California - Part One

After we got our fill of the Grand Canyon we headed towards Las Vegas as a good "layover" city between Arizona and California. Since we didn't want to get a hotel in Vegas, and also didn't want to risk losing any of our road trip money in the casinos, we just camped outside the city on the shore of Lake Mead, which is really just over the hill from Las Vegas. But since you can't be that close to Vegas without at least seeing it, we drove through it the next morning. We just drove down the famous Las Vegas Strip, as we figured that would be the quickest and easiest way to cram as much Vegas as we could into a five minute tour. I found it to be much cleaner looking than I had expected and it really was fun to see... I can definitely see its appeal as a vacation destination!

Shortly after Vegas we drove through the hottest, lowest, driest place in North America: Death Valley! Now, with that lead in it sounds like it would be pretty much the most depressing place in the country to visit, right? However, Scott and I both thought that it was strangely beautiful... although it probably helped that we avoided the skin-melting temperatures that the region is so famous for (it was only about 65 during our drive through). I expected it to be a flat expanse of nothing, but it is actually surrounded on all sides by these really interesting mountains and hills and I saw some of the most fabulous cloud formations that I have ever seen. The worst part about it was that it was an absolute wind tunnel. We tried to get out of the car to take some pictures and we were about blown over... literally!

After Death Valley, we quickly learned that California is a huge state that is home to every climate you can imagine. Just beyond the hottest, lowest, driest point in North America, you will find the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Its snowy peaks are gorgeous from a distance, and then you keep driving closer and closer and realize that, at some point, you are going to have to drive over those snowy peaks. So in a matter of hours we went from the landscape above to this!

It really was beautiful and the road conditions never got any worse than some slightly wet pavement... but I could not for the life of me convince my nerves that our situation was really not that bad. The department of transportation really does a great job of scaring the crap out of anyone who isn't familiar with the area, as every ten yards there are signs like "Snow chains required," "Icy conditions next 22 miles," "Beware of extreme curves," and so on. Now I'm sure that these signs are quite pertinent during the intense winter months, but in mid-April they just made me nervous for nothing, as the most snow that we saw on the ground was probably around four inches. Lucky for me, Scott did not seem so freaked out by these signs (which may as well have read "Imminent death ahead" in my mind) and he calmly drove us over the mountain and we were out of the snow in about 20 minutes.

Once we descended the mountain, California became a very familiar feeling place. Compared to the landscape of desert, rocks, and more rocks that we had been driving through for the past week or so, the green hills and farms that lay across the Sierra Nevadas may as well have been rural Virginia... it felt very much like home.

California countryside

The rest of our drive through California was not as exciting as the first few hours were, but it is definitely a beautiful state! When we were about ten miles from the coast it still looked like we were in the middle of an agricultural wonderland. There were farms that had fields going straight to the ocean's edge, which is not something that I'm used to seeing. That night we camped at a campground outside of Santa Cruz, which is an adorable coastal town located on Monteray Bay. We could not see the ocean from out campsite, but we were just over the hill from it and, with that proximity to the water, came a fantastic thunderstorm that night. Up until this point we had been lucky not to have any serious encounters with rain while camping, but all of our good luck had apparently run out as we got a solid three hours of intense lightning, thunder, and torrential rain that started around midnight. Nothing worse came from the storm besides having to deal with wet camping gear the next day, but it did make for a rather sleepless night.

Our first view of the Pacific Ocean

Scott and I are currently in Salt Lake City, UT (getting ready to head to Moab today) and I promise that at some point I will finally get caught up on the blog :)  Internet access only comes along every few days on the road, so it is slow going to get these posts online. Still to come are stories and pictures from our adventures in San Francisco, Napa Valley, Redwood National Forest, and Utah... so stay posted!

Sedona, AZ + Grand Canyon

Our first stop after Phoenix was Sedona, AZ. Sedona is a cute little town surrounded by these fantastic red rocks. The town itself is full of galleries, restaurants, and shops and looks like it would be a great place to live if you were an author or artist or something. However, rather than being lured into any of those great little shops (where I'm sure it'd be all too easy to drop an exorbitant amount of money on all sorts of things you don't really need), Scott and I decided to drive on through and spend our afternoon hiking.

