Mountains, Canyons, Scorpions and a Wedding!

Colorado was one of our favorite places so far, even corner of it.  We drove from Taos to Durango, which was a beautiful drive though the mountains with the leaves changing colors. We found a spot to camp, walked along the Animas River and found a brewery (we’re getting pretty good at that).  The brewery, Steamworks was having happy hour and it was just $2 for 20 ounce beers.  Needless to say we were feeling pretty good pretty quickly.  We had nachos and split a green chile burger and then went for a long walk after dinner walk to work off the beers and food. 

Animas River

The next day we ran the Durango half, trail marathon.  We didn’t actually run in the official race since we didn’t sign up in time, but we just started a couple hours after (good thing with the previous nights beer drinking) and followed the course.  It was a spectacular course, that went up over two peaks with great views of the town and surrounding mountains.  Just as we were heading up the second peak it started raining.  As we starting descending the thunder and lightning kicked in and by the time we reached the bottom of the mountain it was hailing.  Pretty exciting jog through the hills to say the least.  We went to the post race party at, wait, you’ll never guess…a brewery.  After replenishing our carbs we ran some errands and headed on to Telluride. 

View of Durango from Horseshoe Gulch

Bryce in the distance setting a blistering pace on the Durango Trail Half 

Telluride was one of the most beautiful places we’ve been so far.  We were incredibly fortunate to be able to stay at our friend Marie’s family cabin near Trout Lake (Thank you, Marie!).  The cabin, which is nearly at 10,000 feet was amazing and faced the 14,000 foot peaks that were just a few miles away.  It was also our first chance to do laundry since DC and our first shower in an amount of time I would rather not specify.  We spent our first day there doing absolutely nothing, which was glorious.  It snowed that day so we mostly just sat around and watched the snow collect on the ground outside.  The next day we hiked to Hope Lake through lots of fresh powder, went into the town of Telluride to explore a little and found two breweries, go figure.  Our last day we hiked to the top of Blackface Peak, which was just over 12,000 feet.  At the top there were 360 degree views of the Rocky Mountains.  Probably the single best view we’ve had so far on out trip. 

Creek flowing into Trout Lake

On the trail to Hope Lake

View from the top of the trail to Hope Lake

Hope Lake

Amazing views at the top of Blackface Peak

360 degree views from Blackface Peak (view of Lizard Head in the distance)

On our hike we met a couple who had been traveling around the Southwest and they convinced us that we should check out the Needles District in Canyonlands National Park so we made a slight change of plans and headed there instead of going directly to Moab as we had originally planned.  We got into camp late (after narrowly missing several suicidal deer), but were amazed by the views of all the red rock formations when we awoke in the morning.  Three different people had recommended three different hikes in the park, so we went to the visitor center to let the ranger be the tie breaker.  She recommended the Chesler Park loop and she was absolutely right as it was definitely one of the best hikes we’ve done so far on our trip.  It had really awesome rock formations, big red rock canyons and narrow slot canyons.  We also decided to take a spur trail  up a dry river canyon out to Druid Arch, which was really cool.   Canyonlands is definitely at the top of our list for places that we want to come back to.  We headed to Moab, which was surprisingly crowded for a Wednesday night.  We tried seven different campgrounds and drove around Moab for two hours before finally breaking down and paying $30 to stay the night in an RV park. 

Chesler Park Loop in Canyonlands

Bryce almost didn't fit through the slot canyon

Druid Arch

The Needles District, Canyonlands

The next day we spent the day exploring Arches National Park, which was pretty cool, but actually kind of a letdown after seeing Canyonlands the day before.  We did the Devils Garden Trail, which contains most of the arches in the park and then the Delicate Arch trail, which was the best and is featured on the Utah license plate.  We spent the next two days in Bryce Canyon and had a great time hiking around the canyon.  Our favorite trail was the Fairyland Loop Trail, as it got away from the crowds that were on the more popular trails.  Bryce Canyon was chilly as it is over 8,000 feet.  After Bryce we headed down the road to Zion.  We did the Angels Landing hike, which was spectacular.  The hike is only about 2.5 miles each way, but is steep and the last half mile is on a steep ridge with 1,000 foot drops on either side.  There are some cables for safety, but it was pretty exhilarating.

Devil's Garden hike (Arches NP)

Landscape Arch

Delicate Arch

Bryce Canyon

Hiking into Bryce Ampitheater

Thank goodness for the cables! Angel's Landing Hike

At the top of Angel's Landing

The next day we hiked through the Narrows, which is a steep and narrow canyon with the Virgin River flowing through it.  The canyon is so narrow that most of the hike is straight up the river, which makes for pretty slow going.  It took us about 2.5 hours to make it the 3.7 miles to the farthest place you can day hike, Orderville Canyon.  We only saw one other person that made it that far, although everyone on the shuttle bus back claimed that they made it all the way to the end.  Understandable why they would think that since when you are walking upstream in a river, just a couple hundred feet probably feels like a mile.  

