Roadtrippin’

Tags

adventure, america the beautiful, antelope canyon, arizona, glen dam, grand canyon, hiking, horseshoe bend, kanab, lake powell, las vegas, little hollywood, little hollywood museum, roadside america, roadtrip, slot canyon, utah, wahweap overlook, weeping rock, zion national park

I refuse to accept summer is over. So I’m going on another vacay. This week’s destination: ARIZONA. And a little bit of Utah. And what the heck, let’s throw some Las Vegas in there too.  It’s time for a ROADTRIPPPPPPP!

DAY 1: Flew to Phoenix, Arizona, where we picked up our awesome car rental (can someone say FREE UPGRADE?? Holler.) Drove to Sedona.

DAY 2: Explored Sedona. Visited Red Rock Crossing/Cathedral Rock Vortex. Apparently Sedona is big on these subtle forms of spiraling energy called “vortexes“. Sounds like some retired hippies high on drugs made this up, right? Well, I was a skeptic but you gotta embrace the local culture whilst traveling. Although I did not see whirling fluids or get transcended into alternate states by energy fields, I was pretty mesmerized by the beautiful red rock surrounding Sedona.

Red Rock Crossing and Cathedral Rock Vortex:

Afternoon: Drove to the Grand Canyon and explored South Rim. Hopped on and off the free shuttle on the Historic Hermit Road, camera trigger happy. Watched a beautiful sunset at Mojave Point.

DAY 3: Drove to Page, Arizona to visit Antelope Canyon – the MOTHER of all slot canyons. If you watched the Britney Spears’ “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” music video, you will know where I’m talking about. Seriously one of the most craziest, breathtaking places ever – naturally the only logical conclusion is that this canyon was made by aliens.

Some of the canyon walls got preeeeetty narrow…

Then a quick stop to nearby Horseshoe Bend to catch another spectacular sunset.

DAY 4: Morning stop at Wahweap Overlook to see beautiful Lake Powell (definitely coming back here and renting a houseboat on my next vacay) before hitting the road to to Zion National Park in Utah.

No roadtrip is complete without a little ROADSIDE AMERICA! Welcome to the Little Hollywood Movie Set Museum in Kanab, Utah. Apparently Kanab had a small taste for Hollywood high life when old western films were filmed here in the 1930s. Now the sets are preserved in this FREE museum! Quite a fabulous find and definitely worth a pitstop or extended bathroom break.

We only had a short afternoon to spend at Zion National Park so we picked the shortest hike (okay fine, walk) possible. 15 MINUTES ROUND TRIP? Now we’re talking. We sat and enjoyed Weeping Rock and listened to her beautiful cadence of water droplets. Why is the rock crying 365 days a year, you ask? Here’s why.

Our last and final stop – Las Vegas. Which really was our excuse to sleep in a soft fluffy bed (roadside motels are charming, but not the most comfortable) and take hot showers to wash off 4 days of dirt stuck between our toes. No pictures needed here.

Since I refused to accept summer was over, I was also in denial about the end of summer weather. I had packed a bunch of shorts for the trip thinking the desert is hot, right? And it’s still 75º in California, Arizona should be no different? Uhh WRONG. With lows in the 40ºs, my body was rudely awakened. So my outfit choices were limited to, well one outfit that I wore for 4 days straight:

christine wears:
jeans | madewell
flannel shirt | urban outfitters
down vest | patagonia
hiking boots | merrell

I am one lucky gal because I’ve got two fabulous girlfriends who love to travel. No big surprise since we actually all met in China, randomly paired up as roommates during my 4 month stint there “learning Chinese” (a.k.a. excuse to quit my job and travel). Since our fortuitous meeting 6 years ago, we’ve lived in different cities/states/countries but make it a point every year to meet up and see the world together. Can’t wait for our next adventure!  The world awaits.

W A N D E R L U S T