Grand Canyon Day 9: Driving to Austin

Today we woke at 4:30am and left Caballo Lake State Park at 5am.  I awoke at 4:33am to Emily nudging me since I didn't respond to her 4:30am alarm since I had earplugs in.  My car got left behind when two people were in the bathroom, but we caught up at the interstate entrance.

I drove the Tahoe from Caballo Lake State Park to Harper, TX with a lunch break at Sonic in Ozona (581 total miles).  Michelle acted as the 'driving instructor' and always notified me when my parking job was unsatisfactory (ie, I took up multiple spots, didn't pull in far enough, ect).

Driving so far continuously today and yesterday was probably mainly my fault.  I never asked for a replacement, and I did tend to 'hoard' the Tahoe throughout the trip since I felt more comfortable driving it than the Suburbans since it was smaller and had heated seats (although I did not drive the Suburbans at all on this trip, so I guess I can't truly say how comfortable I would have been driving them).  When I came out of the gas station in Harper, Tommy was sitting in the drivers seat of the Tahoe, so I had no choice about being replaced.  I'm not sure if they thought I wouldn't want to be replaced - perhaps that's the vibe I had given. I had thought about asking for a replacement in Ozona, but then felt better after eating lunch. I hopped in the middle left window of the 'party car' - aka the Suburban with all 8 seats, usually driven by Sebastian, Tommy, or Cole - for the remainder of the trip.

Once we returned to Austin, we unloaded all three vehicles, unpacked the food, and left the tents, sleeping bags, and pads in a pile in a cart.  The outdoor center staff will deal with cleaning and storing all the equipment tomorrow.

We had all 11 participants fill out trip evaluation forms during lunch in Ozona.  We shortly reviewed these forms before leaving today.  Overall, the feedback and reviews were very positive.  It seems that everyone had an enjoyable trip!

Cole, Emily, and Tommy offered to return the two Suburbans to IM fields, so JT came to pick me up from campus at 5:45pm.  We ate dinner at Torchy's, went shopping at HEB, and then headed home.

Back home, with all my belongings

Grand Canyon Day 8: Driving to Caballo Lake State Park

Today we woke up at 6:30am, ate instant oatmeal for breakfast, packed up camp, and left Mather Campground shortly after 8am.

Driving out of Grand Canyon National Park was bittersweet. We had such an amazing 1.5 days there, and did so much in that time, but yet I feel like there is so much more to see and do, and that we only scratched the surface.  The Grand Canyon is certainly one of the most - if not the most - beautiful places I have ever been.

We stopped at Desert View, since Sebastian already had to use the bathroom.  Some of my car decided to go too, so we jogged to and from the bathroom too.

We drove through Flagstaff, stopped for lunch around 3pm 50 miles out of Albuquerque, around Albuquerque, and to Caballo Lake State Park.  I drove the rental Tahoe the entire day - 561 miles!  We arrived at Caballo Lake State Park around 7pm.

It was really windy at Caballo Lake! Emily set up our tent, and Dan and Juan set up their tent.  Everyone else chose to either sleep in the cars or out in the open.

Tommy and Sebastian cooked chicken soup with the leftover chicken, vegetables, spices, and tortillas (as well as some newly purchased rice and broth).  Cole worked to build a windbreak for the people sleeping outside.  I went to call JT.

 Caballo Lake from near our campsite at dusk

As we were eating, Emily said we were going to leave at 5am the next morning - which is the earliest we can drive under university regulations.  Upon hearing this, I decided to go to bed right after dinner.  I even skipped the marshmallow apples dessert since I didn't want to clean my dishes after that.  I felt somewhat guilty about not helping clean up dinner and pack up the kitchen, but also was really tired from driving all day and knew I'd be one of the starting drivers the next morning (with Emily and Tommy).  Everyone was still up and talking loudly once I got in the tent and tried to go to sleep, so I put in my earplugs.

Grand Canyon Day 2: Caballo Lake to Lee's Ferry

We awoke at 5:30am, and found we had no propane left so there were no hot drinks for breakfast.  Breakfast consisted of granola bars, tangelos, and dried fruit - which really wasn't enough or appetizing.

 Good morning Caballo Lake!

