Grand Canyon National Park

After Carlsbad, we drove to Gallup on the New Mexico/Arizona border. As we pulled in, we realized it was a lot colder than we thought: there was snow on the ground. The guy at the front desk said it had been there a couple of weeks and it hadn't thawed yet.

We got to the Grand Canyon at about 2:00pm on the 16th. I decided to buy a season pass for the national parks, hoping that it will motivate me to go to Yosemite (like how gym memberships cajole people into going to the gym). They have a photo contest with the winning photo being displayed on the next years park pass. Hmm...

Just like Gallup, the Grand Canyon had snow but also an added bonus: wind. This terrible twosome made it miserable to be outside for more than 5 minutes. Luckily, the road that goes through Yosemite had a bunch of turnoff points for scenic overlooks. We stopped at about 5 of them over the course of 2 or 3 hours. The sky was a little overcast for most of the day, but as it began to set, the colors became a bit richer. I think shots in the summer would turn out much better, but I still think I got some neat ones.




Raven in flight


All the Grand Canyon National Park pictures

After leaving the Grand Canyon, we stopped at the Road Kill Cafe on Route 66. Mediocre food at high prices. Yea, blame the interstate all you want, Route 66, but you need to step it up. While looking for a place to camp for the night, Lia recognized a place she had gone to when she was growing up: Lake Havasu. We called the Crazy Horse Campgrounds (actually note a strip club) and reserved a site. When we got there, we realized that wouldn't be necessary because no one else was dumb enough to camp there in the winter. The camp sites were in sand by the lake, which got a slammed wind into the tent all night long. The fire wasn't bad, but we also had to buy all the wood to use in it, which was lame and expensive.