We slept early after the long gruelling hike. Woke up in the morning and after having Chai in our room we were all ready to go to the Vista point on our way back to Phoenix.
All nine of us had matching T-shirts to wear. It was great to spend almost an hour taking photos at the vista point.
We were delayed by an extra 30 minutes with the "photoshoot" and raced towards Phoenix.
There was a 30 mintue stop for lunch in Flagstaff at a nice Indian place. It was really good food, great ambience, quick service! If we ever visit Flagstaff, will definitely go back to this place!
We made it 20 minutes before boarding time to the gate!
It took me two days to be able to walk normally again and be able to sit down and stand up. Was mostly standing and walking all of Monday and Tuesday. Did yoga last two days and finally able to do squats again.
All said and done, it was a memorable trip. Will I go back to the south rim again. Definitely not.
This was one of the most challenging hikes we have done to date. Enjoyed the trip and most of the hiking except for the last three miles!
The last weekend, we hiked the south rim of the grand canyon! This was in the plan for months. Four ladies from the hiking group had been doing the planning with lots of meetings, zoom calls, excel spreadsheets, training hikes, etc.. while the four men watched in silence for the most part.
There was a reunion of my undergrad classmates that was moved to this weekend. They were all meeting in Istanbul for three days. My heart was in two places the day before traveling as there were posts from classmates sharing their experience in Turkey. A commitment is a commitment.. this weekend was already taken.. so I had to sit Instanbul out..
A month ago, another brave soul decided to join in as well. He knew most of the folks in this group and was naive enough to put up with the craziness that is our hiking group.
Did I mention T-shirts were already purchased to celebrate post hike. The ladies had that kind of confidence that everyone will finish. I was not so sure at the start.
We all took Friday off from work and flew to Phoenix early in the morning. I was still sleeping in the car to the airport, at the airport and through the flight. This was because of making tea and sandwiches at 3:45 AM after going to bed at close to midnight.
We spent 90 minutes to get our rental van and car. It was decided that the guys will be in the van and the ladies will drive the car. We stopped for lunch at a vegan mexican food place. It was good food and great service!
Then came the drive to Yavapai lodge via Sedona and Flagstaff. We stopped in Sedona at a few vista points to take photos..
took these shots from a puddle of hopefully rain water (given it was next to a porta potty.. one never knows!)
the soil was all red and the reflection had the red tint to it.. so made a black and white version..
Then we stopped at Flagstaff to get water and other food items for the hike.
For some reason, the ladies used Apple maps and were sent on route 64. The men used Google maps and were sent on route 180. We got a call from the ladies to stop at some exit number for gas that did not make any sense. Then we figured out what had happened. Then things took a turn for the worse. It started snowing heavily. There was no talk of snow in the forecast!
these are color photos..
taken through the van's rear window..
We decided to go to the lodge anyways no matter what. The ladies were making a steady pace. We got stuck in thick snow and almost skidded off the freeway at one point. Got to hear myself scream in fear on this trip. Was in the last seat in the back and all the backpacks came flying at me when the van went out of control. Luckily our driver, who was being given 20 conflicting directions on what to and what not to do managed to just take his hands and feet off everything and the van skid to a halt.
That is when our brave joiner who had experience driving in Pittsburgh snow took the wheel and drove at 10 miph for a good 30 minutes and eventually we got to a lower altitude and made good time to catch up with the ladies at the park entrance. We were an hour late but were happy to be alive!
When we parked at the lodge was just happy to see Sangeetha. She hates driving in rain. Somehow she managed to drive in that weather.
Given the snow the whole hike was a toss up. We sat together to drink tea and have dinner together in the room. The plan was to get ready in the morning at 5AM and take a shuttle to the trailhead and take it from there, as long as it was not going to be snowing in the morning.
The next morning, there was no new snow and the hike was on..
This is the preamble post.. the hiking post follows..
