Road Trip to The Grand Canyon++ (Part 1)
The daylight hadn’t hit the morning sky yet. But there was a dream beaming in the minds of five people as bright as daylight. Aiming for a long long road ahead, a car cuts though the darkness of early morning. Here starts a journey of five people that they themselves were doubtful. A plan that they made on a whim. Plan to get to the Grand Canyon by a road trip. It takes 1 day and 6 hours drive without stopping from Knoxville to the canyon. We had decided to break the trip into two day drive with one break at Oklohoma City after ~12 hours, stay the night and then another ~13 hours drive to Arizona the next day. We had planned for a 7 day trip to see the Grand Canyon. 2 days to get to Arizona, 2 days to get back and in between 3 days for visiting attractions. The frist day for Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend and Lake Powel. Second day for Hoover Dam and Las Vegas. Third and final day for the actual attraction, The Grand Canyon. So whoever is reading this, brace yourselves for a verbose commentary.
It was quite a daunting task even to think about. So we prepared hard. Ayesha and Gangotree took care of the places to stay. Shobuj took care of the car rental. I and Aribbai watched over everything they did (basically did nothing. smart move). Prepared for a shit load of music for the drive. Some tried to deter us upon hearing our plan. But we were resolute. By noon on the Christmas day we were at Memphis and stopped for lunch. But there was a problem. The car got from Knoxville had its power outlet broken. We couldn’t charge our phones. We had to make a practical decision. So went to Memphis ariport. Well, not to journey by plane. We exchanged our car for another car at the car rental and hit the road again. Things should have gone according to plan from this point forward. As soon as we hit the road with our new car, all unanimously agreed that this car needs to be changed again. There was noise from the engine that was causing us headaches. The mp3 player was not able to play music from USB stick. Such a waste. But we are not to be stopped. We decided to move on. We need to keep the driver awake. We decided to play singing game. We had one classically trained singer. And another unconventionally trained voice with ridiculous databse of lyrics. They had the game going on for hours and hours untill we passed Arkansas and reached Oklohoma City. It was 11:15 in the night and we decided to change the car again. We went to the ariport again. Fortunately there was a car we liked in every bit. A Nissan Rouge. Having settled that, we reached hotel and had biriany for dinner that the girls had cooked a shit ton of to get us through several days.
Next day our next phase of journey began early in the morning. This part of the journey was quite different from the first. The landscape began to change from lush forest into deserted emptness. But not in a depressing way. Rather exiting us along the way with the anticipation of getting closer to the kind of landscape we wanted to see. We passed through extremely cold part of Texas at Amarillo. Then into New Mexico driving right next to the historic Rout 66. After making a stop for lunch at Albuquerque, the landscape was completely different that none of us was used to. It was reddish, deserted and mountains all around us.
Funny thing is all the music that we had packed in, began to run out at this point. Who knew we had underestimated the length of our trip! After sundown we passed thourgh Flagstaff, the gateway to the north side of the canyon that we would pass the very next day, to Kingman at hour hotel. After a relentless journey along I-40 west, a nicely lit town of Kingman welcomed us. We were only at a maximum three and a half hour drive away from all of our destination. Tired but not shaken, we slept through the night only to wake up early next morning.
Next day we started driving for the attractions. Excitment was running thourgh every vein. We were going to make it. It was noon when we reached Paige. Antelope Canyon has a paid tour ~$52/adult that is operated by the red indians. We barely made it in time to catch the 2:00pm tour. They round up people in a transportation truck on a bumpy ride that showers you with desert dust to the canyon. Their behaviour might catch you off guard depending on your expectation of good behaviour. It was ok for me. After jumping up and down for 15 minutes on the truck we arrived at the canyon. You should be careful not to lose your guide as they would rarely look for you if lost. They will give you time and instructions for taking photos. Simply said it was an uncanny experience. It looks different from the photos you would see in the internet.
The whole tour takes around two hours. After a bumpy ride back we headed for the Horseshoe Bend just 10 minutes drive away. The rest is history. It took my breath away. The height was monumental. As someone with fear of height, it was pretty unconfortable watching people including kids to get so close to the edge without batting an eye. There were more people there than we expected to be in late December. There was no safety bounday. And it was so crowded at the edge, it was very easy bump each other and fall a long way down. But somehow adrinalin rushed in. We were more exhilarated than we were afraid. After a moment it was pretty easy to get close the edge.
The Bend’s beauty held us there for the rest of the daylight. We didn’t have time left for Lake Powel. After sunset we headed back to our hotel at Kingman to discuss our next move. Next day, Hoover Dam and Las Vegas was on our list. Since Las Vegas was only an hour away, we planned to go some extra mile to spend the time. And I am glad that we did it. Because it was Death Valley baybeh!