Just the beginning

At present we are in Grand Canyon National Park and expect to continue to Zion NP the 13th. We have driven almost 1100 miles (1760km) and so far our gas mileage is better than expected. The first three tanks of gas have brought us over the Sierras and through the heat and still we have done 16.2 MPG (6,8 km/L) – this is pretty good, but we also tried to drive carefully pretty much all the way.

 

Below is a map of where we have driven so far. A bit of driving is missing because a) I forgot to turn on the GPS logger and b) it went out of power while driving.

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Yosemite

As said last, we wanted to start the trip July 4th. We did indeed start that day, but the last cleaning up of things took longer than we had expected and as result we didn’t leave the house before 18:00. 

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We shopped at Whole Foods and Peets a last time before the trip and “hit the road” around 19:00. Late for a roadtrip. We wanted to take the Tioga Pass road to Mono Lake, and sleep on a campground in Yosemite’s High Country. We didn’t actually find a campsite and ended up on Olmsted point – a nice place to sleep, but not really allowed. In the morning Sabine couldn’t sleep and went out to sit. Good thing she did that as a ranger came and asked if we had camped. Naturally not – just been resting after a long drive.

Mono Lake / Calico

Next day, we went to Mono Lake. We didn’t actually want to spend too much time there, so we just drove to the south shore to look at the Tufa there.

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After hanging out here in the heat we went down 395 towards Calico, which was our rest stop before Supai. On the way the bus started to show us that it didn’t like the heat (38C/100F). We stopped, and since we had plenty of water in the camping bus we could easily refill the radiator. At the next gas station we also got some coolant to help prevent further issues.

We reached Calico around 22:00 and found the campground pretty much empty, except for two others – but it is also hot here now.

We had to finish off the chicken legs we had brought from home, so we grilled them for dinner before going to bed.

Supai

Next day we drove to Hualapai Hilltop (the parking lot where we start the walk to Supai). The trip was down I-40 and then off the Old Highway 66. Just before the Highway 66 turnoff we again had to stop as the bus started to complain about the heat. Again we added water, and more coolant (this is going to be expensive if we are going to buy this all the time).

In the evening we got dinner with a view over the Grand Canyon – packed our back packs and went to sleep.

July 7th at 6:45 we were ready to the almost 9 mile (14km) hike to Supai in Grand Canyon.

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Two and half hour later we were down in Supai. A small village, with about 600 people as we later learned, where everything has to come in via mule train or via helicopter, but they have all other amenities like power, satellites and telephone and even a few backhoes. Felix was very impressed by the helicopter and was glued to the fence every time it came – and that was quite often that day.

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Since we were kind of early we could not check into the lodge yet and at the cafe they had not started to serve lunch yet. We got a second breakfast before we walked the last two miles down to Havasu Falls. A picture of the falls was what first made us interested in hiking down here – and I must say this is really impressive. The water is clear blue/green and about 21C/70F. A really wonderful place which was worth all the trouble of getting here.

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The plan was to hike up the next day, but Sabine really wanted to try and get a horse out. She loves horses and Felix was curious about how it was to ride a horse. We had asked at the lodge the day before and they said that there was no chance as no-one wanted to take people out. On the way out we saw a group just setting out and the guide, a very friendly man, told us to go to the “tourist office” as it could not be true. Sabine first asked and we got the same response. I took Felix with me in to try again, and after telling that we had been told that it should be possible they started to call around. When it looked like we could not get any, one of the girls said she could ask her brother.

Her brother was out at his fathers cornfield and could not be reached by phone. His girlfriend went out to ask if he could take some tourist (us) up to the hilltop that day.

An hour and a half later he came with two horses for us. Sabine took Felix (she can ride) and I tried to look like I was not going to fall off right away.

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The trip up on the horse took us two and half hours with a very friendly guide. We stopped a few times on the way and he pointed out cactus fruits and a raspberry tree. The raspberries were ripe and we stopped to get some. They were very small and quite a bit sweeter than “real” raspberries.

Grand Canyon

At the top we topped up the radiator will coolant (it took almost the whole gallon) and a bit of water – this time we did it different. First coolant and then water – hope this is better as the majority of the liquid is now coolant.

The Grand Canyon South Rim is about 43 miles (69 km) to the east – according to the Garmin – but the drive was 193 miles (309 km) as the only direct road was a dirt road only recommended for 4x4s. Thanks to the horse ride up we could start the drive to Grand Canyon early and we arrived in good time at the campground (booked in advance – good as it was full).

July 9th was a rest day – we got a shower, got our clothes washed etc. Just hanging out and packing our back packs for the hike down to the Colorado River the next day.

At 5:00 July 10th the alarm clock went off – we filled up with cold oatmeal with raisins and milk before we took the bikes to the bus and the bus to the trailhead. We started the trip down at 6:45.

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I would never tell you that the hike down was easy – it is about 9 miles (14 km), just like the hike to Supai, but the trip down took us five and a half hours – and it was hot at the end. The last hour of the hike was along the Colorado River.

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After Supai we had not expected that it would take this long to get there and that it would be that hard. Since the rule-of-thumb is that the trip up is double of the trip down (though we usually only use 1.5) it would look like a long trip up – and since the temperature was 126F/52C in the afternoon we dished the plan of hiking up in the afternoon/evening (planning to be up at 21:00) and instead wanted to hike up early the next morning and then stop at Indian Garden (half way) until the late afternoon. when we would take the second half.

We cooled ourselves in the creek, got some lemonade at Phantom Ranch, pitched our tent and ate our pasta salad (brought in in a zip-lock bag) before going to sleep around 21:30.

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The next morning I woke up at 4:50 and started to pack our stuff and around 6:16 we started the walk up.

 

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It was cloudy that day and we didn’t get boiled in the Devil’s Corkscrew and at Indian Garden it was still not too hot and we were in good time – only 3 hours since the start. We switched off so I got Felix from here and we took the chance that the sun would stay away – and it did. Seven and half hour since we stated the trip up we reached the top. Tired, but not too trashed. It was hard, but I would do it again – but I do not think I would do it with a child a lot heavier (Felix is 32 pounds / ~15kg).

Felix was awake from 5:00 until just before the top at 13:45. This was a long day for him and he was a bit antsy at the end – we promised him an ice-cream at the top if he would sit still. We got the ice-cream at the tourist overlook and we got a beer at the terrace at El Tovar afterwards.

 

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