel, and was only a little over 2 miles each way. Keep in mind that this trail is going straight down into a canyon, so it often felt like longer to a certain pregnant lady....

If anyone takes this hike, we highly suggest walking through the tunnel and not just stopping at the water fountain before it. The view on the other side of the tunnel is amazing.



After this hike, we drove back to Kanab, where we spent the night. We drove back Sunday and made another impromptu side trip when we decided to drive through Zion's National Park. The drive was amazing, it put us right up next to the giant rock formations--pictures just don't do them justice.



There are a couple of tunnels that we went through on this road. It was a beautiful drive and a great end to the trip.

We Comin' to America Today

It's true, the Fishers have returned to the US. We'll be spending the next couple of days in southern California with my grandparents. They're throwing us a belated wedding reception, plus we're celebrating my birthday here. But we'll have plenty of time to talk about our plans and endeavors back in our country of origin (though they may not be quite as exciting)--we still have one last Thai adventure to cover.

For our last few days in Thailand, we traveled north to the city of Chiang Mai. We took a sleeper train there, which helped the 13 hour trip go by very quickly.

We spent our first two days there on a treck through the jungle. First, we rode around on an elephant for about an hour, feeding it and enjoying the scenery. Boy do they eat a lot.

Once we finished with the elephants, we began our hike.

It was about a 3 hour hike through the jungle up into the "mountains" as I call them.  The first 20 minutes of the hike were along the road, and this was quite deceiving--the last hour or so was straight up the side of the mountain on what can only be described as slippery mud. However, the view when we got to the top was amazing. 

We stayed in a hill tribe village with the 10 other people in our group. They fed us and we all slept in a room covered in mosquito nets.

The next day, we hiked back down the hill/mountain, including a stop to swim at a waterfall.

We ended the trip by white water and bamboo rafting (during the white water rafting I became reminiscint of the aches of paddling a kayak). Needless to say, we were relieved to get back to a clean bed and a shower. We spent the evening talking with a couple of Buddhist monks. We also found a diner that served the most amazing hamburgers and cheese fries.

The next day, we woke up early to do Flight of the Gibbons. This is supposed to be the most amazing thing to do in Thailand, and it lived up to its reputation.  The best way to describe it is as a ziplining tour through the jungle.

We were outfitted with equipment and went from tree top to tree top ziplining and bungee jumping. Our only complaint was that it wasn't long enough.

So now after spending 36 of 48 hours on either a plane or a train, we are back in the United States and happy to be here. We had a wonderful time in Thailand, but there's nothing like being able to converse with people in English or order a Domino's pizza delivered right to your door at midnight.