Vegas and the Grand Canyon!

We're back in the world of cell phone battery chargers and service! After three days of being "unreachable," we're taking a day to re-connect, do laundry, and catch up with the important people in our lives! Here's a re-cap of our trip thus far:

Day 1: Wednesday:
We started out at 9am from the Bay Area (unlike the 5am departure time we had originally anticipated - heck, we're on vacation!) We took our time making it down I-5 and down toward Las Vegas. Our original thought was to go past Vegas and check out camping near Lake Meade, but as we drove into Las Vegas, we were both overwhelmed by all the lights and decided to spend our first night in style with a Vegas buffet to boot!

We didn't stay on the strip, but Tyler got to play the slots and won some money, and Hills got to use the gym. Aspen was a little put off with all of the driving, but enjoyed the buffet :).


Hills standing in the wind as we make our way to Las Vegas.

Day 2: Thursday:
Today we checked out Circus Circus and headed toward Arizona for our Grand Canyon Adventure. We had to stop just outside of Las Vegas for our last In N' Out burgers and fries for a while. We continued on to Lake Meade and the Hoover Dam and took our time taking some fun pics.

After Hoover Dam, we drove through Kingman, AZ looking for some lunch and after driving through 15 minutes of gas stations, cafes, and motels, we finally found a small grocery store to stock up on lunch and dinners for our upcoming camping trip. After a quick stop at Basha's grocery for food and a cell phone charge, we called the office for camping at Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon and it was completely booked until June. The office suggested calling back after 3:00. Well, timing seems to be the name of the game for us thus far and Tyler called at 2:45 to check to see if there had been any cancellations. There was one for that night and we were able to squeeze ourselves in when others had been calling every day for months to get a reservation!

Excited and loaded with great camping snacks, we made the drive up the last remaining portion of Route 66 to the trail head. The hike was 8 miles down into the Grand Canyon and the unenthusiastic gentleman at the small office at the trail head told us the hike in would take 2 hours to get to a village and then a half hour to the campsite. Starting at 5pm, and considering ourselves expert hikers, we figured we could make it easily before the sun went down. We loaded ourselves up with our two packs and Aspen in the carrier and half hiked, half jogged our way towards camp.

We were WAY off. We finally hit Supai Village of the Havasupai tribe in the dark (in the dark, the village was small and quaint and we were baffled at the idea of living 6.5 miles down into the Grand Canyon.) Unfortunately we took a wrong turn at the village and started stumbling through fences and into the back portions of people's properties. After re-orienting ourselves, we pushed through past the village (not before almost getting attacked by a herd of "yard dogs" who were highly agitated that we were crossing through their area). Flash light in hand, we slowly made it through to the campsite and set up camp. It was slightly nerve racking and a little bit scary, but all of the slip-ups and wrong turns made it even more adventurous and made for a fabulous memory. We set up camp by the Havasu River and after 9 miles of hiking, we fell into bed.






(Pics: Hills carries her pack plus Aspen; Ty in front of some amazing rocks; Aspen takes a water break)

















Day 3: Friday:
We woke up in a gorgeous setting with walls of canyon and rock on either side of us and the Havasu River flowing down through the campground. Today we hiked down to Mooney Falls, just a mile farther down the river from our campsite. We figured it would be an easy-ish, but slightly technical hike, so we loaded Aspen up in the baby carrier and threw on our hiking shoes. The hiking was easy with great views, but when the trail ended and a tunnel in the rock opened up, we realized this was a bit more technical than we had expected. The last portion of the trek down to the falls was a rock decent, where chains and bolts had been installed into the rock to help climbers down the rock face. Ty was a great coach in getting Hillary down the rocks (Hills is terrified of rock climbing), and eventually down to the falls. Totally worth it! All the while, Aspen slept soundly on Dad's back until we got down to the blue pools of water. This was literally a paradise on earth!

After leaving the falls (and climbing back up the rock face), we packed up our camp, checked out Havasu Falls, took some pics, and started the accent out of the Canyon. Our legs were not moving as spritely today, and after about six or seven miles of climbing out of the canyon, we decided to camp illegally in the middle of the Grand Canyon before making the final trip out of the canyon. We set up camp behind a rock, ate what food we had left, and snuggled into our tent as it got dark. Just as Aspen had finally gotten to sleep, we heard what sounded like a large person clomping around our tent. We waited, breathless, for it to pass, hoping it wasn't a ranger snooping around and making sure we weren't trespassers (because we were!). After a few minutes, we got the courage to look out of the tent and realized we had a wild horse that had been poking around our camp. Phew!

(Pics: Aspen plays by the Havasu River; Hills and the Grand Canyon, just before the decent down to the falls; the decent to the Havasu Falls; The Gatteau family by the falls)

Day 4: Saturday:
We woke up with the sun today to pack up camp and finish our hike out before any hikers or rangers realized we had spent the night. As we were taking down our tent, Hills noticed a rider coming up from the Supai Village. We quickly dove onto our tent and pulled all of our belongings behind the rock behind which we had camped, so he wouldn't see us. So close! After that ,we quickly threw our packs on and started up for the last mile.

Once back out of the Canyon, we made our way down toward Flagstaff, AZ. We had high hopes for the potential of this town as a possible place to set up a practice, but after about five minutes of driving through, we realized this would never do and pretty much continued straight through.

Tonight we got to Bayfield, CO, just outside of Durango, CO and are staying with our friends Jeremy and Cinda. We'll be here for the next few days, so we don't have to worry about having to entertain Aspen in the car!

We'll be posting our pictures at www.picasaweb.google.com/hwgatteau