Prelude: Cunningham Falls State Park

To test our fortitude, we camped a night in Cunningham Falls State Park. Within the first hour, our foray was nearly derailed by an over-excited three-year-old stumbling over a tree root - although some unexpected grace stifled the impact of eye-on-rock, reducing it to a reasonable bruise - and a good lesson was learned: do not run on the trail. Otherwise, we experienced the internal conflict of watching your child climb a twenty-foot boulder: trying (and failing) to balance the wish of freedom with the responsibilities of being someone else's parent...

After a surprisingly restful and cozy sleep, we enjoyed a beautiful hike to Cunningham Falls and a feeling of success.

Day One: Fly to Vegas, then off to the Grand Canyon

Those of you who know me know of my philosophic aversion to flying. That does not mean I am afraid of flying; just that I prefer other means of transportation that allow me to remain on the ground, where I feel I most belong. Both Evelyn and I thought we felt something sharp on our necks, and before we knew it...

After regaining consciousness, we did a lot of this...

...in this little guy who...

...and drove through remarkably long, flat, fairly barren, and incredibly monotonous desert land from Nevada to Arizona. This would have merely been a long, draining drive had not this been our destination:

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We zipped to our campsite, set up camp, and headed out. I felt giddy; nervously excited; always on the edge of running, trying to move just a little faster. The Grand Canyon keeps it all hidden; you get no preview. You can see mountains and hills from afar, and they slowly urge toward you. You don't see the Grand Canyon until you see it; until its right below your feet. I was too young to remember this, but it must be like seeing the ocean for the first time. Walking up the sand path, flanked by dunes, you rise up just high enough and there, in front of you, is the vastest thing you have ever seen - and as you get closer and closer, you see even more its depth. You realize that those little 'shrubs' down there on that cliff are actually hundred-foot trees, and that means they are much further away than you originally thought. It makes you tingle in the back of your knee and want to sit down. Oh my goodness it was the most incredible thing I have ever seen.

We hiked home, and I slept like a baby.

Day Two: Grand Canyon and the Arizona National Scenic Trail

Inspired by our evening and gently woken by a friendly family of ravens, we decided to let it rip and do an 8 mile hike. We traveled along a few miles of the Arizona National Scenic Trail which led us to the eastern trail of the South Rim - and introduced us to some interesting insects. We tracked deer and elk along the pathway, and Evelyn got really excited about seeing some deer. Consistently excited. Here are some of the views along the way:

Day Three: Bright Angel Trail

Never have I so acutely felt the presence of death than while at the Grand Canyon. This jagged, severe gash in the earth, as steep as could be. Looking over the edge of the South Rim is staring at certain death, and yet it is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. So calm, serene. Birds gliding up layer upon layer. Endless miles of craters and caverns and plateaus. I could not help but stare; captivated and lost in its vastness.

Now hiking down into the beast is an entirely different story. Descending switchback upon switchback, you feel the canyon stretching its arms around your shoulders, welcoming you into its company. You feel great and walk through a few of these:

You find a nice cozy piece of shade and take a break:

You walk past some groups of sweaty, panting, tired-looking people and think to yourself Those people must be out of shape and They must be from the camp at the bottom, but think nothing else of it. You mosey along - Evelyn setting the pace and ask some international visitors to take your picture...

You even snap an awkward-looking selfie...

But in the meantime, you have been looking over the edge and realizing exactly how steep that drop is. You know you're not crazy, but the path seems to be narrowing. You stop for a moment and turn around. Hm... You realize you have to hike all the way back UP there, and now you are starting to feel yourself freak out. This seems like the time to head back to camp.

Now, the thing is that Evelyn really only likes to hike downhill if it is a generally smooth trail - no rocks or obstacles in her way - so she had the best ride of the day out of the Grand Canyon: on my shoulders. We booked it back up the trail and agreed to enjoy our remaining time along the Rim.

Next time, we are headed all the way down!

Day Four: Hermits Rest

We called Hermits Rest our day because we left our phones at camp. 

We rode, first the Blue, then the Red Shuttle to Hermits Rest and the west end of the shuttle line, then hiked our way back. What was so remarkable about this hike was the expanse of the Grand Canyon. I expected to turn a corner and finally see the end of it. We saw several famous lookout points and memorials, including Mojave and Powell Points. John Wesley Powell and the story of his voyage along the Colorado River is inspiring and heartbreaking. 

After Evelyn's afternoon nap, we ventured back out to the Grand Canyon Village and explored the historic architecture: El Tovar, Kolb Studio, and Hopi House - the latter two (along with Desert View, tomorrow) designed by Mary Colter, an early 20th century architect and visionary.

And then we did this.

And then we prepared for our travel day back to Las Vegas.

Day Five: Desert View and back to Las Vegas

This was my first experience of interplanetary exploration.

