Magellan 2013: Lake Powell, AZ

Currently Listening To: Falling Slowly – Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova

Miles Traveled:  3157.0

Current Location: Lake Powell, AZ

I slept again in the campsite outside Flagstaff last night.  I spent hours trying to fall asleep, and when I couldn’t, I just lay there, thinking.  This trip has had a lot of thinking time.  Practically the past week and a half, all I’ve been doing is thinking, not because I specifically want to, but because when there is no one to converse with, I turn to myself.  Things I haven’t given myself time to think about, or places I haven’t allowed my mind to venture have been thoroughly explored… I’m still contemplating whether or not this is helpful to me.  For sure, I’ll be ready to be back this semester and to get busy again.  I’m determined to make it a great year.

I drove to the Grand Canyon this morning, and stayed briefly at the South Rim.  I took a good amount of pictures, but I got tired of having so many people all around me, and having people in my shots that I left and started driving to the North Rim.  The Grand Canyon is huge.  That’s a definite understatement, but my brain is having issues grasping the hugeness of it, so that’s all I've got.  I climbed over the fence at one of the look out points and climbed down the one side until it came to a complete cliff.  I took some great on the edge pictures for my mom to continue the tradition I started at the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland.  I really like how Arizona changes so much within the state.  When I crossed over from New Mexico, it was flat with little variation in vegetation.  As I drove north, there were big green trees and less wide-open desert-ness.  As I am driving around the Grand Canyon area, there are the deep, layered canyons surrounded by the forests.  As I was driving towards the North Rim, I passed by the Painted Desert, which was totally different than anything I had seen on the trip so far.  The landscape really did look as though it was painted.  When I reached Page, AZ, the earth turned orange, and the dust swirled over the road creating drifts at the shoulders.  I am staying the night by a lake outside of Page, and I’ve already forgotten the name… It’s incredibly blue, and I stood on the beach – yes, there’s a beach – and watched the sun set over the hills.  It was beautiful.  If I don’t sleep again tonight, I’m going to make sure I’m there for that sunrise.  I think that driving through the states has given me an actual appreciation for the places that I’m passing through, as opposed to if I had flown.

Like I said, I’m staying near Page, which is around two hours from the North Rim.  I can’t figure out how to get to the North Rim because the main road is closed, which is why I had to stop here anyway.  I can drive north into Utah, and then circle around down, but it’s an incredibly out of the way trip, and I’m trying to decide if it’s worth it to go now, or just stop when I go through Utah on the drive back. 

I’m thinking about this trip would have been with other people.  The dynamic would have been entirely different, and I think I would have enjoyed it just the same.  I’m enjoying being by myself, but there are some things that would be more fun with more people.  I believe when I do this next time, I’ll do it with a small group of people.  That is… assuming I can get anyone to go.

Well, that’s it.  Tonight is one of those nights that I wish I wasn’t here by myself, but I’m surrounded by campsites and I’m going to try to sleep. 

More to come.  Oh, and the lake is Lake Powell.  Btw.

Magellan 2013: Black Canyon to Taos Pueblo to Bandelier National Monument to Los Alamos to Chaco Canyon to Flagstaff, AZ. Whew.

Currently Listening To: Chocolate - The 1975
Miles Traveled: 2808.7

Current Location: Flagstaff, AZ

Aaaand I've reached the one week not being as diligent at posting time... I'll catch up in one giant post. But first... pictures!

My little camping area in Chaco Canyon.  Best place I've stayed so far.

Somewhere along the road in Los Alamos area

Chaco Canyon - Fajada Butte

Buildings in Taos Pueblo

Chaco - Reason # 2873492 why there are "no touching" signs: my first
thought was to run up and try to push it over...

Rio Grande - somewhere along the road

Crater!  - outside Flagstaff, AZ

Me at Bandelier National Monument

This one is for Dr. Fee - Chaco Canyon, no idea what it is.

I made a friend... Bandelier

Near Los Alamos, along the road

I have no idea what to say about this... I counted 14 dogs while I was there
creeping with my zoom lens.  Alright then,  New Mexico...