As there are about 100 trails to choose from, we stopped by the visitors center to get some inside information on which were the best. The woman who helped us certainly seemed to know her stuff and she recommended a great trail that, in her words, "would give us a little taste of everything." I would say that she was absolutely right, as our two hour hike exposed us to everything from wide sweeping panoramas (like the one that I took above, about five minutes in to our hike) to shaded walks through the trees.

Scott and the dogs hiking | A sink hole on our path | Interesting tree bark we found | View taken about halfway through hike

I was fascinated by everything that I saw... the different types of cacti were probably my favorite plant from Arizona.

On our way to the Grand Canyon, we made a couple of different stops. One stop that we didn't plan, but was on our path and ended up being quite interesting, was Wupatki National Park. This park offered several Native American ruins, which were really quite unreal to walk through. It's hard to imagine that people actually lived in these buildings that literally sit in the middle of nothing.

Wupatki was a stop of convenience, as it lay directly on our route, but our next stop at Lake Powell was several hours out of our way. The drive, although I slept through about half of it, was really interesting. At one point we could see a tiny branch of the Grand Canyon that extended out into the middle of a completely flat plain. It looked like the ground had just split open without disturbing anything else around it. We originally planned to get to Lake Powell with enough time to look around the lake, do some hiking, and then set up camp before nightfall and stay there for the night. However, when we got there, it became abundantly clear that one cannot really see Lake Powell unless they are on the water. In order to drive from one point of the lake to another you have to backtrack a couple of hours and go completely away from the lake because there are no roads that follow the shoreline. Since we had the dogs with us, we couldn’t very well rent kayaks and paddle around for a bit so we just decided to walk along the part of the shore that we were at and then make an early departure for the Grand Canyon. Although we did not get to see as much of it as we had hoped, Lake Powell is really spectacularly beautiful and I hope that we have the chance to go back there sometime in the future.

Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Dam

After having to backtrack a little ways (to Scott’s dismay), we started on the trek towards Grand Canyon National Park. The drive is nice, but totally unassuming. Nothing about the landscape looked at all different than what we’d been staring at for the past three days. Until, that is, you get about fifteen miles outside of the park and you start seeing sporadic glimpses of small canyons running through the middle of cow fields. The entire region seems utterly unpopulated and you got the feeling that people owned so much land that they had likely never even seen everything in their estate.

Once we got into the park we went straight back to the camping area, hoping and praying that there would be one available. Luckily, we were not followed by our bad luck from Florida and we got a site without any problems. Since it was already pretty late by this time, we decided to just catch a glimpse of the Grand Canyon from an overlook at the front of the park and save all of our major exploring for the next day… it’s still pretty darn impressive, even if you only see it from one vantage point.

The next morning we got up and headed out for a hike around the canyon. Lucky for us, dogs are allowed on all of the trails as long as you stay above the rim. Although it would have been cool to get to hike down into the canyon, the view from up top is still truly amazing. There is a great shuttle system that follows the canyon rim, which allows visitors to either ride the entire way and hop out of the viewpoints of interest or hike out one way and catch the shuttle at the end to get back to where they started. However, dogs are not allowed on the shuttle so we had to suck it up and walk the whole way, which really wasn’t bad. The trail that we chose was 14 miles long, but we only walked the first two miles of it before turning around to head back. The views were just incredible! There aren’t really enough synonyms for “impressive” to really say what it was like to see the Grand Canyon, I’m just glad that we had the chance to do it.

Texas + Phoenix, AZ

Driving into Texas was immediately daunting, as the first exit number was 880. "Great," we thought, "880 miles of Texas... how boring." However, Texas ended up being surprisingly interesting to drive through. Scott and I were both expecting it to be nothing but a flat field of dirt but we soon discovered that the Hill Country around Austin is quite beautiful. We made our first stop in Austin where we visited the city's botanical gardens. We chose this as our first point of interest solely because they allowed dogs on the grounds and it turned out to be a lovely introduction to Austin. There were about eight different garden areas, each impeccably designed in a different style.