Hiking The Narrows

We loved the canyons of Utah and are going to try to return next Spring/Summer to do more exploring and hopefully some backpacking as well.  We left Zion and headed to Borrego Springs, CA where we spent nearly a week celebrating the Parker/Sarah wedding.  An amazing week of festivities with lots of fabulous food and great friends.  The Sims/Bowlin/Ricks crews definitely know how to throw one heck of a party, and not just one party, like seven consecutive parties.  My whole family was there and it was really nice to see my dad, mom and brother for the first time since we left, as well as a bunch of other friends.  We probably left with twice as many friends as we started the week with as we met a ton of awesome people.  A testament to what great people Sarah and Parker are that they have some many awesome friends.  I even managed to stay conscious for my entire wedding speech and avoided swearing until the very end.  We also spent some time hiking in Borrego at Palm Canyon and The Slots.  We watched sunrise and had champagne at Font’s Point (wedding day event organized by Parker and Sarah) and went for some brutally hot runs in the 100 degree desert heat that seemed like bad ideas before, during and after. 

The Slots in Borrego

Sunrise toast at Font's Point

A bromantic sunrise with Hogan

Oh!  And Gina got stung by a scorpion!  It actually happened inside the house when she was putting something in a dresser and put her foot slightly under and BAM!  The scorpion stung her and then flew across the room as she kicked it off her foot.  The thing was huge, about six inches long and just sat there on the rug in the middle of the room (looking smug).  We used a frying pan and a cookie sheet to trap it and then threw it outside onto the driveway where it was promptly smashed with the frying pan.  Most people probably would have gone to the hospital or least taken a mellow day after being stung by a scorpion that was the size of a raccoon, but Gina spent the rest of the day on a ladder hanging streamers.  What can I say…she’s a badass. 

The Infamous Scorpion

After spending a day relaxing with my parents and watching the Giants win game five of the World Series we headed to Joshua Tree where we did some more desert hiking and most importantly slept for 12 hours.  We hiked to Lost Palm Canyon and climbed to the top of Ryan Mountain.  Good views, cool rock formations and lots of interesting cactus.

We're now at the Grand Canyon where we are going to spend the next three days backpacking.  We checked in at the Backcountry Office and we're notified that our itinerary has been flagged as "aggressive".  Our plan is to hike to Cottonwood Campground tomorrow and then to Bright Angel Creek the next day.  We stocked up on mini Snickers and Fireball in hopes of throwing a Halloween party at the backcountry campground.  If you find yourself at the bottom of the Grand Canyon on Friday, please join us!





Lots of love.

B and G

Headed West

Hey all,

Sorry for going blog silent for so long.  A combination of busyness and lack of internet.  Last time you heard from us we were in Nashville, Tennessee and now we are all the way in Taos, New Mexico.  Here’s how it all went down.

Nashville was great as we enjoyed the comfort of a hotel and everyone within a hundred foot radius appreciated that we showered for the first time in a week.  In Nashville, we made a quick stop to surprise some of my old coworkers and got some good recommendations on what to see and what to eat.  We had lunch at Hattie B’s Hot Chicken (awesome!) and walked around Nashville.  The most interesting parts of Nashville were the country music that plays from every establishment and the river walk, which was pretty.  Nashville was also interesting as we were very popular with the homeless community there.  We figured that seven weeks of living in a Suburban had given us a certain level of disheveledness, but we have officially reached the point where homeless people have stopped asking us for money and starting asking us to be friends.  

The EdTec Nashville Crew

 

Hattie B's!

We left Nashville and headed to Memphis for the sole purpose of continuing our eating tour of the south at Central Barbecue.  It was really good, but we probably didn’t appreciate it as much as we could have since we had already overdosed on BBQ and food in general at that point.  We left and headed on to Hot Springs Arkansas, which was by far the weirdest National Park we’ve encountered.  The park is centered around a row of bathhouse that are fed by surrounding hot springs.  Otherwise, it is just kind of a regular town, and a regular Arkansas town at that.  There’s even a Centerfolds right across from the only campground in the park.  Hot Springs is also where Bill Clinton grew up so maybe that explains some of it.  We walked around a little bit and hiked to the top of a hill for the reward of potentially paying $16 to go to the top of the observation tower to get a good look of Hot Springs in all its glory.  We declined, walked back to the car and drove to Dallas. 

BBQ overdose at Central BBQ in Memphis

Hot Springs in Arkansas

In Dallas we met up with our friend, Tommy, who was a very gracious host, especially since we only gave him a few hours notice that we were heading to Dallas.  Tommy took us to a great restaurant (HG Sply Co.) for dinner that is loosely based off the paleo diet and also had yummy local beers.  We were tempted to stay in Dallas longer, but headed on to Austin.  We were entertained on the drive by listening to the A’s – Royals wild card game, which was very exciting with a disappointing ending.  After nine hours of driving we reached the campground to find that it was locked up for the night.  After debating sleeping in elementary school or Walgreens parking lots we finally found an RV park and made camp for the night.  

Roof top view at HG Sply Co with Tommy

Austin was brutally hot and humid.  And this was October.  We couldn’t imagine how people make it through the summer when it is presumably hotter and more humid.  We did find a great swimming hole at McKinney Falls State Park to cool off in and it made more sense how millions of people live in Texas.  We walked around the UT campus, found a few good bars, watched the bats fly at the South Congress Bridge, got amazing tacos at Torchy’s, saw the Giants win their wild card game and walked down sixth street to see what that was all about (hint: drinking).  