Over the Memorial day long weekend, San myself and my SIL who visited from Melbourne, made a three day trip to Arizona.
This trip had been planned months in advance to visit Antelope canyon. This was yet another "bucket list" trip. Our previous plans had all been cancelled or we could not get reservations to visit the canyon on usual long weekends. The tour is owned by an Indian reservation and they limit the number of people who can walk through it every day.
San tore her back muscle the previous week and was pretty much in bed rest when my SIL showed up. We were in two minds initially. Told her that it will be okay. It was a 3 hour flight and a 5+ hour drive from Phoenix to the hotel in Page, Arizona. If we took enough breaks and she sat with a waist belt and a pillow for the plane, car ride and rationed her painkillers.. it was doable. So the trip was on!
Took the Friday off and flew into Phoenix. Got our rental car and started driving out of the airport at 10AM. Our plan was to stop by Red Rock state park for two hours and make it to Page by 6 PM for dinner. Did not expect Friday morning traffic near Phoenix airport to be that intense. Everyone drives vehicles raised from the floor. Even cars seemed to be on some raised suspension! Folks follow some unwritten rule that larger the vehicle, less the obligation to follow driving rules. Felt like a rat running along the dinosaurs in a stampede of sorts.
Things got better once we were out of that area. We made a pit stop at Denny's. San and me both used to love Denny's. It was a go to place for us years ago. Could eat a pancake or waffle or engilish muffin anytime of the day! Their cheese sticks used to be amazing as well. Guess, Denny's is a shell of what it was before. The service and food quality was bad. Both me and my SIL had a queasy stomach after eating there. The worse thing was me telling my SIL about how good Denny's was and we ended up with that experience. Moral of the story : Don't live in the past. As a rule of thumb, food place quality goes only one way over time!
We made it to Red Rock state park a little after 1PM. They have a nice visitor center. It was a hot day and we decided to do the shortest trail to get a sample of the place. Walked a mile around a "cute" trail along the creem and took pictures from the vista point!
The trail itself was nice and cool. We would have loved to walk around some more but San had to go through the paces slowly. The unanimous vote was to make a non stop dash to Page from there.
We slowed down around Sedona and admired the cute shops and restaurants on the way. Had to make three stops. Readers please note that there are 40 mile stretches on the way from Sedona to Page where there are no restrooms! If you see one, stop. Don't think another one will come in 5 mins! You are welcome!
We made it to our hotel in Page by 7PM but our phones kept saying 8PM. I had panicked going "wait.. we drove an extra hour to get here?! How many stops did we do? I did drive reasonably fast". Apparently iPhones have a time issue in Page. They switch to Utah time. However Page follows Phoenix time which is same as CST. Again, if you are a poor driver who is asked why it took an extra hour to get to Page, check the local clocks. You are welcome!
Decided to torture the two ladies by singing "Adi aathaadi" in a high pitch for a good hour in the hotel room and was eventually confined to the restroom. Think everyone in the hotel must have complained about some deranged lunatic screaming in the restroom. Eventually there was a knock on the door to tell me that "enough was enough" and "things are actually getting worse on every new try". They prefered driving with the sun in their faces for hours compared to being a forced audience for this singing etc... so called it a night.
We were to spend the entire next day around Antelope canyon. We got plenty of rest to recover from the day of flying and driving.
A few pictures from Day 1...
just when we were asking ourselves "how do people live in this heat?" saw this..
apparently this is going to be a museum soon..
A gallery of photos of the park and other structures on our drive to Page.
A very different structure we saw right before we hit the town of Page.
A short video of the hike.. I provided humming bgm for the hike.. let us just say it was not a good idea.
If San was normal, and it was a cloudy day, we would have hiked the entire 5 mile trail to all the vista points. It was extremely hot and we were happy with the small hike.
This trip was being taken one step at a time.
The first step was to make it to Page without making San's back worse than where it was. That was done successfully!
Thursday, October 24, 2024 at 8:43PM ;)
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