 After we got the dogs tired out in the gardens, we drove downtown to get a closer look at the city. We both agreed that it seems like a really fun place to live. There were people walking around on every street, it all looked clean and well-maintained, and there were delicious looking restaurants everywhere! We really only drove through Austin, as we were camping out of town and didn't want to get there after nightfall, but we would love to go back for a closer look sometime in the future.

That night we camped at Pedernales Falls State Park, which is located about 45 minutes west of Austin. The park ended up being a perfect choice. By the time we got there the weather was sublime and as we walked to the falls we didn't see a single other person. One interesting thing about the park is that it is apparently quite prone to extreme flash flooding. There were signs everywhere warning to evacuate the water immediately if you notice the water level rise by even an inch, because the river can turn from a calm flow to a hundred feet deep in the span of five minutes. Luckily, Scott and I did not witness this natural wonder and got to enjoy the scenery without fear of being swept away. We did not go swimming but I wish we had. When I stuck my hand in the water it was the warmest river that I have ever felt. It's really just a great park and I'd say it's worth a visit if you ever find yourself in central Texas.

On Thursday morning we woke up and drove across the bulk of Texas. It took a while, to say the least, but we did see some interesting landscapes that I've never seen before. Somehow Scott strategically planned it so that he drove through all of the cool hilly countryside while I got stuck with the empty, more desert-like side of the state... it still wasn't bad though. It was amazing how empty it all felt though. I'd guess that we saw maybe one person or car every 40 miles or so, if we were lucky.

That night we camped in Guadalupe Mountains National Park, which had some of the most impressive scenery that I have seen so far. There doesn't seem to be any good way to get to the park; the closest gas station is 35 miles away in a town called Dell City (population 413).

Our campsite at Guadalupe Mountains National Park.

The sunset that we saw from our campsite.

 One of the most comical things that happened to us on this part of our trip was our inability to understand time zones. We changed from the Central to the Mountain time zone literally as soon as we crossed into the Guadalupe Mountains park. When we were planning out our drive to Phoenix for the next day we decided that if we got up at 5am then we should get to Phoenix around 3pm, which would be perfect for checking in to a hotel. However, sometime in the middle of the night our phones switched themselves back to Central time so it was really 4am when our alarms went off, which we didn't realize until after we had packed up our entire campsite and got in the car to leave. There wasn't much we could do besides just start driving and get to Phoenix an hour early, so that's what we did. Then about two hours in to our trip, we discovered that Arizona does not observe daylight savings time, so it was really an hour earlier there than we had anticipated... meaning that we would now get there at 1pm and that, as far as our day was concerned, we had woken up at 3am. It all ended up working out because the hotel let us check in early and we had time for an afternoon nap, but we got a good laugh out of our mistake.

One of Scott's cousins, Emily, lives in Phoenix with her boyfriend Zack so we met up with them for dinner at a wonderful pizzeria close to downtown called Cibo. The food was fantastic and the restaurant had a large patio so we could eat outside. It was here that Scott and I realized one of the most enchanting aspects of Phoenix... there are no mosquitoes! We sat outside for a couple of hours and did not get a single bug-bite; it was wonderful. On Saturday Scott and I went to see the Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Francisco Giants play, which was a blast. That night we met back up with Emily and Zack at their house where Zack grilled up some delicious kabobs and veggies. We had a great time visiting with them and thoroughly enjoyed our time in Phoenix!

Today we are headed up to the Sedona and Flagstaff area and then will be spending the next couple of days around the Grand Canyon. It will likely be a little while before I will be able to update the blog, as our next known internet access will be at our hotel in San Francisco (April 13-14). I will try to keep it as up to date when I can. Thank you to everyone who has been following our trip; we are having an absolute blast!

The Gulf Coast + New Orleans, LA

After Savannah, Scott and I drove to Florida with the intent to stay at this lovely campground located at the tip of a small peninsula near Port St. Joe. Driving through Florida took a while, but wasn't terribly painful. It mostly just looked like this...

... until we suddenly burst out of the woods and the rest of our drive looked like this...

