This Canyon sure is Grand

Well, as most folks would probably agree with, you can't really do a cross country trip and not have been to the Grand Canyon.  I mean, maybe if you took the completely northern route it would be an excuse, but since we didn't, we felt pretty obligated to make a visit to the grandest of canyons.  And after staying at a pretty cute hotel after our Four Corners visit, and some much needed rest...and of course all the driving, we made it.

At this time of year only the southern rim of the canyon is open.  When we read that in our research before the trip I must admit I was slightly disappointed...I make it to the Grand Canyon and only the southern rim is open!  How dare they?!  But, after being there a bit, that disappointment faded as I realized I wasn't missing out really...








I mean this place is huge...in the way that a mouse must look up at an elephant and gasp at it's size type of huge.  They weren't kidding when they named this thing grand.

But as big as it is, it still elicits calming feelings, like the universe is not so subtly reminding you that your an incredibly minuscule dot in this painting of life.  It's good to be humbled by the grandeur of nature sometimes...people tend to take themselves too seriously, and believe they are too important - Mother Nature has a way of setting you straight.

After a couple hours we were exhausted.  I can't imagine seeing the entire canyon, both north and south rims.  It was really just so tiring.  We'd drive from one spot to the next, get out, walk around...jump back in the car and do it again.  It sounds like no big deal since you have to drive part of it, but it's really not as simple as it sounds.    While it's up to 18 miles wide, driving it takes much longer since you have to make a big circle around all those miles.  I should mention also that I'm pretty sure at mostly every stop we made, we were in areas we weren't necessarily supposed to be.  But it wouldn't be right if we stayed in only the areas set aside...there's always more interesting places to see where you're not supposed to be!

Who knows how many hours we spent at the canyon, but when we left we were starved. But on the way to finding something to eat we fell across Bedrock!  So of course we had to stop! There was a little campground and diner there, which we didn't eat at but we couldn't pass up the photo opp.  Enjoy!

After our Bedrock photo shoot we were back on the road looking for food!  We finally found a little gem of a place.  As if the food wasn't good enough, they also had orange and cream soda, and I'm pretty sure I've mentioned my love for that!  If I haven't mentioned it before, those little hole in the wall places...those are the ones we love stopping at.  You find amazing food in the most unassuming places.  And we've definitely had some great food during this trip (the kind that makes your mouth water just thinking of it!), which is great, cause we both LOVE food.  People think smaller girls don't eat, but I like to explain to people that there's a fat girl living inside of me.  And, I've never been big on eating things that are actually good for you, like veggies, and salads.  I only recently learned to eat a caesar salad...and don't you dare tell me that it's the most unhealthy salad you can have!  Baby steps...baby steps.  Anyhoot, the caesar salad at the little place we found was ridiculously good...or maybe we were just ridiculously starving, but still, yum!

If you don't believe me when I say how much I love a meal...this is how my face looks:

And the adventure continues...

Stay tuned...

Four Corners, USA!

Have you been in four places at once??...I have!
And clearly, by the look on my face, you can see how excited I was!  I mean, how often do you have the opportunity to be in four places, four states, at once?  In the United States there is only one opportunity for that, and that is right where I stood in this pic.  Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona all meet in this one spot.  This landmark is managed by the Navajo Nation, so all along the monument you can find little stands where you can purchase so many beautifully handmade items.  I got a lovely little dream catcher necklace (I have a thing for dream catchers) and Jas got a pretty awesome bracelet.


So what do people do at the monument....well, pretty much stand there waiting for their turn to take any number of pretty ridiculous pictures!  One family had two little girls, and the one girl, the older girl, was shy and didn't want to be embarrassed...the younger one though, she was all about being the center of attention!  She didn't care one iota about being embarrassed...when do we lose that feeling?  When do we become so self-conscious and concerned with how other people view us?  Somewhere between childhood and adulthood we start to care too much about others opinions, and not enough about our own.  But I digress...so one pose this little girl did was a back bend...so when Jas dared me to do the same, even though I was being a copycat...I couldn't resist.

The other awesome part of the monument was the fry bread you could buy on your way out...YUM!  Frybread is a Native American food that tastes similar to funnel cake, but so much better.

In case I didn't mention it previously, the drive through the Colorado Rockies, to Four Corners, and from Four Corners to our next stop, was at times steep, with tons of twists and turns, and very remote.  Sometimes it took forever to get to a bathroom...and, we did go a little crazy in the car, have our own concerts etc.  So is the life of a traveler!

And the adventure continues...

Stay tuned...