McKinney Falls State Park in Austin

Beers at The Ginger Man in Austin

Looking out from South Congress Bridge on the Colorado River in Austin
 (not the same one that runs through the Grand Canyon)

The next morning after seven weeks on the road together with no more than ten minutes apart Notorious B and Notorious G were separated as I flew to New York for Parker’s bachelor party and Gina stayed in Austin, where her friend, Katie, flew in from SF to keep her company for the weekend and drive with her to Albuquerque.  We both had great weekends with our friends and met back up in Albuquerque on Sunday night. 

Look who I (Gina) picked up in Austin! 

Beers at the Handlebar
(aptly named for all the bartenders have awesome handlebar mustaches)

Austin City Limits Music Festival with Katie

Buddy Holly statue in Lubbock, TX
(Only interesting part of the drive to Albuquerque from Austin)

After getting in late on Sunday night we got up early for the Albuquerque Balloon Festival.  The festival was really one of the coolest things that we’ve seen.  There were a couple hundred hot air balloons launching all at the same time.  The balloons came in all varieties including a bear, an owl, a pig, a whale, a fire hydrant  and a basketball.  After the mass launch they had a flying competition where balloons raced to drop a marker onto a target.  The most exciting part was when a balloon was trying to accelerate so hard that it actually caught on fire.  The balloon captain was so into the race that he just kept going even though charred fragments of balloon were falling off.  After the balloon festival we headed up to Santa Fe, which is less than a hour from Albuquerque.  We planned to spend the day walking around Santa Fe, but it is such a small city that it only took about ten minutes to see most of the town.  Luckily for us it was about time for the Giants game to start so we found the nearest brewery that had a TV.  We lucked out on our brewery choice as the brewery we went to, Marble Brewery, had just won the gold medal for best small brewery at the Great American Beer Festival.  Their beer was exceptional and quite a bit of it is now living in our cooler.  After the game we got some dinner and went to our campsite in Santa Fe National Forest.  

ABQ Balloon Festival

The next morning we hiked around Santa Fe National Forrest, which was really pretty with the aspen trees changing color.  After finishing a quick loop hike we were walking across a parking lot to another trailhead when we saw a guy wearing a matching short sleeve orange shirt and long orange pants.  We definitely thought this to be an interesting choice of clothes for hiking, but when we got a little closer we noticed that on the back of his orange shirt it said “New Mexico State Prison”.  The guy also looked the part, exactly like John Malkovich’s character (Cyrus the Virus) in Con Air.  He was walking around pretty casually either because he was out on some prison field trip or he heard that you’re supposed to just act natural before you kill a couple of hikers.  Given the limited upside of finding out that it was the former and the obvious downside of the latter we decided our best move was to move as quickly as possible to the top of the 9,400 foot peak that we were near.  We figured that White Power Bill, or whatever his name was, probably wasn’t used to high elevation running.  I wish we a better ending to this story, but I guess the fact that we never saw him again is good enough. 

View from top of the peak in Sante Fe National Forest (no prisoner in sight)

After descending from the peak, carrying big rocks and pointy sticks for self defense in the event that White Power Bill was laying in wait behind a tree, we got back in our car and drove to the other side of Santa Fe National Forest to see Valles Calderas National Preserve, which is a high altitude valley that was created by many volcanic eruptions.  We were a little disappointed to find out that most of the hiking was closed because it was elk hunting season (the elk must think that preserve is a bit of a misnomer).  We did find a short hike that led up to a ridge and had a good view of the caldera.  We stayed at Jemez Falls Campground that night and walked down to the falls in morning.  In the afternoon we went to Bandelier National Monument, which is the site of Anasasi ruins.  We were able to walk up ladders into some of the ancient cave dwellings, which was a pretty cool experience.  

Hiking above Valles Caldera

Valles Caldera

Jemez Falls

View driving down from Jemez Falls

Cave dwellings in Bandelier National Monument

Lounging about

Gina's new house!

We left Bandelier and drove to Taos, which is a very pretty drive that follows the Rio Grande.  The actual town of Taos didn’t quite have the charm we were expecting.  There were a lot chain restaurants and stores and a lot of graffiti.  Just wasn’t quite the small mountain town we were expecting.  The mountains around Taos, however, were beautiful.  We hiked to Divisdero Peak, which gave us great views of the Taos Valley and then drove to the Taos Ski Valley and hiked to Williams Lake, which is over 11,000 feet.  From there we also had great views of Wheeler Peak, which is the tallest mountain in New Mexico at over 13,000 feet. 

View of Taos from Devisadero Peak

Highest hiking point on the trip so far (Williams Lake)

Williams Lake basin with Wheeler Peak on the right

We were going to drive to Durango, but since there were flash flood warnings in Colorado we decided to stay put and relax in Taos for one more night.  Headed to Durango today, then on to Telluride, Arches, Bryce and Zion. Hope everyone is well.  Go Giants.

Love, B and G