Now, I started this post by saying that we "intended" to stay at the lovely campsite on the Gulf because that is not  what happened. After driving around eight hours from Savannah to the St. Joseph Peninsula State Park, we were greeted by a glaring "No Campsites Available" sign. What were we left to do? We had no other lodging options on this peninsula that I assume couldn't be home to more than 136 people... which is probably an overestimate. So we pragmatically decided to keep driving and just make do with any other campsite that came along. TOO BAD EVERY CAMPSITE IN ALL OF FLORIDA SEEMS TO COMPLETELY BOOKED FOR ALL OF ETERNITY! After approximately 12 hours on the road and our seventh rejection from various state parks and privately owned campgrounds, we decided to bite the bullet and just got a hotel in Pensacola.

After driving straight through Florida and having our dreams of beachfront camping completely crushed, we had a much more productive day on Tuesday. We got up early to start heading towards New Orleans, which has always been a dream destination for me. On the way we stopped in Biloxi, MS to take a short stroll on the beach and then hopped back in our new home, the car.

Biloxi, MS

When we got to New Orleans our first task was to get the dogs some exercise, as they were starting to go a little stir crazy. After one failed attempt at a dog park that turned out to be private and open only to those dogs privileged enough to have owners who bought them an annual pass, we decided on City Park, a great open space at the northern side of the city. Although we're still not entirely sure whether or not we were allowed to walk the dogs there (the signs were very ambiguous), it was a great place for it! Tons of open lawn space and huge shady live oaks... the dogs had a great time!

After we checked in to our hotel and deposited the dogs in their much desired air-conditioned nap space, Scott and I went out into New Orleans proper to see what it's all about. Our hotel was conveniently located only two blocks from the French Quarter, which made for a really easy walk to the heart of it all. I could have walked around snapping pictures of buildings for days... and I think Scott liked it too :)

We went down to Bourbon Street for dinner and made a great discovery... they block off Bourbon Street at night so that people can abandon the sidewalk and walk (or more likely stumble) through the street, it's great! We ate at a restaurant that opened up to the sidewalk, I had Creole Jambalaya and Scott ate some spicy Shrimp Alfredo... both dishes did not disappoint!

Although there were some minor setbacks, we survived (and greatly enjoyed!) the Gulf Coast. After New Orleans it was on to Austin, TX! More on Texas to come later...

Savannah, GA

Total time spent in the car today | 6 hours

Today we made a pretty straight shot from Raleigh to Savannah, only stopping briefly in Santee State Park (South Carolina) for lunch. We chose the park randomly based on when we got hungry, but it turned out to be lovely. There were picnic shelters right on a lake and plenty of room for the dogs to take a stretch break.

We got to Savannah around 2:30 and spent about half an hour just driving around to get ourselves acquainted with the layout. From our first turn down its tree-lined streets, I was hopelessly in love with Savannah. It's got everything you could ever ask for in a picturesque southern town... tree-filled squares every two blocks (complete with a monument to some obscure deep south military hero in the center of each), streets lined with antebellum architecture, and live oaks dripping with Spanish moss around every corner.

Scott and I wanted to get the most "bang for our buck" (and time) tourism-wise because we had to shorten our stay in Savannah to just this one afternoon and evening, so we decided that taking a good old fashioned carriage tour would our best solution. As it turns out, I don't think we could have made a better choice. Our tour guide was wonderfully knowledgeable, the carriage was comfortable, and we had as close to perfect weather as one can get.

One of our favorite moments on the carriage tour was riding down historic Jones Street, which is lined on either side with multi-million dollar townhouses and their associated southern-style gardens and courtyards. Our tour guide told us it was named "The Most Picturesque Street in the Southeast" and it was not hard to see why.

Jones Street

After our tour we headed down to River Street which, as its name suggests, parallels the Savannah River. We ate at Bernie's, a seafood restaurant on River Street, where we gorged ourselves on fried seafood and hush puppies (delicious!). From dinner we headed up to the Market area where there was a live band performing on the street for all to enjoy. While we listened to the music and watched the sun set, we enjoyed a wonderfully decadent waffle cone of gelato and then headed back to the hotel for the night. Tomorrow we will be driving across the top edge of Florida and staying the night on the Gulf Coast. All in all, I give Savannah two very enthusiastic thumbs up!

River Street

And We're Off!

After many delays, trips to the vet, and hours spent cramming the car full of our stuff... we are finally hitting the road. First stop, Savannah!

Too bad the dogs refused to pose...