7/30 – Taos, Bandelier, Black Canyon (written 7/31)

I can barely remember and it’s only been a day… I woke up very early to go see Taos.  I drove up, took the tour, took a bunch of pictures and just walked around.  It was crazy how old some of the places were, and I enjoyed the stories about all the conquests and the church getting destroyed.  I was going to stay there the whole day, but ended up leaving in the afternoon because I had arrived so early.  It took me forever to make my way back, because I kept stopping to take pictures.  At one point, I spent a good hour alongside the road looking at rocks.  I discovered a cool rock that explodes into silver glitter when you throw it at something hard.  It doesn’t take much to entertain me…  I also made the mistake of not giving a cactus the proper respect it deserves, and am still picking the little needles out of me (as I’m writing this a day later).

On my way back to Santa Fe, I took a detour to Los Alamos and the Bandelier National Monument.  I’ve made it to the point in the trip where all organization goes out the window, and I just drive until I see a sign that points to somewhere that looks interesting, and then go exploring.  I had to take a bus to Bandelier because they don’t allow cars, and so I could only stay there until around five, when the last bus out left.  I took like 50 pictures of just a squirrel at one point.  I also met a girl from Germany… She took a picture for me in one of the little caves.  I didn’t ask her to… she just said, “here, give me your camera.”  Germans... Anyway, after that, I visited the snack bar thing for lemonade, and the lady running the cash register was legitimately too lazy to ring me up so she just told me to take the lemonade and cookie that I was trying to buy and leave.  So I did.  I made it back to Santa Fe, found parking, and then watched a bunch of bands play in the Plaza.  There was this one lady who just went wild, and was dancing by herself in front of the bandstand.  The band members didn’t know how to handle her at all, so they just kept not looking at her. I, however, was laughing and videotaping.  Check Facebook for more details… :D

After that, I went back to the campsite and went to sleep.

7/31 – Chaco Canyon (written 7/31)

I left in the morning for Chaco Canyon, and I am going to stay the night in the campsite.  It’s a lot hotter here, which is fine by me.  My tent is right by the wall of the canyon, so it feels pretty awesome.  This whole “no backcountry camping” thing is really bothering me.  I don’t like to camp unless I’m staying up half the night with a knife thinking every sound is a wild animal trying to eat me.  It’s just not the same…

I spent the rest of the day doing the nine mile driving loop through the canyon, stopping at each of the little points of interest.  It’s so quiet here.  There’s no traffic, loud generators, or airplanes.   It’s very different from Black Canyon, which was near a road with construction and traffic to and from Santa Fe.  I’m currently sitting at a picnic table typing, and planning tomorrow.  At this point, I was only going to stay one night, but now it depends on when I call it quits tomorrow.  My next stop is Arizona.  I’m going to meet up with my old roommate Emily Bolton (hopefully) and then take Arizona by storm.  Mostly the Grand Canyon.  I wanna see the Grand Canyon.  I’m really starting to like Canyons. 

On an unrelated note, I have a fancy national park card that let’s me and everyone in my vehicle (which so far is no one…) into everything for free!  It’s pretty great.  It was free.  I'll take it...

8/1 - Flagstaff, AZ

Chaco was awesome.  I definitely need to go back there sometime with people and go exploring.  Hiking isn't the same when you're own your own.  I spent the rest of last night reading books from AMH and trying to divert ants from crawling in my tent.

This morning, I drove around once more in Chaco, making sure to check out Fajada Butte one more time.  I drove north into Farmington, and then south towards Flagstaff.  When I got into Arizona, I stopped briefly at the Petrified Forest National Park.  I had that stupid petrified pizza song stuck in my head the whole time.  The worst part is.. I can't remember if that's an actual song or not.  I feel like it's not... I kept driving out 40 and some of Route 66.  I saw a sign for a meteorite impact area, and I had to stop.  I have a slight space obsession and a secret desire to be an astronaut, so I was very excited.  I ended up spending a few hours in the museum watching the short films playing and checking out the exhibits.  I walked out on the observation deck and took about a thousand pictures of the crater.  It was awesome!  I'm still excited over it.  

Soon after that, I arrived in Flagstaff and saw a giant mountain.  I wish my city had a giant mountain in it.  I was planning on staying here the night, but I may need an additional day for exploration...

So far, so good.  

P.S.  I think the farthest west you go, the bigger everything is.  In Washington, the trees, the mountains, and even the sky were just massive in comparison with the east.  It's kinda the same in the south.  I'm starting to feel like PA is just a watered down version of everything...

P.P.S. More reflections - I tend to pray more out here.   Also, I keep going crazy the minute I am not doing something.  Relaxing is hard.