I tossed and turned a lot overnight, but awoke feeling refreshed - but with a terrible sore throat that had gotten progressively worse over night.

We left Caballo Lake State Park shortly after dawn at 7am.  I drove the rental Tahoe from Caballo Lake State Park, through Albuquerque and to Flagstaff (484 miles). We arrived in Flagstaff for lunch at 1:30pm.  Flagstaff seemed much smaller and alpine than I expected - but we only saw the outskirts so it is difficult to really give an opinion on the city.  The other cars swapped drivers 180 miles before Flagstaff (in Gallup), but I kept driving until Flagstaff since it was impossible for all three cars to get refreshed drivers at the same time.

On the last 200 mile stretch I began feeling terrible - sick to my stomach with a terrible headache and chills. We had lunch at Tacos los Altos de Jalisco, where I had a bacon breakfast taco, fries, and horchata.  After lunch, Tommy took over driving the Tahoe.  I went with Emily to CVS to get some cold meds to hopefully help me feel better (since this would be my last chance to get meds anywhere besides a gas station or gift store).

Then I rode with Emily, Celia, and Anna from Flagstaff to Lee's Ferry, in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. This drive took about 2 hours.

The scenery during our drives today was awesome. When we hit the road at 7am, there was a really pretty stretch on the interstate where all I could see was our two Suburbans, the interstate dipping into a canyon, and a beautiful rock landscape.  As we were nearing Flagstaff, seeing snow-topped Humphreys Peak grow was awesome.  And seeing the ever changing desert landscape with mesas and rock structures was cool.

Once at camp, we met Josh and Steve, our NPS service project partners.  We're sharing two of the large group camp sites with them. We set up tents and our kitchen, and then we drove down to the Navajo bridge. The original bridge was built in 1928 to be the only connection between Utah and Arizona across the Colorado - this bridge is currently just for pedestrians.  Another stronger bridge was built in 1996 to handle modern-day traffic.  This bridge was built using the same methods. The Colorado River was pretty far below the bridge and the canyon was pretty cool.

 Our campsite at Lee's Ferry.

Our group walking on the original Navajo bridge.

Our group on the Navajo bridge (photo by Joao)

We stopped at the balanced rock on the way back to camp. Everyone enjoyed running around and climbing rocks.

Then we made dinner - a Sebastian meal of onions, lentils, and rice - as well as toasted apples and almonds for dessert.

Grand Canyon Day 1: Driving to Caballo State Park

And we are off! We arrived at Gregory Gym at 6am (thanks for the ride JT!), and departed in 2 Suburbans and a rental Tahoe at 6:45am.  It rained and was cloudy until around Harper, and then the sun came out.  I rode in Tommy's car with Cole, Anna, and Celia until Junction where I moved to drive the rental Tahoe.

I drove from Junction to Fort Stockton, where we got food at Sonic and Subway, as well as gas.  The line at Subway was really long, and the employees worked really slowly and sloppily. Then I drove through El Paso before stopping for gas and a Target run in Las Cruces. Then I drove one more hour to Caballo Lake State Park.  On the way, we went through a border patrol station. I had two non-US citizens in my car, and said so when asked, and we ended up getting detained when Malika only had her driver's license (instead of her passport).  We pulled over for 10 minutes while they went and looked her up in their database.  The three girls in my car slept and read most of the ride, while Juan and I chatted.  He's a visiting professor from Portugal, and generally a neat person.  I was surprised how comfortable I felt driving for so long (544 miles).  The heated seat back might have helped. :)

We had reserved 2 RV sites, which were really rocky.  I helped some people set up their tents, while Emily set up our tent and Tommy, Cole, and Sebastian worked on dinner. Due to the rocky site, the tents were difficult to stake. Being by the lake was scenic though.

Dinner consisted of chicken noodle soup, non-vegetarian vegetable soup, and avocado. It was pretty delicious.

It's pretty windy tonight - I'm starting to doubt whether I'll have enough warm clothing for the nights that are actually really cold.

After washing dinner dishes, we noticed that lots of water had run from the water spigot to under Emily and my tent. We unstaked and moved the tent - and the ground cloth had done its job, as everything was dry! We went to bed around 9pm.