We woke up, packed our gear, and headed on the road - for about 15 miles, until we realized we didn't have enough gas to travel to Desert View and beyond, so we turned back, gassed up Little Red, and made our way once again to Desert View (only to realize they had a gas station and we didn't have to turn around - except this gas was more expensive so it was all evens out, I guess). On the way, we visited the Tusayan Museum and Ruin. This was where trip took an unexpected turn [for me].

Perhaps the seed had already been planted throughout the week as we read placards about Native tribes and their lives in the canyon; as we explored galleries of Native art from varying tribes, each tagged with a small picture, name, affiliation, and item number; The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses, an incredible book Evelyn picked out about love, individuality, acceptance, and our relationship to the earth - she asked us to read it every night, and by the time we reached Yosemite, she had memorized nearly the entire book.

Perhaps it truly was a self-arising moment - shy of an epiphany, but strong and urgent.

Perhaps it merely was a well executed museum design.

After strolling through the gallery, seeing the ancient pottery and tools, and reading about their crops and lifestyle, I walked into the sun and was transported. I felt myself a member of this late Puebloan community. I tended the crops in the farm area - encouraged the squash up a branch and was proud of my corn. I sat in the kiva and imagined the emergence from the earth and darkness. When I came back to myself, I felt further and pleasantly bound to this earth and this world. I resolved to strive even harder to achieve a balanced, symbiotic, harmonious relationship with the world I inhabit.

If you look really closely, you can see Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48 - at least, that's what I remember the placard saying...

Without a doubt, Desert View held the most incredible sites. At Hermit's Rest, we stole a couple small glimpses of the majestic Colorado River, but from Desert View, it snuck around the corner, and jumped out and surprised us. I am in awe of this river: that which can gouge such a beautifully terrifying masterpiece in the ground.

It most certainly looks like that building has a bunch of ants crawling all over it. This is the other Mary Colter building that has an incredible 4 story winding staircase - Evelyn had a blast with all those steps!

And then we sad "Goodbye" and "Thank You" to the Grand Canyon, hopped in Little Red, and started our way back to Las Vegas.

woo hoo...

Grand Canyon miscellaneous

Throughout our time at the Grand Canyon, we saw lots of Mule deer - with their adorable big, flappy ears - families of elk, some friendly Pinyon jays, and the aforementioned Ravens.

Without fail, walking along this trail from camp to the shuttle or Rim - morning or evening - we would be startled by these guys (alone or en masse)...

...and would stop and enjoy our shared presence. There is something magical in the casual encounters one has with nature at the Grand Canyon. 

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We are began a series of impressions of leaf and other flora that continued at each campsite. This was a great activity for young and old - from venturing out to find objects to shading their outlines - and a terrific way for Evelyn to contribute to our travelogue.

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The magic word of the Grand Canyon was, "Maps". Evelyn couldn't walk by a map or placard without asking, 'Wheah ahr we?' or authoritatively pointing, 'We ahr deah'. On our drive to Tusayan and eventually Las Vegas, we gave Evelyn one of our Grand Canyon park maps, and spent the rest of the trip talking about where we are and the animals she saw listed on the back side. We may have unrooted her inner cartographer: only time will tell...

One 'map' Evelyn most certainly heeded was...

...but I cannot understand why people needed to have squirrels eat out of their hands! What makes wild squirrels cute is how they jump across branches; how they chase eat other up and across trees; and how they use those teeny tiny little hands to nibble nibble nibble around an acorn: all things that can easily be enjoyed from afar. I just never understood the crowds of three or four people huddling around a squirrel, trying to coax it five inches from their faces to take a close-up.
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We could obviously not evaluate this until after our trip, but the Grand Canyon contained the most diverse population of visitors in our entire trip. It was incredible to hear the varying tongues, see the varying clothing, experience the varying ways people from all other the world enjoy this treasure. Like birds in a meadow, we flocked from shrub to twig, acknowledging our shared presence and pursuing our simultaneously common and unique paths. It was invigorating and inspiring to feel at one with so many thousands of people at once in such a boundless place at the Grand Canyon.

Day Five, Part Two: Las Vegas

I didn't want to spill any of this negativity onto the Grand Canyon. That woo hoo... was probably too much.

This is where the interplanetary part comes in.

There is no conceivable way that Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon exist on the same planet. In fact, I would even question the very existence of Las Vegas itself. This place makes absolutely no sense. It is smack in the middle of the desert, these tall, funny-looking buildings that are all kinds of strange, impractical, devoid of all art. I just don't get this place. It makes me want to write bad words - on occasion, they enter my voice and I immediately shut them down for stylistic sake, but while thinking about Las Vegas, I try harder to justify an exception.

Driving in Las Vegas is a unique challenge. Lots of people driving way too fast and who have absolutely no idea where they are going. It is terribly chaotic, but kind of fun - in a thrilling sort of way.

