catching up from LA to sedona, AZ

hello from cottonwood, arizona! we're staying with a friend from college, davey, who lives outside of sedona, az in a town called cottonwood. we just went up to have dinner and a few drinks in a mountain town called jerome, which many people have recommended to me to check out. it definitely was worth the trip up the mountain, and i was surprised by what we would see there. it's an old historic mining town, and they have these "ghost tours" which is literally a traveling theater throughout the town, with actors that act out scenes in various places outdoors and indoors, and the audience follows along to each location. pretty funny, and the bar we were hanging out at listening to local live music turned out to be the spot where most of the actors or performers (or maybe just people dressed up early for halloween) came to grab food or a drink. it was great to catch up with davey, and kevin enjoyed getting to know the musicians between breaks in their sets.

we've obviously covered some ground since i last posted, as we are now on our way eastward! we headed from san diego to las vegas, and then onto our last three national parks on the trip. las vegas was absolutely insane and really fun. we splurged in vegas (mostly using gift money) and stayed at the venetian hotel the first night, ate at a fantastic restaurant within the palazzo/venetian complex, and gambled some. the venetian was so luxurious, and i totally was spoiled after staying there for a night. the following evening, we found ourselves coming back to the sin city international student hostel in downtown vegas :) but, that turned out to be just what we needed and definitely within out budget. we definitely didn't "belong" pulling into the hotel with our dirty hippie-mobile and random items falling out as we were trying to valet park and have a bell boy help us with our many bags. quite comical actually.

the hotels in vegas are really amazing - the architecture and design inside and out are worth admiring. we spent some time exploring the day after we arrived, since we wanted to soak up every moment we could while staying at the venetian and living the life of luxury! i'm forgetting at the moment which hotel this is, but it was across from where we stayed and could possibly be the mirage. we went to the mirage the second night where we saw the cirque du soleil show "love" which was to all beatles songs. it was such a mind-blowing show, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. luckily we were able to get discount tickets for a friday night, and they were great seats. the music of course was great, and the performances were awesome. i honestly cannot believe still that people can move their bodies the way that they did, or have the strength to hang from rope attached to the ceiling and fly through the air. it did look like a lot of fun though- but i'm not too sure you'd see me up there anytime soon.

i'm glad that we did vegas (since we toyed with the idea of skipping it entirely) but it was a bit too much excess and commercialization for me. i'm really not into gambling, or shopping excessively, so after seeing the sights, eating out and full enjoying out hotel room, i had enough. the malls and buildings like i said really are impressive, and we took tons of pictures walking around through the venetian, palazzo, the mirage, and caesar's palace. many sections of the ceiling are painted to mirror the daytime sky and it does feel like you're outside in some places, especially where they have the gondola rides. but, after a while it felt too artificial and i just wanted to get back outside! of course. after our night in the hostel, we packed up again and made our way to the hoover dam just to say we saw it and crossed over it into arizona. it was pretty great to check out, and it's where we realized arizona doesn't change time zones right now and is still on pacific time, even though we're technically in the mountain time zone.

in utah we camped in zion and bryce canyon national parks, and then headed south to arizona to stay at the south rim of the grand canyon. we ended up staying the first night in a motel outside of the canyon, since we really needed a good night's sleep in a bed and a shower. camping hadn't been bad at all, except for the cold nights in bryce since we were at an elevation of about 8,000 feet. all of these parks are equally beautiful in their own way, with their own characteristics that really set them apart. they all had amazing FREE shuttle systems though - which i definitely appreciate and really am happy about. in zion we actually could not reach our trailhead by car; we realized that AFTER we drove out the east entrance on the road that we kept wondering, "where is the trailhead?". we had to drive all the way back past our campground near the south entrance to catch a shuttle. we ended up only doing one hike that day, to angel's landing.

this is me at the top; it was absolutely stunning! the last part of the hike you actually had assistance from chains along the trail because it was so steep and dangerous to climb. it might have been freakier than the half dome hike in yosemite, mostly because you could see at every curve how far you would fall or how much farther you had to go. it was definitely challenging and a bit scary, but so worth the climb to the top! we had lunch up there, and shooed away the pesky chipmunks that have grown accustomed to hikers feeding them snacks. we've noticed this problem in so many national parks and tourist spots; people stupidly feed the wildlife and then the animals become used to being fed by humans and eating human food. the squirrels in the grand canyon were SO fat at the busiest tourist look out spots. one of these unafraid, overweight little weasels managed to steal the remainder of my hot pretzel from the snack shop at once of the lodges on the rim right from my lap! he just stood there nibbling on it in front of me as if to mock me, and then ran away with the rest of it.

anyway, the views in zion are incredible. there are amazing vistas of the mountains and incredible cliff faces and canyons. i was blown away from the beauty of this park, and how diverse it was. you could hike up to angel's landing and see a panoramic view of the park and forest, but then also go down and do a river hike through the narrows which would be walking knee-deep in the river surrounded by canyon walls only 20 feet apart. we didn't get to do any extensive hikes after angel's landing, so i'd definitely like to go back and do a narrows hike - it sounds difficult but really awesome.

after camping for 2 nights in zion (one night right outside the park and one night within the park itself) we drove over to bryce canyon, for some more hiking and camping in canyon land. we had a great campsite that had plenty of room for our hammock and tent, but it got SO cold there! we weren't expecting such a huge jump in elevation change, and the cold definitely made nights a bit uncomfortable. we did have some great campfires there though, and we really enjoyed those. during the first day kevin and i did a short hike, and then split up to do solo hikes the second day. this photo is from my hike on the peekaboo loop, which takes you into the canyon and loops back in like 4-5 miles. there are a bunch of cool looking spots like these along the trail, and i liked the view through this archway out to the "hoodoos" which are the rock formations you'll find everywhere in the canyon.

i'll have to write more about the grand canyon and parts of our travels and some reflections i've left out. but for now, i'm absolutely exhausted and am ready to enjoy a night's sleep on a futon and not the ground! we're heading to Albuquerque in the morning to meet my aunt andi who lives in taos, NM for a late lunch, and then stay with another coworker from PIRG. from there we are attempting to drive to austin, TX in one day. should be interesting. stay tuned :) miss you all! xo