I was immediately over-stimulated and could barely keep a handful of words strung together. Thousands of people walking every which direction, and I think to myself is what about all the people INSIDE these buildings, and then I realized with greater depth how much of a different planet into which I found myself driving.

We stayed at the Venetian, which is remarkably ridiculous. Indoor gondola; fake piazza - Evelyn kept getting tricked by the fake sky and asking where were the birds; marble everywhere; overpriced everything. This was strangest place I have even been to, and I am so happy we did not take more of a Hunter S. Thompson approach to this leg of the trip.

That said: our hotel was clean, ordered, quiet, and comfortable. Evelyn had her own pull-out bed, so Cassandra and I could at least stretch out at night for a week - as opposed to her squeezed between us, always filling in the space when one of us moved and refusing to give up newly gained territory.

By 6:00pm, we were in our hotel room, eating left-over non-perishable scraps, burning our eyes with the colorful lights of the television and letting our brains melt into the dimensionless abyss of Sunday-evening television.

Day Six: Laundering in Las Vegas

With Cassandra busy at the National Conference on Singapore Math Strategies every day, Evelyn and I found ourselves with an unusual stock of daily freedom.

After five days on the road, the first thing we needed was CLEAN CLOTHES. Little Red brought us to a laundromat down the street from the Venetian, and after procuring some free detergent from the attendant and starting a large load, Evelyn and I walked through a somewhat blighted block of rundown two-story apartment complexes to a half-vacant shopping strip - where we found a fantastic bagel store.

Bagelmania was an oasis in the desert within the Desert; a place of absolute familiarity, perhaps even uncanny in its ability to connect with places I have frequented in the past. Evelyn and I started everyday with a visit to Bagelmania, and somehow I felt entirely at home. Their bagels were fresh and chewydelicious; their service was simple and genuine. The only pictures I have of this place is of their bathroom: an unexpected treat:

 

Fueled and breakfasted, we drove 30 minutes south of Vegas to Seven Magic Mountains, a beautiful art exhibit in the middle of the Mojave Desert. The piece is an exquisite contrast between scene and setting. The boulders shine on the homogenous background of the brambled desert and cloudless sky. Shout out to Wendy for sending us on this path: you rock! (we were also able to shoot the front and back covers for Evelyn's upcoming album, featuring the Dap-Kings).

A great start to our adventures.

Day Seven: The Mojave National Preserve

Invigorated by our successful previous voyage, we drove an hour past the Seven Magic Mountains to the Mojave National Preserve, a massive expanse of varying desert landscapes. We went for a 5-mile hike up the Teutonia Peak Trail through a portion of the largest concentration of Joshua trees in the world. Like walking into a cornfield, within a few unnoticed minutes of walking the trail, I turned in all directions to realize that we could not see Little Red and had absolutely no sense of direction other than the trail. It was quite freaky and startling for a moment, but then became utterly freeing. It didn't matter if I knew where I was going because the trail already did - as long as I trusted the trail, I possessed all my faculties and was able to be in this place. This trail was meditative, peaceful, tranquil, and beautiful.

Evelyn beasted this hike and required minimal shoulder-time up and down the trail. She was so excited to 'climb the mountain' - and this set the tone for the rest of our time in Vegas. On our way down, she was mildly impaled by an unexpectedly large cactus needle after stumbled over a rock. I attempted to remove what I thought was a 2 inch needle stuck to her clothes and quickly realized it was attached to more than her clothes. But as I said, she beasted it, so with just a few tears and a simple 'medical' procedure - ask her about it someday - she continued on her way down the peak.

Day Eight - Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area

Feeling somewhat less ambitious after our long day on the road, we headed to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. Little Red negotiated the 13-mile Scenic Drive, then brought us back to climb among the Calico Hills - sharp, deep red undulations and caverns.

 

 

Evelyn joyfully climbed among these rocks all afternoon - a truly nature playground - then slumped in her carseat into a deep sleep before I was finished backing out of our parking spot. We could have spent an entire week here alone: climbing the rocks, then hiking the trails that snake through and up the surrounding mountains and canyons. All I could have wished for was more time here...

Day Nine: Valley of Fire State Park

Given concerns about extreme heat, Little Red's durability, slithering reptiles, and the ominous name, it was determined that we would forgo our most ambitious trip - to Death Valley National Park - in favor of the less intimidating Valley of Fire State Park. The first designated state park in Nevada, Evelyn and I saw 225 million year old petrified logs and stumps, ancient Native petroglyphs, climbed rocks, and took in some incredible rock formations. The heat was pretty intense out here, so Evelyn didn't last too long, but not before seeing the Bighorn Mountain Sheep she had been asking to see since our time at the Grand Canyon - as if I have a zoo of desert animals in my pocket and merely need to release them into view...

To put it simply, this park was sprawling and gorgeous. Like Red Rock Canyon, if only we had more time to wander and explore.

 

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